Consultancies and Fundraising

Why Choose CRIDOC?

Five Reasons Why You Should Opt for CRIDOC-
Are you looking, or do you in future intend to search, for a consultant to produce your corporate video documentary, develop a professionally designed website, produce a newsletter, edit/proofread a document, develop a project proposal, conduct and analyze researches (or if you are just looking for research assistants), provisionally perform secretarial duties, part-time journalists… (Whew, the list is endless!)?

The ILO/IPEC and UNICEF Malawi sponsored the production of this newsletter during the Child Labour Day in 2004. It was among several other advocacy materials produced. [ ENLARGE ]

Then CRIDOC is the best place to opt for. Why? Because there are five main reasons why you should actually do so. The reasons are listed as follows:

1. First and foremost, CRIDOC is non-profit organization whose activities are meant to benefit the urban and rural communities (especially the children) out there. As such, every “small” consultancy fee charged on any assigned job done is simply meant for the organisation’s sustainability, and, of course, that of its interns and volunteers.
   
   
2. Since we are not bent on making profits, out client will therefore get the most competitive deal on the land. In short, it is the cheapest means to get your job done professionally. We just need your token of appreciation to ensure that our interns are able to get a reasonable allowance for lunch, travel, etc.
   
   
3. Skills development of CRIDOC’s interns, staff and volunteers. If you really care about helping to enhance the professional development of the youth who finish their tertiary education but just stay at home idling – or alternatively get attempted into indulging in dreadful behaviour like drug abuse, casual sex, etc – simply because they just cannot get an opportunity to do something useful their beloved country by utilizing their hard-eared skills, then CRIDOC is the right place to express your care and concern for these youth.
   
   
4. If you truly subscribe to the mission and vision of CRIDOC, why not help it realize them by simply letting CRIDOC get involved in the production and dissemination process of issues affecting children?
   
   
5. Lastly, we guarantee you that you will not regret our services. Yes, our interns may not have the kind of vast experience you may be looking for. But we assure you they have the overwhelming expertise, zeal and innovativeness that that clients will always live to admire. Remember that these interns are looking for established employment, and this obliviously is the only chance to sell themselves to the clients. They know that they will never find another chance to prove their capabilities to potential employers apart from – and only apart from – the interview room itself.

This colour brochure is one of the advocacy materials produced by CRIDOC under the sponsorship of ILO/IPEC and UNICEF Malawi. [ ENLARGE ]

Note however that the rates for commercial institutions (companies) are different from our partner non-profit institutions. To see our rates, please click here

Consultancy and Fundraising Services

Let us mention, once again, that this is a capacity building initiative, rather than a profit-making undertaking. As a non-profit organization registered under the Trustees Incorporation Act of 1962, we appreciate the moral, financial or material support that we receive – or that we may continue to receive – from various donors, institutions, partners, and individual well-wishers. The driving force and principle for the implementation of all our programmes has been, and will remain, the concept or spirit of volunteerism, which for a very long time has been considerably lacking among many – if not all – civil society organizations in Malawi.

However, for various reasons, including, among others, self-sustainability and skills development, CRIDOC implements a number of activities and provides a wide range of services on consultancy basis to its institutional partners and individuals who are not only hunting for affordable services, but are also keen to make a contribution by way of ensuring the realization of CRIDOC’s mission and vision, the organization’s capacity building, and the professional development of our unemployed youth.

The activities and services include, but not limited to, the following:

1. Consultancy on Human Resource Development Programmes for persons directly involved in the dissemination of child rights information in other organizations and institution. As an information Centre, we train people in other partner rogation on issues related to child rights issues.
   
   
2. Consultancy on material development for other organizations and institutions working on issues related to child rights. We have interns who have skills in design and layout (Desktop Publishing) of newsletters, magazines and booklets, posters, leaflets and brochures.
   
   
3. Video documentaries: We also film and produce video documentaries on both videotape and DVDs. However, in the meantime the total costs for producing video documentaries are not yet as low (though relatively cheaper than an average commercial consultant) as we would want them to be because the organization is yet to acquire its own editing equipment/studio. Until a willing donor is identified and decides to support us with the acquisition of such a studio, the rates for producing documentaries for our partners will have been drastically reduced to almost nothing, hence build the capacity for most of our partners who could not have afforded to produce advocacy video documentary.
   
   
4. Proposal development: Among our interns, we have those who, besides having writing and analytical skills, they also underwent some formal training in project management, proposal writing, etc. If you give these interns a simple framework of your proposed concept, and give them a chance to incorporate their own ideas into the proposed scheme, you will surely get overwhelming results, sometimes perhaps better results than what you could get from your own project staff in your institution.
   
   
5. To work on projects that bring in technologies that would be of assistance to the media, researchers and other stakeholders, including the children themselves. As an Information Centre that values the role of ICTs in developing countries like Malawi, it is our wish to ensure that our information centre in Capital, Lilongwe, has all the appropriate technologies, and are as user-friendly as possible. The information hub in Lilongwe will also trickle down to the rural areas through the establishment of tele-centres in these areas. Among the interns, we also have those who have IT background who will be required to manage these tele-centres. But in the interim, we want to help them by opening our doors to other institutions who are equally embarking on similar projects but can hardly afford the highly marketable IT personnel to manage their projects.
   
   
6. Promotion of the Online Resource on Child Rights manual by encouraging the registered schools (plus individual pupils) to purchase a copy/copies of the manual for their school libraries, which will serve as a guide to getting the right information on child rights issues from the Internet.
   
   
7. Consultancy on website development for partner organizations. CRIDOC has teamed up with its Indian-based partner, The Firstweb Foundation, to provide high quality and resourceful websites to all partner organizations that want to stay abreast with new technologies in Malawi and abroad. Firstweb Foundation has to its credit developed the following websites for both Malawian and Indian based clients:
   a) www.cridoc.net
   b) www.chrr.org.mw
   c) www.euttaranchal.com

Note that the services mentioned above are provided by highly motivated interns and volunteers who are eager to learn and have their skills enhanced to greater heights. We are talking about skills that would have been wasted through frustration and despair over periods of waiting and waiting for the right employment. Always remember that whenever you give a consultancy job to CRIDOC, you will not only get the most affordable deal in town, but you will also be giving a rare opportunity to one or two youth out there who have overwhelming skills but they just cannot put them to good and meaningful use due to the current high unemployment rates in the country.