The number of children we sponsor and the level of their monthly funding is revised four times a year by the help committee on request by the YARI board. In the beginning of the year, the help committee looks over our income, growth and existing capital to calculate and predict how many children YARI should be able to support by the year end. The amount that each child is receiving in the local currency is also revised to account for inflation and increase in other costs. Currently, we have more children under sponsorship than we have sponsors, the difference in income is solved through other sources of income like events and company sponsorship.

The core operational process in YARI is the sponsor child process. This process makes sure funds are distributed to the children under our support and controls that the children have actually attended school. It starts by a request from the coordination group to the field workers on request from the help committee to start gathering the children’s grades and documents from the families. The collected data is compiled by the coordination group and then input into our systems which holds all data about the children sponsored by YARI, encompassing the point of enrollment to the point of exit (most commonly by graduation).

When all of the student data is collected, the system performs automatic checks to search for anomalies such as missing attendance, documents or even falling grades. The flagged students are put on a separate list that is sent to the coordination group for investigation. If reasons for missing attendance or documents cannot be explained or if the family has removed their child from the school, support is cut and children from our queue (waiting list) are enrolled instead.

In the case of falling grades we try to reach out and investigate the underlying causes. It is often caused by temporary trauma, illness or something as simple as the need for glasses, which we try to help resolve whenever possible through our medical fund. When the list is finished, supplemented with new enrollments and checked, the Help Committee submits a request to the YARI board for transfer of funds from Sweden to Iran. If approved (commonly the case, and when it is not it is often due to minor outstanding issues) the funds are transferred to the field workers via the Coordination Group, which in turn distribute it to the students they are responsible for. We have created a bank account in each child’s name, where the mother is usually the person who has a right to withdraw funds to spend on the child. If both parents are struggling with an addiction, the child’s contact person (many times their teacher) takes care of the child’s costs instead.

Besides this main process of systematic control, both the field workers and the Coordination Group performs random tests to both check on the children’s progress and make sure funds are fully spent on them. A third control can actually be performed by the sponsors themself. We encourage them to communicate with their sponsored child and to report if there are any irregularities. However, YARI monitors contact between the sponsor, sponsored child and family as a precaution and protection for the children against predators.