CameroonONE organizes the preliminary stages of the In-Home Sponsorship Program. We formed an Ad Hoc Committee of teachers, headmasters, local NGO administrators, public policy specialists, lawyers, and royal family members and their advisors in order to assemble a qualified and reliable management team to implement the program year round and develop a child identification system and evaluation panel. The CameroonONE staff in Bamenda and Belo is comprised of colleagues already working in this field and familiar with the situations of all the children in the region and their living situations. We developed a relationship with local schools in the Mankon area to determine the actual cost of education and put in place a verification procedure and visited the homes of several orphans in order to witness their living situations as well as interview their guardians to receive their input on what materials would be proper for a seasonal care package (rice, cooking oil, children's shoes, soap, etc), and also toured orphanages. We identified community leaders that can help recognize students and host families and take part in the evaluations of both the students and their caretakers, compiled a list of all parentless children in Bamenda and Belo, and determined an appropriate quarterly stipend that will not offset local standards of income that includes funding for all school-related fees (PTA, text books, exercise books, uniforms, writing utensils, etc.) as well as household financial contributions and material necessities. In addition, we researched at market to determine the costs of purchasing provisions from local businesses and acquired land for a year round Program Operations Centre for our headquarters.
