Yekokeb Berhan — Program for Highly Vulnerable Children

Name: Yekokeb Berhan
Duration: April 2011- April 2016
Donor: USAID Ethiopia

• Strengthened capacity of regional and local government and civil society to collaboratively provide, manage, and monitor integrated, comprehensive care to HVC and their families.
• HVC and their families will increase access to health and social services.
• Community members and households caring for vulnerable children will have increased and on-going capacity to meet their basic needs.
• Strengthen shared learning and evidence base to improve programming and inform policy and program investment.

Approach:
Rather than focus primarily on deficits or gaps at the community level, Yekokeb Berhan builds on existing strengths at the family, household, community, and government levels in order to support its target population of highly vulnerable children (HVC). The focus of this approach is family-centered care management, which recognizes that the wellbeing of a child depends on the wellbeing of other household members.

Yekokeb Berhan works to ensure that HVC and their families receive age-appropriate, inclusive services, and that children participate in discussions and decisions that affect their lives. Long-term sustainability of care will be reached through teaching knowledge and skills that the children and caregivers will use after the program is over, as well as by building the capacity of local community service organizations and helping to strengthen the government’s social service system. On a day-to-day basis, the work will be structured by government guidelines and standards.