A Very Interesting Read

Below is a 2006 "Q. and A." session with Tigist, Founder of Umbrella Child. I give this information to potential fiscal sponsors, those non-profit organizations whose interests parallel the needs of Umbrella Child and who may be willing to take our children "under their wing". This would make it possible for donations to be tax deductible.

Umbrella Child FAQs

Q. What is the Mission of Umbrella Child Love Association?
A. Dear Susan, (Our mission is to) breaking the riddles of poverty through availing physical and social access to basic services, empowering and building indigenous local capacities of the urban and rural communities by genuine dedication of its constituency. ( Our mission is to solve the riddle of poverty by making basic physical and social services available to urban and rural communities, resulting in empowerment and a goal of dedicated communities to generate income indigenous to these communities.)

Q. What inspired you, Tigist, to begin this program?
A. The history of Umbrella Child is the organization is established to help orphan children by asking voluntary people and organization, the initiation of this program is that, as you know, our country is the poorest of all and there are many children who have died, their parents with HIV and live on the street, when you walk on the street you got many children begging for coins, others are living with distant relative, if these children are not supported one day they are forced to be street children, to avoid this we begin this program.

Q. How many children does Umbrella Child support?
A. (We are able to support 16 children at this time.)

Q. What are the qualifications these children possess to be supported by Umbrella Child?
A. A child who lost both of his/her parents (mother and father) and who has no elder brother or sister to support him/her is the one who is placed under the care of his relative.

Q. What is the support process?
A. Before we transfer the child to his relative (guardian) first we gather and verify informations regarding the behavior, family size, economic status etc. of the relative (guardian). Secondly we seek the willingness of the relative to bring up the child. After having the willingness we require the relative to enter in to agreement. Among the responsibilities that the relative should honor includes to provide a modest meal, furnish educational materials, insure regular class attendance, observe child hygiene and report to Umbrella on time if the child gets sick are the major ones. After securing the agreement we provide a monthly financial assistance.

Q. How much money do you provide each child and how did you come up with this sum?
A. Basic needs of a child and (his/her) expense (include, in Ethiopian Birr)-
food item - 80.00, hygiene and sanitation - 15.00, educational materials - 10.00, school fee - 20.00, medical expense - 25.00, 1/3 house rent - 45.00. Total monthly expense is 195 Ethiopian Birr which is equal to approximately 25 USD. Some needs like nightclothes, school uniform and shoes are not included because they are long lasting.

Q. How do you track each child's status in the home?
A.To observe the living situation of the children we visit each child's home once in a month. As the children are living far apart we visit five children's homes in a day. This means we spend three days in a month to visit our children's homes (this is in normal situations). But usually guardians or the child will not be available at the time of our visits. This requires us a second time travel.

Moreover, if we found a problem in our first visit and if a need arises to talk to neighbors we travel two or three times. During the visit we observe the sanitation of the child and the family, the relationship between the child and the family, the availability of educational material, school uniform etc. If we feel the child is not cared as expected we call the guardian and advise them to improve. The other method we employ to gather information about the child (is by) conducting a discussion with neighbor.

Q. How do you track each child's status at school?
A.To know the academic performance and the behavior of the child at school we have maintained a good relationship with teachers. We collect information (such as) class attendance, child's compliance to classroom and school rules, child's ability and homework performance and the availability of educational materials. In addition we collect grade reports of each child. The follow up of the children is conducted every three months.

Q. Why does Umbrella Child need sponsors?
A. In the beginning when we establish the organization we thought that we can find donors locally. With this belief we have approached many individuals but for the reason which we do not know, people were not willing. It is because of this reason that we present this problem to you.

Q. How do you allocate donated funds?
A. One is a donation (sponsoring) made to a particular child by a donor. In this case the donated money will be spent only (on) that particular child. Even if the money is in excess of the requirement of the child the money will not be used for other purpose or (on) others without permission of the donor. The excess money will be kept in a separate account under the name of the child. The donor will have a report on the utilization of the money regularly. Moreover, the donor can see the copy of the savings account of the child and thereby (be assured) that the money is being used according to his wish.

Money received to benefit the group of children is used to benefit the total children under the program. If the money is in excess we will deposit a fixed amount under the name of each child. If again there is extra money we will notify the donor and get permission to use it for another needy child.
Thank you for all your effort to assist our children. Love, Tigist