A Review of Save the Children's Urban Street Children Empowerment and Support Program

Don Whitson, M.D., M.P.H., and Cathy Savino, M.P.H., traveled to Indonesia from May 12 to 29, 2002, to assess the Urban Street Children Empowerment and Support Program, which is managed by Save the Children Federation/USA (SC) and funded through the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This grant, awarded competitively in August 2000 (Cooperative Agreement no. 497-0393), is a 3-year program with an end date of July 31, 2003, and a total estimated cost of $3 million.

The team’s scope of work was to review the progress of the grant to date. This was the first DCOF visit to Indonesia since the grant began. In addition to an overall assessment, the visit presented the team members with an opportunity to learn about the Urban Street Children Program and to share the experiences of other DCOF-funded programs for street children.

The team members based their observations on documents, interviews, and site visits, because there was not enough time to do a comprehensive review. Although the team visited two cities plus Jakarta, the team members were left with impressions of subgrantees, not concrete facts or data that were verified. Of 39 subgrants, the team visited 12 subgrantees.

The team made recommendations to the Urban Street Children Program using the team’s experience with similar DCOF activities, the program’s contribution to the overall DCOF philosophy, and its contribution to the improvement of the health of the most vulnerable children in Indonesia.