April 2014 – Ongoing

Created by Street Child and adopted by WYCF as complementary to our Secondary School Scholarships programme, Family Business Grants are meant to empower families to being accountable and responsible for their children’s education even after they graduate from WYCF schools.

The challenges:

– Low-income families struggle to afford their children’s education, especially after primary level;

– Poor opportunities to successfully grow local family businesses.

Our solution:

– Reduce dropout rates amongst children graduating from primary to secondary school;

– Determine the families’ needs and the support to be provided accordingly;

– Offer training on financial management to the beneficiary families;

– Monitor the families’ weekly contributions to the Sustainability Grant Basket Fund.

The outcomes:

– 421 families have been awarded a business grant;

– 2,105 dependents indirectly benefited from the grants awarded to their families 2014-2023.

– Families become empowered by the opportunity to grow their businesses and their incomes;

– Parents and guardians recognise the importance of schooling and explore other ways to increase the families’ incomes other than having to rely on their children’s labour.