In the Dilla, Ethiopia-based Hansesha Assistance and Development Organization (HADO), SCAO has identified an NGO that embraces its vision and implements its mission. Since, January 2007 SCAO has been partially funding HADO’s local programs to educate and support AIDS orphans, other needy children and their families. SCAO has also provided financial supported for HADO’s vegetable farming and apiculture project.
HADO’S widespread community support and its focus on education, on the transfer of professional skills and on self-reliance make it an ideal partner for SCAO.
Program Evaluation
SCAO will conduct program evaluation of the two HADO projects it supports – the Care and Support for AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children Project and the Vegetable Production Project — either through a representative in Ethiopia or a direct SCAO mission from the U.S., with the goal of conducting a field visit to gather information on the following inputs, outputs and outcomes:
· How children are provided with care and support in HADO’s Kindergarten Centers? (input)
· How many have graduated from the Centers and joined the primary school? (output)
· How many young boys and girls will be heading towards a self-supporting life and self-sufficiency? (outcome)
· How the lives of members of the community have been affected as a result of these self-help projects? (outcome) and,
· Other relevant information.
Through this evaluation, we will also be in a position to assess how well SCAO is achieving its stated mission and attaining its goals, as well as how efficiently it is raising funds, that is, its cost per dollar raised. SCAO will use evaluation systems and tools that have already been developed by “watchdog” organizations or charity rating services like the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance (see www.give.org), the American Institute for Philanthropy (www.charitywatch.org , and the Charities Review Council of Minnesota (www.crcmn.org).
The Future
In the future, SCAO hopes to continue its mission, by providing resources and support to other community-based NGOs, in Ethiopia and elsewhere in the international southern hemisphere, that share its goal of promoting self-sufficiency.
