A Plano-based software company and a child advocacy nonprofit are teaming up in a new effort to better the lives of orphans living in developing countries.

Tyler Technologies Inc. announced it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Arizona-based nonprofit Both Ends Believing and the Honduran Government Children Welfare Agency (DINAF) to implement the Children First software program.

Children First helps government agencies build, maintain, and manage accurate records of an institututionalized child’s indentification, medical conditions, and other information that could help match the child with a permanent family, according to Tyler Technologies.

The software was developed specifically for use by Both Ends Believing, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing attention and solutions to the challenges that face orphans in many developing nations.

“By equipping Both Ends Believing and countries like Honduras with the right technology, we provide them a way to safely move children from institutional care into their permanent families.”

Bruce Graham

“The Children First program is important because it will collect information that will be generated in the register of care for children and adolescents,” DINAF Executive Director Lolis Maria Salas Montes said in a release. “The software program will also be linked to a certification process and will be used to collect data which will make it possible to improve child-care services in our country.”

The program will help reduce costs in handling such cases and facilitate the return of infants to their biological families, or place them with permanent families, Salas Montes said.

In the release, Tyler Technologies said that 24 nongovernmental orgranizations’ child-care services are implementing the software with DINAF and that a total of 176 facilities soon will be using the software.

TYLER TECHNOLOGIES ENCOURAGED BY SOFTWARE’S IMPACT

“This marks an important milestone for Both Ends Believing and the country of Honduras, and we’re encouraged by the impact that the Children First software initiative can have for global child welfare,” Bruce Graham, president of the Courts and Justice Division of Tyler Technologies, said in the release. “By equipping Both Ends Believing and countries like Honduras with the right technology, we provide them a way to safely move children from institutional care into their permanent families.”

Both Ends Believing will hold its first regional summit Aug. 13-15 in Lusaka, Zambia, to further discussions about global child welfare. The summit will focus on training additional countries to use the Children First software, Tyler Technologies said.

Tyler Technologies specializes in software for cities, counties, and schools. In April, it announced that it bought Seattle-baed Socrata Inc., which helps government agencies publish data online. The company’s clients include more than 15,000 local government offices in all 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, and other international locations.