Organization
Profile
SCaMAO is an acronym to denote Street Children and Mothers’ Aid Organization, a non-religious and non-profitable humanitarian organization which became operational in the year 2001, initiated by a humanitarian individual who has dedicated his money, time and energy for a good cause since then.
SCaMAO was originally founded in response to the increase in the number of vulnerable children in Addis Ababa caused by various reasons that pushed and pulled children out of their homes to the streets of Addis Ababa. The organization has been providing support to disadvantaged children, destitute women, and their families. Apart from focusing on street children the organization focused on mothers to help them improve their quality of life and enable them to become self-reliant.
With
its head office located in Addis Ababa SCaMAO currently operates in other
selected areas across the entire country including Addis Ababa, Afar,
Benishangul Gumuz, Gambella, Oromia, SNNPRS and Somali regions. The
organization is dedicated to promoting and enhancing the welfare of
disadvantaged children, women and their families through its integrated
development programs.
The
main objective of SCaMAO is to ensure the creation of self-sustaining
beneficiaries among the target audience by making financial, material and
educational support so that they can contribute to the development of the
country.
Key
Program Areas and Activities
• Education
(formal and non-formal)
• Street,
Orphans and vulnerable children support
• Primary health
care
• HIV/AIDS
prevention, control, care and support
• Advocacy on
child right, gender, population, good governance and other related issues
• Economic
empowerment/income generation.
• Environmental
development
• Emergency
relief support
• Awareness
creation on children’s right, women’s right and reproductive health (RH)
• Capacity
building program (institutional capacity and community empowerment)
Summary
of Achievements
• Awareness
creation workshops and various trainings on HIV/AIDS and harmful traditional practices
have been given to over 2,000 different selected persons of the community in 7
woredas of the Benishangul Gumuz regional state.
• Care and
support services have been provided for 500 PLWHA, OVC and affected families of
the Benishangul Gumuz regional state.
• Awareness
raising workshops, education and different trainings on HIV/AIDS, malaria
prevention and harmful traditional practices have been given to over 10,000
different section of the community in Zone 4, Awash and Semera Zones of the
Afar Regional State.
• Care and
support services have been provided for 200 PLWHA, OVC and affected families of
Zone 4 and Semera and 150 PLWHA, OVC and affected families in Awash Zone of the
Afar regional state.
• Educational
materials, uniforms, clothing and food support were distributed for 200
destitute children and their families for two years living in Kirkos Sub City
of Addis Ababa City Administration.
• Awareness
raising activities of HIV/AIDS and education have been undertaken for over
15,000 different community members using music and different edutainment
activities in Bahir Dar, Gondar and Deberemarkos towns of the Amhara regional
state.
• Sport
activities and awarding has been conducted in Benishangul Gumuz regional state
and Gondar and Bahirdar towns of the Amhara regional state in collaboration
with the regional sport federations. Moreover, SCaMAO distributed sports
materials and provided awareness raising workshops on HIV/AIDS for attendants
and participants of the sports activities.
• TOT and
focal-group trainings were conducted on HIV/AIDS for over 400 youths in Yeka
and Bole sub-cities of the Addis Ababa city administration.
• Peer education
on HIV/AIDS was conducted in the form of child to child, youth to youth, women
to women focal groups initiated at the community level to reach vulnerable
households. SCaMAO successfully carried out preventive education for various
beneficiaries and target groups using various methods and venues such as drama
and songs, coffee ceremony, market place, sports events and others.
A Learning Organization
SCaMAO is made to become a learning organization constantly evaluation itself and
taking the lessons learn it would keep improving itself every single phase.
Thus, since its inception the past years were years of constant challenges
opening a wide door for SCaMAO to learn from. They were years of
transformation, expansion and consolidation. Looking back at its modest
lifeline, SCaMAO has come to be an emerging and learning child-focused
indigenous organization. It has realized that its institutional and
programmatic operations needed to be guided by systems, procedures and
standards and that’s what SCaMAO did and has become to be in the past decade.
It has developed an internal organizational structure, working system, policies
and manuals that guide the organization and various stakeholders related with
the organization. Furthermore, SCaMAO has come to utilize various management
systems and software to become a modern and transparent organization with a
well organization management, monitoring and evaluation systems put in place.
SCaMAO aspires to see the rights of disadvantaged children and their families
recognized and implemented by the whole members of the society. As a
child-oriented and right-based organization the mission of SCaMAO is to promote
and enhance the welfare of disadvantaged children and their families through
its integrated development programs.
Key
Stakeholder
SCaMAO is an organization that has a wide range of contacts, cooperation and
partnership with diverse organizations. Its major stakeholders include:
• Beneficiaries
(principally street children, parents, youth/girls)
• Community
organizations
• Donors and
support organizations
• Collaborating
government agencies at federal, regional and local level such as police
commissions, labor and social affairs offices, education offices,
administration offices, etc.
• Regulatory
governance agencies at various levels
• Networks/forums
and associations
• Research and education institutions
