‘Maximum return’ - making the biggest impact possible
Investors normally think very carefully before they place an investment and above all they search
for the opportunity where they believe maximum potential for return exists.
We believe discerning people apply exactly the same calculation when making decisions about supporting social projects
The concept of ‘maximum return’ is the idea which above all others shapes the work of Street Child of
Sierra Leone: from our formation through to our on-going choices:
- To ensure maximum impact from our investment, we decided to focus on those in the most dire need, so:
- We came to the poorest country in the world;
- And started working with an especially vulnerable demographic – street children
- & we chose to start working in Makeni as it is not only:
- the capital of the poorest Province of Sierra Leone, but also:
- before our arrival had no organisation caring explicitly for street children whatsoever (gap in the market).
- To ensure as little of our original investment was frittered on non-essential cost we decided to spend no project money in UK and run
entirely through volunteers; and hire only local staff in Sierra Leone.
- To minimize further risks of dissipation, we decided to only work with a local
organisation whose reputation for integrity and probity was without doubt.
- But even more importantly, one whose capacity to deliver evidently excelled and whose methods were proven.
- So in Makeni we work with HANCi whose quality and integrity is vouched for by the reputations
of its existing partners: UNICEF, Comic Relief and Hope and Homes for Children; by their auditors
KPMG (who have HANCi as a pro-bono client); by the town chiefs, elders and authorities; and with
everything SCoSL has seen with its own eyes of HANCi’s amazing work with children and especially
street children across Sierra Leone.
