Care in Action (CiA) is a small German NGO who support children in need of basic care, housing and education. CiA’s Ukraine operation largely looks after orphans and children otherwise displaced from their families. It has a simple but powerful vision: “Children need more than food, a roof and basic education, they also need family, love and positive integration into society”.
The Ukrainian branch works to support the spread of foster families, in contrast to the soviet-era institutions that are still prevalent. The branch in Lviv had expanded its reach with the goal to become independent from the parent organisation. Naturally, scaling up brings along challenges as a maturing organisation needs to introduce stronger governance and standard processes. CiA’s 2017 annual report recognised this risk and highlighted the need to invest more time and resources into enlarging the support base significantly.
With only 7 full time employees and a heavy reliance of volunteers servicing children in the Ukraine and Malawi, CiA understandably struggles with resource restrictions; financial, time and skill-based.
Over the course of the year our consultants helped the charity identify and understand skills gaps and strengthen its ways of working by combining digital transformation expertise with practical experience to bring about self-sustaining, lasting change. With the charity working more effectively, more resources can be raised and more can be done to support the 900-1100 children and their carers.
While we had all felt the rush of pride at producing quality work that solves problems for our clients, saves them time or money – or a headache – being able to see the grassroots impact of our management consulting skills and mindset for the children, carers and broader community who support them, has been life changing. We are truly lucky to be a part of this industry. There is so much good we can do, and we feel privileged to have had this experience.