Search for Funding

Here is Karago, one of the Street Children, speaking at the Hostel opening on March 24th. He spoke in Lhukonzo, so I did not understand a word, but he had the audience laughing frequently. I learned afterwards that his basic message was "We are human, too! We have gifts; we can make a contribution. My gift is music; but my friends have other gifts. Kasim is an acrobat!" And he called Kasim out to demonstrate!

 

 Funding: What is crucial for the viability of the Hostel is ongoing funding. And that is over to Enos and his Executive Board. Mary and I have always made clear that we undertook to raise funds for building the Hostel; but the future work depends on what the local community can do. 

The first port of call is the Mayor of Kasese, Kabbyanga Godfrey; when Enos and Mary went to see him in March, he told Enos to produce a Working Plan so that he and the Council could consider funding.

Enos said he would do this, and told us he would send us a draft for comments. He has send us his first draft, and we consulted local people about this - including a Professor who is an experienced lecturer on management issues. He explained that there are two kinds of Working Plan - a Strategic Plan, which is seeking to answer the question "What is this organization seeking to achieve?", and an Operational Plan, which aims to show facts, figures and budgets for the month by month activities.

Enos Kyibibi's draft fitted the Strategic Plan model, with one or two suggested tweaks. But I urged him also to get together with his Management Board to produce an Operational Plan - any potential funding body (Rotary International, UNICEF, TEAR Fund, Save The Children, as well as Kasese Town Council) will need such information. 

I spoke on the phone last night to Emmanuel Maate, the Chairman of the Board (who was our host in Kasese in March), who is going to get together with Enos, hopefully over this weekend, to discuss all the issues of funding and management.

Furnishing and Equipping the Hostel: once we are assured that ongoing finance is in place, we might be able to help with paying for furnishing the building and other "start-up" costs. Generous donors are still contributing towards this, and we are very grateful.

chriscjenkin@aol.com

Progress at the Hostel

Plaster and Floors
We have heard from Enos Kyibibi, the SKILL Hostel Director, that all the walls are already plastered now, and the flooring is complete.
Cladding is still going on; it is hoped that it will be complete by the end of this month.
It was the illness and death of Enos' father that delayed things, while Enos was at the Hospital taking care of his Dad, so that he could not be supervising the building work. Hopefully this work will restart on Monday.

Working Plan
When we were in Kasese in March, Mary and Enos spoke to the Mayor of Kasese (I was poorly so couldn't go), who indicated that it was possible that local authority funding for the Hostel might be available, but he needed to see a proper Working Plan. Drafting such a Plan is in progress at present - a draft has been sent to UK for our comments and suggestions, and we are consulting various people with expertise in such documents.

Saturdays are Centre Days
Until funding is available for running the SKILL Centre full time, the intention is to open it to the Street Children on Saturdays, for such things as:-

• Health Education - instructing the boys how to avoid HIV/AIDS, malaria and cholera (which has become a problem locally). Also training in First Aid.
• Maintenance - cleaning the compound, teaching them how to share labour.

chriscjenkin@aol.com