OUR STORY

CCDO was founded in 2005 by a group of young men and women who were moved by the living conditions of marginalised communities in rural areas of southern Malawi. CCDO started with a community clinic that enrolled 54 individuals having HIV/AIDS for antiretroviral therapy (ART) through financial aid from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Belgium. CCDO was later registered with the Government of Malawi in 2010 under the Trustees Incorporation Act of 1962 (chapter 5:03). Presently, CCDO is providing ART access to over 3500 beneficiaries.

CCDO also provides access to a holistic array of services, including lifelong learning, educational programs, and recreational opportunities to orphans and vulnerable children. Moreover, it provides employment readiness training, access to public benefits, food security, linkage to physical and behavioural health treatment, affordable housing and other services that promote health, self-sufficiency and independence.

Furthermore, CCDO is striving to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS and chronic illnesses through awareness drives, educational programs and provision of medicines in collaboration with the Malawi Ministry of Health. Through a diverse range of innovative public health and human rights approaches, the organisation focuses on upholding the dignity of sex workers and their families while improving their overall quality of life.

Promoting the overall well-being of women and girls through efforts to reduce their vulnerability to hunger, poverty, illiteracy and diseases has always been at the core of our programs.

Goals & Objectives

CCDO's objectives are weaved into the following:

1. Educate youth to make informed decisions about health, sexuality and reproduction.

2. Alleviate the impact of chronic illnesses, including HIV and AIDS, through the provision of evidence-based interventions among targeted beneficiaries.

3. Empower the rural/vulnerable women and the youth to be economically self-reliant

4. Develop Malawian children to their fullest capabilities so that they contribute effectively towards national development.

5. Design and implement interventions that significantly improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi.

6. Promote community development through innovative approaches aimed at various targeted communities for the benefit of marginalized children.

7. Advance the rights and freedoms of vulnerable groups through advocacy, lobbying and impact mitigation.

Achievements

The following are some of the other notable achievements under CCDO’s belt:

We have trained 340 rural youth and 510 rural women in agribusiness and poultry production since 2016
Since its inception, CCDO has been providing complementary healthcare access to over 780 individuals locally.
It provides access to scholarships and bursary programs to over 60 children.
With financial assistance from World Connect, USA, in August 2021, CCDO made infrastructural developments in the Chimwavi Primary School.
To date, over 3400 children have benefited from CCDO’s Nakasena Primary School, founded in 2017. Lee Ann Bartran funded the construction of this school.
CCDO provided chairs, tables and other furniture to these schools with financial aid from Crossroads Foundation, Hong Kong.
CCDO distributed other donations acquired from Crossroads Foundation, Hong Kong, to 11 community-based childcare centres.
Our awareness campaigns addressing critical issues, such as sexual reproductive health rights, were funded by Hivos Southern Africa. These campaigns enabled over 25,000 girls to continue schooling and higher education.
With financial assistance from Frontline AIDS, we conducted COVID-19 awareness drives and distributed PPE kits to over 35,000 beneficiaries.

Financial Responsibility, Governance & Management Capacity

CCDO takes great pride in the organization's financial efficiency and accountability. We work very hard to maximise the value of every dollar we receive. More than 90 percent of our expended resources - among the highest of all philanthropic organisations - support our poverty-fighting projects in the southern part of Malawi. Less than 10 percent of expended resources go toward administrative and fundraising costs.

CCDO Malawi has a long track record in managing donor funds and implement unique programs benefitting thousands of Malawians within Women Empowerment, education, health and nutrition; community development hereunder water & sanitation. The 5 member Board of Trustees reviews the programs and sanctions the proposals submitted to donors, programs, financial and activity reports and provides organizational leadership. Its inherent capacity in project implementation lies with its structure. CCDO Management Team comprising of the Executive Director (with 9 years’ experience in project management), 1 programme Manager (with minimum of 5 years’ experience in project management and advocacy), 2 Monitoring and Evaluation Officers (with 5 years in data collection, monitoring and evaluation), 1 Accounts manager and 1 Assistant Financial Officer (with 6 years and 3 years experiences respectively in managing donor funds) and 1 Project Coordinator, 1 project officer, 1 field officer (with over 3 years experiences in their respective fields) provides a strong leadership team for the implementation of the projects. Director, program Manager and field coordinators are all experienced in project management in the areas of Community Development, Agribusiness, advocacy and environmental conservation. To ensure that our functions meet the quality standards expected in managing donor funds, CCDO uses this normal system in financial transaction: The Finance Manager in consultation with the programme Managers determines the minimum cash balance for a project bank account. As and when cash is required, field/administration Officers submit a request to the Projects Coordinator. After checking whether the request is in line with the project activity plan, the Program officer signs the request and submits it to the Finance Officer who will counter check and pass the request for payment. The request is then submitted to the Director who approves it for payment in line with the donor requirement. CCDO uses cashbook/general ledger, cash disbursement voucher, cash counting and liquidation book and excel. Financial report is prepared in every quarter and each project is accounted for, separately

Transparency & Accountability

CCDO is committed to comply with international standards of quality and accountability. With a rights-based approaches and programming principles, we focus on ensuring that our partners and the communities we work with will have a voice in planning, implementing and evaluating our work.