Child Sponsorship Project

In 1995, Integrated Family Service Organization (IFSO) started its operation as a non governmental charity with the sponsorship project. This project has been revised and its duration of implementation has been extended for six times in the life time of the organization. That is, from year 1996 - 1997, 1998 - 2000, 2001 – 2003, 2004 – 2006, 2008 -2010 and 2011-2013 for 3 years.

The project is being implemented with the financial assistance, mainly from CIAI(www.ciai.it/), IL-Sole(www.ilsole.org/), GMA and CIFA(www.cifaong.it) all of which are Italian NGOs.

This project provides financial, counseling, educational materials and medical support for orphan and destitute children to help them become self assertive citizens. This project provides financial, counseling, educational materials and medical support for orphan and destitute children to help them become self assertive citizens.

At present the project is being executed as the extension of the last project that ended in 2010. It started with addressing the needs and development of 726 orphan and vulnerable children and planned to increase this number of sponsored children to 776 at the end of 2013.

Objective: to create favorable environment for orphan and other vulnerable children (OVCs) in Addis Ababa for improving their present life situation and enabling them think, plan and prepare for their futurities to become self reliant community members.

Target Groups: Orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) below age 15

Target Areas: Addis Ababa City Administration

Direct beneficiary at present: 1450 children

Type of services: Financial support of 170 each month, counseling, house renovation, medical and school material support and finical support for skill training.

Indirect Beneficiaries: Family members of the target children

Impact: OVCs are prevented from joining street life and enrolled in and retained at school protected and developed to become self reliant citizens.

Major Activities:

• Identification and Selection of New Beneficiaries

• Sponsorship Allowance

• Medical Assistance

• Provide additional assistance for children parents/guardians living with HIV

• Provide additional emergency assistance

• Counseling Service

Status: Ongoing

For more information on the specific objectives of the project and the current status of the project in terms of  different indicators such as beneficiary children by donors, kind of financial support by number of children, school status of beneficiary children, achievements in national exams, including lessons learned and problems encountered during the execution of the project is available in the  2011 Annual Report of IFSO.