Here is a brief summary of the progress on ‘Sponsor a Child’ program fir the year 2009-1010

• Youth for seva initiated the Sponsor a child program in Feb 2009.
• YFS volunteers working in different schools come across many a bright children in slums and government schools. Volunteers have felt that these kids can grow to their full potential if a proper nurturing environment and financial support is provided to them. The sponsor a child program was started keeping this in mind .
• 1000 children were short listed based on an IQ test conducted at schools where YFS volunteers undertake week end teaching programs, The shortlisted children were split equally between boys and girls.
• Only information on the child’s family and financial back ground were collected .
• This list was updated on the website to facilitate child selection by donors.
• The program was rolled out for the academic year 09/10, with 323 children (161 BOYS & 162 GIRLS) being sponsored in the very first year of the program
• A SAC webpage was created to allow direct donor and mentor log in , it also facilitated the on line child selection process. Provision for  mentors to upload their reports on line was also created .
• For children from Govt schools , we had set up 12 tuition centers in different  locations to help compensate for the lack of attention they get at school .
• All children have been  covered under the Arogya chetana health insurance scheme .
• The mentoring program is a  unique feature of Sponsor A Child initiative , an appeal  for  mentors was made in June 09 , we received a response from more than 200 volunteers  . Due to location issues and YFS policy of having only male mentors linked to boys and similarly only female mentors for girls , we were able to link up only about 150 mentors.
• An orientation program to help mentors in understanding their role was conducted and well appreciated by the mentors
• We also partnered with Gurudakshina – an NGO focused on motivating individuals to take up mentoring as a valuable contribution to society.  The mentoring requires  some more focus and an action plan is being put in place to improve this for the next academic year
• On Dec 13th YFS organized its first SAC meet , It was an opportunity for Children , their parents , donors and mentors to meet and interact. The program was a big success and details regarding the same can be viewed below:

SAC_December_13

• The entire program administration has been managed with only two full time paid staff . Many of the co ordination activities have been supported by volunteers .
• The web site content updating  and maintenance is managed by volunteers.
• This has enabled us to cap the administration expenses   within 10%.
• The  annual audited report  will be circulated to all donors .
• We are now in the process of launching the campaign for the next academic year and in addition to your continued patronage  we urge you to spread the word about this program to your contacts so that more children are benefited .