The Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion (MIGEPROF) Thursday held a consultative meeting with Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to set up criteria that determine the most vulnerable children.

According to the ministry the same standards will be used by all NGOs involved in supporting vulnerable children.

"The NGOs here have been consulted on the processes of designing this tool and we have agreed on it, now it is their role to implement it,” Esron Niyonsaba, the technical assistant in the ministry’s department of Orphans and Vulnerable children said.

He added: "The NGOs have been using different approaches to get to the most vulnerable children …we want to have a similar approach to be adopted by all.”

He said organisations sponsoring the children will be dealing directly with cell leaders and child representatives and the process will be witnessed by the local community.

"It’s good now that we are going to deal directly with community at the cell level without taking the list up from sector level in which case the assistance would end up going to the wrong beneficiaries.

Constance Kayitesi, representative of Uyisenga ni Manzi, a local NGO emphasised. She said that they were finding it difficult to identify those mostly in need and some NGOs preferred to go through community cooperatives while others went through the district and sector authorities and this, she said, was a cumbersome task.

The identification system will be designed in such a way that a classification card bearing all information of the beneficiary will be designed.

The cell will keep all data of the vulnerable child and the NGO supporting him or her but the report will be forwarded to the line ministry.

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