Child protection / Sponsorship programme
Safeguarding
Sponsorship puts adults in another country in a relationship with a child. These are the limits MRN puts on that relationship, and the way the portal enforces them.
01 / Rule
What is never published
A student appears on this site by first name, age, district, grade, the disaster that affected them and a short summary written by field staff.
- Surnames and dates of birth are recorded so that a student can be identified to their school and to their guardian. They are read by MRN staff only and are never selected by any query that serves a sponsor or the public.
- Villages, school names and home addresses are never shown outside staff. A student is placed by district, which covers a wide area.
- Phone numbers and email addresses for a student, a guardian or a school are never shown to a sponsor.
- Birth certificates, consent forms, medical records and identity documents are staff-only whatever audience anyone sets on them. The software overrules the setting.
02 / Rule
Consent, and a second pair of eyes
Nothing about a student is published on the strength of one person's judgement.
- A guardian's consent is recorded, with the date and the signed form, before a student's record can be published.
- Publication is done by an administrator who is not the person who enrolled the student.
- Consent to appear does not imply consent to be photographed. Where a guardian has not agreed to a photograph, the student's page shows a placeholder, and that is the intended outcome rather than a missing file.
- A guardian can withdraw consent. The student's record leaves the directory when they do.
03 / Rule
Photographs
Photographs are useful to sponsors and risky to children, so they are handled narrowly.
- Every uploaded image is re-encoded on the server, which removes the metadata the camera wrote, including GPS coordinates.
- A photograph is reviewed by a staff member who did not upload it before anyone outside staff can see it.
- Images are served from one address that checks the viewer and then redirects to a link that expires in five minutes. A link copied out of the page stops working, and access closes as soon as a sponsorship ends.
- Photographs are never shown with a surname, a school uniform crest that names the school, or a caption that places the student.
04 / Rule
Contact goes through MRN
There is no private channel between a sponsor and a student. This protects the student, and it also protects the sponsor.
- Letters from a sponsor are read by a staff member who did not write them before they are delivered. A letter can be rejected, and the sponsor is told why.
- A reply from a student is entered by their guardian or by staff and goes through the same review.
- Calls are requested by the sponsor, scheduled by staff, and hosted by a named staff member who stays on the call. The joining details are released to the sponsor only once that host is assigned and the call is scheduled.
- No visit to a student or their family is arranged through this portal.
05 / Rule
Money never passes between a sponsor and a family
Cash to a household is not sponsorship, and it puts a family in a position nobody should be put in.
- Gifts are made to MRN and credited to a student in the ledger. Fees and school costs are paid by MRN staff in Nepal, against receipts.
- Every payment is requested by one staff member and approved by a different one before the money moves.
- A sponsor is never asked for money by a student or a guardian through this portal. If that happens by any other route, report it.
06 / Reporting
Report a concern
If something you have seen through this portal worries you, say so. You do not need to be certain, and you do not need to have evidence. A concern raised early and wrongly costs an email. A concern kept quiet costs a child.
Mission Rebuild Nepal
- Telephone
- +1-240-636-4752
- Post
- 520 Springvale Rd, Great Falls, VA 22066, USA
A concern about the immediate safety of a child should also go to the local authorities in Nepal. MRN will cooperate with them and will suspend a sponsorship, a staff member or an account while a concern is being looked into.