We understand that when it comes to charity organizations or donating in general there is a certain hint of skepticism involved. Many people turn away from the opportunity to help because they feel uncertain that their support is going to the right places. This is perfectly understandable because in the end one is forced to rely on the good faith of others. There is always going to be uncertainty about where the money is going, who it is going, how much is going to the cause, and so on. In fact, many organizations fail to specify the use of the money or merely provide a vague description of where the money is going. Therefore, here we have specified in detail exactly where the money is going and what the organization is trying to achieve.
Here are our strategies and above all a detailed financial statement that explains where every Dollar (US) /Euro is going. We hope that after reading this you will feel more confident in knowing where your donations are going.
If after reading this you feel encouraged to sponsor a child or if you have any further doubts or questions, please feel free to contact us personally: vhfa.ug@hotmail.com
Strategy
To achieve our goal at Volunteers Heart for Africa we have certain milestones we need to reach. Our first strategy is to find sponsors for each of the children on our program. The monthly donations from the sponsors shall cover most of the costs regarding food, education, and medical care to each child. Once the basic needs of our children have been met, we wish to continue with other operations. We are aware that the sponsoring donations will not be able enough to cover all the costs of our operations and it is therefore important that we create a more self-sufficient environment. We would therefore like to create a school and medical facility center that would be benefited by many others in the community. We also wish to expand our farming activities, to make the organization more self-sustainable when it comes to food needs.
Operations
How does distance adoption work?
By sponsoring or adopting a child, is providing a monthly donation which is intended to help the child provide its basic needs. Basically, the money (45 US Dollars or 33 Euros per month) is used to cover the expenses of children that are supported by this organization. The adoptive parent or sponsor has the ability to choose which child he/she/they would like to support by choosing from the children’s profiles, by asking for the profile documents. When the child has been picked the sponsor will be provided with the payment details. Once the payment has begun, the sponsor will receive regular updates from the child, in the form of photographs, video messages, written messages, school reports etc. It is important to us that the sponsors see that their help is making a difference.
We are fully aware that there may be some skepticism about where the money is going and how it is actually used. Therefore, we want to make our operations and expenses as transparent as possible. This is why we have formulated this document, in the attempt to convince the public that the sponsorship donation is going to the right causes.
Below there is a description on how the money is allocated and an exact budget for all the areas covered by the amount. We wanted to show exactly where every Dollar/Euro (even Cent) is going, down to every detail. It is vital for us that our sponsors feel secure that their contribution is going to the desired cause.
How does distance adoption work?
The 45 US Dollars (or 33 Euros) is not a random number. It has been calculated to serve as the minimum amount needed to provide these children with a decent standard of living and at the same time be possible to for the sponsors to donate. The three major areas covered by this amount are: food, education and medical care. Obviously, some expenses are not on a monthly basis, for example tuition or medical check ups, but have been calculated yearly and then divided as a monthly expense. What this means is that in some months not all the money allocated to these costs may be used. However, it also means that other months may require more than the monthly expense. Nevertheless, the amount has been calculated to provide each child with its basic needs throughout the year, with a regular monthly sum.
An exact expense budget is shown further down in the document.
How is the money spent?
VHFA has two groups of children which it supports. The first group is those children living in foster homes. These children have no guardians that is able to take care of them and are therefore under the care of VHFA. In the case of these children, they can be seen as children of VHFA, meaning they are provided with food, clothing, and shelter. Their medical and educational expenses are covered by VHFA directly. Therefore, the sponsorship money is used to cover these expenses, buy food and clothes (when needed) and cover all the arise expenses. We don’t want to keep these children in an institution; we make a follow up on their families and reunite them.
The other group of children is those who are still living with their guardians however these children are normally also orphans, but living with either elderly or sick relatives. This means that these kids are sometimes the “bread winners” of the family. The lack of financial means, normally forces them out of school. Here VHFA has intervened in order to make sure these children are taken care of. Therefore, the money here again goes to cover these children’s medical and educational expenses, provide them with groceries and clothes. These expenses are not directly covered by VHFA, meaning the organization does not personally buy groceries or take the child to the doctor. This is mainly because the guardians and children themselves desire this freedom. However, in order to make sure the money is used correctly certain precautions have been taken. Money is not given directly to the beneficiary. When it comes to medical and educational expenses, the bills are taken care of by VHFA. Money towards groceries and clothes are then given to the beneficiaries (in form of an allowance). In order to make sure this money is not wasted VHFA has regular checkups with the child and family and teaches the family how to manage their finances correctly.
How to Make Payments
VHFA can receive sponsorship payments via direct bank transfers, donate” link, Wave, world remit, Money Gram transfers or PayPal, either at monthly intervals, or alternatively every 3 months to reduce transfer fees. As some banks have restricted online transfer options to Uganda it may be necessary to call your bank directly to understand their process for overseas transfers. Bank fees can vary from 20-40 US Dollars (15-30 Euros) per transfer, whereas Wave and World Remit transfers are typically less than half of this price, and actually wave charges no fees to sent money to East Africa, and this works for USA, UK, Canada, Italy and Spain only for now but wave is adding more countries. Contact Alfred from VHFA directly on vhfa.ug@hotmail.com to further understand the payment options.
Expenses Budget
As we have stated transparency is essential for us. So here we have attempted to explain every expense that is allocated to a typical child in its most exact form. There is a description of each of the three major expense areas (Education, Medical and Food/Clothing), followed by a budget for each area. The purpose is to show where every Dollar/Euro is going each month.
Educational Expenses
One of our main aims is to provide these children with a good education. Uganda has an adult literacy rate of 66.8%, this number being far lower among women and the number of students actually reaching university level is minimal. Therefore, we believe that the strongest foundation we can give them is a decent education.
Schools in Uganda are subsidized, but this term is deceitful. The schools that are “free” are few and have very poor quality. Classes of 360 children per teacher are very common and there is a large gap between students who attend subsidized schools and those who attend a school which require tuition. Furthermore, although some schools are subsidized, that does not make attending them free. There is the need to bare uniforms and purchase scholastic materials, none of which is provided by the school. It is also obligatory to purchase items for cleaning the school (the children help to clean the schools) and the children themselves, so brooms, soap, towels etc. are regular expenses.
We would therefore like to show a standard school expense budget for an average child in our organization. Please take into account that the budget is in its absolute most minimal form, meaning we have only taken to account the expenses that are absolutely necessary. It is also important to realize that this budget has been formulated in regard to the specifications given by the local schools. In other words, the amount given for tuition, scholastic materials, uniforms etc. are the amounts indicated by the schools as the absolute minimum. On the other hand, we do realize that some expenses (mainly uniform) may not be regular expenses, but actually one-time expenses.
Medical Expenses
It is very important for VHFA that the children on our program are provided with adequate medical attention. Apart from common diseases that affect all children, these children are under the threat of other deadly diseases on regularly, HIV/AIDS is a big problem in Uganda. Although Uganda is truly a success story when it comes to HIV/AIDS recovery, there are still around 1.2 million people infected, 150,000 of these being children. Some of the children on our program are suffering from HIV/AIDS and it is our goal to provide these children with the best care possible. Similarly, Malaria is a big issue and it can have dire consequences, especially on children. Malaria is difficult to prevent, but we hope that with time we will have the proper means to care for those children who get infected.
To battle the challenges regarding medical wellbeing of our beneficiaries, we would like to use the money we get from our sponsors to cover medical check ups for each child and also have the ability to pay the medical bills in the case that one of the children become ill. Regular check ups can be easily calculated; however, we do realize that it is impossible to foresee sickness. Therefore, we have calculated a minimum sum that should cover check ups and the eventuality of a child getting sick. These figures have been calculated with the help of the doctor at the local clinic.
Food and Clothing Expenses
Food is a basic necessity and has to date been a problem for us at VHFA. We have had periods where are finances have been unable to cover food expenses. We have done our best to survive and provide a meal for our children. However there have been periods when it has been impossible to provide a meal on a regular basis. Food in general is relatively cheap in Uganda, but providing a meal to over 50 children has sometimes been impossible. We realize the importance of providing a nutritious meal, on a regular basis, to a growing child. VHFA wants to be able to provide a basic nutritious meal to each child on a regular basis (breakfast, lunch and dinner).
Clothing for our children has been basic. We have been lucky enough to receive some donations in the form of clothes in the past, something we are truly grateful for. However, we would like to have the ability to provide our beneficiaries with those items that may be missing in their wardrobe.
The food expenses have been calculated in terms of the minimum cost of a meal. We have also assumed that each child will have three meals a day over a 30day (one month) period. Obviously, the costs of each meal differ, but the amount is averaged to a minimum amount. Luckily, as we have many mouths to feed, we can take advantage of cost reductions by buying in bulk. Taken this into account we believe we can cover the expenses of each meal.
In terms of clothing the cost will be low. Uniforms are a major clothing expense, but as seen above it has been calculated as an Educational Expense. Furthermore, we hope to receive further donations in the form of clothing and therefore believe we can keep the clothing expenses of each child to a minimum and have therefore not accounted for this in these expenses
Summarizing Expenses
As the graph above illustrates, most expenses are allocated to Education and Food. Luckily, we believe we can provide decent medical care at a minimum cost with the help of our local clinics. However, as we have illustrated it is difficult to keep the costs of Education and Food any lower. As we also mentioned these expenses are calculated without considering the need to purchase any clothing (apart from uniforms) and we rely on other donations to cover this need.
As you can see below the expenses do exceed the sponsorship sum. Despite calculating with the minimum needs of the children we are unable to reach an expense sum under the sponsorship sum. However, we need to be realistic with the sponsorship sum. We understand that most people’s pockets are not bottomless and we needed to reach a figure that could realistically be donated each month. Nevertheless, the sponsorship sum does cover most of the expenses and we hope that when our organization grows, we may be able to cut some of these costs. For example, one of our projects involves the set up of our own farm, which will hopefully reduce the food expenses in the years to come. Similarly, we have stated that some expenses may not be on regular basis and hopefully this will reduce our expenses, as uniforms can be inherited by younger children and so on.
Regardless it can easily be seen that the 45 US Dollars (33 Euros) are not wasted on any administration expenses or salaries of any kind. Furthermore, we believe that we have shown that the sponsorship amount is a fair one, both for the children and the sponsors.
Regardless it can easily be seen that the 45 US Dollars (33 Euros) are not wasted on any administration expenses or salaries of any kind. Furthermore, we believe that we have shown that the sponsorship amount is a fair one, both for the children and the sponsors.
Summarizing Expenses
We trust that this information has provided adequate information regarding Volunteers Heart For Africa and its operations. We also hope that it has served its purpose in convincing the reader that any money donated to the organization will be used correctly. Therefore, we would like to state that we at VHFA are open to all forms of donations, whether it be sponsoring one of our children or giving a one-time donation to sponsor our projects. We are also very open to answer any questions or doubts that may arise. Please fill free to contact us.
