Who has the ownership of the programme?
Do the local Mozambique people decide on where they are spending the money and which kids are supported?
Are the Mozambique people working on the project?
Who is the local manager/decision maker/advisor?
We work with local partners who are deeply ingrained in the community.
Each sponsored child is selected by them and if at any time the child no longer need support or no longer meets requirements, the partner may remove the child, under our agreememt. Furthermore, it is to the local partner to let us know of additional needs. A common one is when the family needs a new house/hut, then they will identify it, budget for it and ask us for support. As a small organization we try and stay nimble to respond to these requests in a timely manner.
As a note, the local partners have junior technicians who work with them on the programme, visit the families, ensure kids are in school, gather information, etc. These are typically young people or young mothers from the communities. For the school feeding programme, currently ALG’s largest single project, the request was sent to us by the local partners post the 2013 floods. We had some initial resistence in light of the size of the yearly commitment but were convinced by the local nuns that really this was key for the school’s success.
This is what ALG donors interested in nurturing valuable relationships with the community ask us. We act as fundraising and admin arm for the local partners so they can focus on what they do best, at the same time as we establish key monitoring and supervision which is key to give donours comfort of what we are sending money to.