To do a charity in kenya?

Charity Due Diligence

• I am thinking about sending 25 Euro a month to http://www.harambee.at (German language site), in order to provide schooling to one child in Kenya. How do I best check that this is a legit deal? This is a private initiative. They have apparently founded a school and the money goes specifically towards the schooling expenditures of one child (uniforms, lunches + teachers' salaries etc). They also make sure that children who benefit from the program actually attend classes and they don't have a lot of overhead. This kind of charity something that I've been wanting to do for years and I feel quite strongly about. I am also quite impressed with their information policy which seems a lot better than organisations like Plan or WorldVision. But I don't want to be scammed or do more harm than good. What should I be paying attention to?

• Answer:

  I cannot read German but I do help to run a similar charitable venture. My main questions would be: - Aside from material support, what social support is provided to the students? Students in these programs may have a lot of social problems like ill/dying family members, abusive families, etc. What happens when the students are failing school? Are they just thrown out of the program? Do they get tutoring? Does anyone investigate what's going on with them. - Does the student or family have to make any contribution? Do the students volunteer their time with the organization or some other such method to 'repay' their scholarship? Are they invested in their education? Do the families value the scholarship? Do they have to contribute anything, based on what they can afford? - How are students selected for the program? By merit? By need? By tribal connections/political favoritism? How is need determined? I would look for a program where the students are selected through a combination of need and merit. Most students in those locations are in need, so it's better to support the ones who are most likely to succeed/have a successful track record but not the means to continue schooling. - How is the program monitored? Is the money given directly from the organization's representative to the school bursar or is it given to the student or family? How do they ensure that the students are actually attending school? Do they track grades? What happens if a student changes their name? (not sure if this happens in Kenya, but where I work, students are constantly changing their names, which makes it very hard to ensure that the same student is getting the scholarship. I have also seen students showing up and claiming to be a student in the program, but when I compare the photos, they are clearly two different children). Hope that's useful, Memail me if you have other questions that maybe you can determine from being able to read the site.