First full week back, we have a
good staff meeting and plan the term ahead. Tuesday w micro finance
organisation Songa Mbele (way forward) I had arranged to come gave a
presentation to the students to explain how microfinance work, how much cheaper
this type of finance is and show them the opportunities they may have. Another
advantage is that knowing how they work means the students are less likely to
be taken in by scams and other more expensive finance. It was well received and
the students asked for more of the same.
Another result this week is that
we received confirmation that funding applied for last year for modern toilets
has been approved to the value of 250k Kenyan shillings but we have to raise
84k (£600) of that as a 1/3rd contribution to get it. We do not have
the funds in the Poly bank so are frantically approaching MP’s and councillors
(well it is election year J
). Hopefully all will be resolved soon and we will have a new WC block to
replace the current wooden hut and pit latrine.
Late Thursday I received a call
from VSO confirming the Poly had been selected to join the 2nd year
of a 2 year funding programme called SVTED (Strengthening Vocational Training for
Enterprise Development) which is a Ford Foundation
programme supporting Youth and particularly girls. Without being part of this
programme you cannot access the funding so this is a huge boost and may solve
out problem of how to get computers to start the high demand computer course by
Jan 2013. Fingers crossed and I will keep you informed. The draw back was that
I had to join the 2nd day of a workshop at 12hrs notice. 30 mins
into the workshop and I was listening to one group present their work from the
previous afternoon when I was handed a note saying could I prepare one for
Ithiru YP and go next in the presentations – winging it a little but helped by
the work last term on the Strategic Plan and other business
planning I got away
with it!
All in all a good start to the
Second Term…..
No comments:
Post a Comment