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 AFundation is a charity organisation dedicated to help underprivileged children in Northern Thailand and its bordering provinces in Burma and Laos. Our office in Chiang Mai / Thailand serves as a base to select local humanitarian projects providing relief to street children, AIDS orphans and, in general, children exposed to extreme poverty.
We realised that charitable funds are spread unevenly among various projects, resulting in an inefficient use of funds. More established and well-connected projects often receive excess funds, leading to non-essential investments, whereas smaller, newer or less-connected projects lack money and can often hardly cover their running costs. This leads to a significant lack of essential infrastructure, medical attention, education etc. These projects often try to survive by only providing food and shelter. AFundation aims to help improving this situation by selectively supporting projects, which really need help. In order to ensure an optimal use of funds, we provide products/services and infrastructure directly to the concerned project rather than giving money to cover running costs. We also try to involve our sponsors as much as possible before bigger investments are made.
Providing support to projects caring for children living in poverty
Our primary objective is to selectively support projects that provide relief and aid to orphans or children living in poverty. Our organisation will screen projects in Northern Thailand and in its bordering provinces in Laos and Burma.
Fund allocation with integrity
We are determined to allocate the charitable funds where aid and relief seem most appropriate. The following criteria are assessed while selecting projects:
- Management team (stability, integrity etc.);
- Priorities (shelter, food, medication, education, cultural and religious heritage, sport);
- Integration into local community and relationship with local authorities;
- Financial stability (to be able to cover running costs).
The allocation of charitable funds will be made through direct investments according to the needs of the selected project. We will avoid cash payments or fund transfers directly to the project concerned in order to ensure the optimal use of charitable funds. For example, if project X has no access to clean water, AFundation would build a well together with local suppliers and pay the suppliers directly. This process ensures that funds are used properly.
Fundraising through personal relationships and trust
We conduct fundraising based on personal relationships and trust. The main objective is to maintain an ongoing and personal interaction with our sponsors by the following means:
- regular updates via internet and e-mail;
- fund allocation surveys and proposals;
- regular get-togethers in Europe, America and BKK and the possibility for sponsors to visit projects locally.
By building up trust, we expect the sponsor community to grow by means of mouth-to-mouth promotion.
Two Bank accounts are ready to receive donations, one in Europe and one in Thailand, controlled directly by our Program Manager in the field and audited by the Board of Directors.
At any time you can ask for a receipt for your deposit.
Maintain independence and diversity
We are determined to stay politically and religiously independent to avoid or limit conflicts of interest. In order to ensure an unbiased allocation of funds, we aim to stay autonomous from the projects concerned. However, AFundation or its members of the board can engage with other independent or unrelated organisations for networking and knowledge-exchange purposes.
Minimal administration expenses
As all involved people are working on a voluntary basis and no compensation is paid, we are confident to maintain an administration expense ratio well below the industry average. Administrative expenses are costs for rent, stationary, postage, internet, telephone, petrol, marketing, etc.
Project Manager 2004 -2005
Ignacio SERE
© Copyright 2002 by Anderlech Volunteer Centre | Design by Mboto Mapendano and Lucia Marcos
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