Monthly Food Distribution Project

Aug 05

Objective 1 – To improve food security and nutrition for orphans and vulnerable children in the children’s home chosen.

Objective 2 – To provide educational assistance to children by providing school materials and tuition support.

Activities carried out under each objective

Food and clean water supply

Often children in such homes have one meal a day and understanding of nutrition is low. A total of 24 children from the home were provided with food and clean water monthly to ensure food security and nutrition and also find ways to secure a more sustainable way to secure nutritious food consistently. In all a total of $1750 dollars was used to provide food, toiletries, clean and safe drinking water, books, shoes, underwear, singlet’s, student mattresses and school uniforms for the home. This was done over a six month period.

Educational Assistance

The average age of children supported by Rizing Starz is between 2 and 18 years of age. Early childhood education is critical in enabling children develop and continue into primary school. The educational assistance focuses on providing scholarly materials, school uniforms, shoes and tuition fees. As at June 2016, no tuition fee has been paid for any of the children but a few books, and uniforms were provided.

Other

With the help of 5 volunteers, a community drive was embarked upon in December 2015 to seek used clothing’s and books for the home. Although no used books came in, a few used clothing came in handy.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The project coordinator developed a monitoring system using verifiable indicators for the activities to be implemented. With this mechanism in place, the coordinator used routine supervision and spot checks to ensure the following:

That the intended beneficiaries are the ones benefiting from the feeding scheme and dietary requirements for the children are observed.
That the home accounted for how cash donations were used for the running of the home.

Achievements

A total of 24 children with their caregivers benefitted from the provision of nutritious food which in return will improve their health and impact positively on their academic performance.
Provision of clean, safe and portable water to the home meant that children no longer had to walk long distances to dug wells to carry water they can only use to wash but not drink.
Rizing Starz International is gradually working towards becoming independent and sustainable by getting its own children’s home with all the necessary facilities in place so as to give the children a more positive environment to learn and grow. This may take a while but the developments so far have been positive.

Challenges

During the pilot project these difficulties were encountered.

Difficulty for the project coordinator to easily get and access valuable information regarding the children from their benefactors/caregivers. This made it difficult to proffer solutions to problems the children’s home faced.
Spot checks and requests on how items given to the home are utilized are sometimes met with strong resistance.
The inability of the home to meet statutory requirements of putting the necessary facilities in place for the smooth running of the home makes it difficult to access and use information publicly since the home risks closure by the authorities.

Additional challenges

Traveling Logistics

Coordinating the project has been a challenge in terms of how far apart the children’s home is located from Accra. This required constant mobilization of volunteers, communication and travel logistics. Since Rizing Starz does not have an office yet, volunteers and the project coordinator work from home.

Way Forward

Rizing Starz has had a successful “pilot project” in Ghana even though there were a few challenges. We are currently focused on the following:

“Let’s Shine Campaign” where we seek to house and provide 4 deserving orphans with educational scholarships which averages $600 dollars annually. This will cover tuition, books and uniforms.
Our long term goal is to purchase land and to build a multi-dwelling housing for orphans.
Putting resources in obtaining land for farming purposes as they seem more practical, sustainable and less costly and will positively contribute to the sustainability of Rizing Starz International.

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