Board of Trustees:

Tomasz Sudra, Chair, Poland

Ines Sudra, Vice Chair, Switzerland

Teresia Njambi, Member, Kenya

Mary Leakey, Member, Kenya

Mohamed El Sioufi, Member, Egypt

How the Board works:

Trustees are in contact via email, phone and personal ad-hock meetings, as required regarding any major decisions.

In addition a Board Meeting is held at least once e year.

Trust works in four main areas:

1. Paying educational costs of individual recipients.
2. Assisting, in exceptional cases, with medical costs of individual recipients
3. Implementing projects of improvement of physical and hygienic conditions of the schools serving the poorest sectors of population, as well as providing assistance improving nutrition and health of all students in the school.
4. Equipment, supplies and teachers’ training assistance, to enhance quality of teaching, mainly in the subject areas impacting health of the population.

This assistance is provided using two main modalities:

1. Direct payments by the Trust, using funds/grants received from individual or institutional sponsors, or own funds of Trustees.
2. Linking needy schools and individuals with donors/sponsors, with mobilized funding being directly provided by sponsors to the beneficiaries, without entering Watu kwa Watu account, but with the Trust providing needed guidance, follow-up and reporting.

Under each of these modalities the work of Watu kwa Watu includes:

• identification of potential beneficiaries,
• assessment of their needs and of the potential ability of good use of the assistance – likely performance potential,
• mobilization of needed funds,
• transferring funds to the beneficiaries (or, in the case of modality # 2, ensuring that the funds are being transferred),
• providing, as needed, advice and technical assistance to beneficiaries,
• monitoring of the progress,
• monitoring the use of funds,
• reporting to sponsors/donors, and
• evaluation of results.

In addition, in the area # 1 (direct assistance to individual recipients):

• Watu kwa Watu maintains as needed contact with the management and teachers of the schools and with parents and guardians, if they exists (the majority of the individual recipients are full or partial orphans provides, and not all have continuous guardians),
• assists with purchasing of required supplies,
• is counseling beneficiaries regarding issues of their performance, and regarding the choice of further education.

The beneficiaries are identified based on recommendations of knowledgeable and trusted local individuals, such as Location Chief or Head Teacher, as well as on personal contacts of the Trustees.

Beneficiaries are selected based on the level of their needs and their likely performance potential.

In addition, in the area # 3 ( school improvement projects):

Watu kwa Watu employs, if and when needed:

• an accountant, who manages the financial aspects of the project, and prepares financial reports to donors, and deals with Kenya tax and social security obligations,
• a logistical coordinator, who directly supervises construction works and the use of materials,
• construction tradesmen, such as masons, carpenters, roofers, electricians, plumbers and others – these are as much as possible slum dwellers and preferably parents, or guardians, of the children of the school being assisted.

Issues of access to information, privacy and protection of children against risks of abuse:

All sponsors and donors receive periodic reports on how funds  provided by them are being spend.

Receipts and other statements confirming each payment made are filed by Watu kwa Watu. They are available, when requested, for review by donors, sponsors, and, in justified cases, by other interested parties.

Final accounts are being prepared at the end of the projects.

Information about the schools being assisted is available in full to donors, sponsors and other interested parties, including addresses – mailing, physical and electronic (where available). Donors and sponsors are invited and encouraged to visit the schools, which they assist or consider assisting.

Information about the individual children and youth, being assisted, kept by Watu kwa Watu in order to protect their privacy, and to avoid the risks of possible abuse via Internet or in other ways. The full real names, addresses and other contact information are not placed in public domain. While the children and youth are encouraged to write personal letters to their sponsors and the sponsors are provided with financial reports and with the reports on the educational progress, all contacts are through Watu kwa Watu, and true identities of children are disguised.

These privacy protection rules are occasionally being relaxed in specially justified and controlled cases.