Microfinance notes

General notes:

·      SEC (Social Entrepreneurial Club) is completely student run – it should be the student’s initiative – the mentors will provide ad hoc advice.

·      Each SEC has an executive committee (positions vary based upon school)

·      Anyone can join the SEC club (don’t have to be an Educate! scholar).

·      Educate! works with students through S5 and S6.

·      Educate! has personal contacts at each school that link Educate! with the administration of the school.

·      Hoima students are not good in English…I must work on speaking slowly and carefully enunciating my words.

·      If they are quiet it might be because they don’t understand my English.

·      Solomon’s uncle is the head of Economic Policy & Planning at Makere University.

 

Duhaga (Tuesday @ 4:40 PM)

·      Biggest school with over 1,000 students

·      Government aided

·      Physically the biggest school

·      17 scholars in leadership class (3 left class)

·      SEC projects:

o   Goat rearing project – Have 2 goats that they are going to cross-breed with local goats to improve the breed.

§  Goats cost around 60,000 each

§  They were able to raise 140,000 shillings through fundraising (guest speaker + parent donations)

o   Poultry Project – Students are going to raise chickens in an old, unused chicken-raising building that the school owns (and has dedicated for free).

§  Sell chickens and their eggs

§  Raise money by staging a play

 

Sirtito Winyi SS (Secondary School) (Wednesday @ 3:20 PM)

·      Third biggest with 500 – 600 students

·      Government aided

·      15 scholars (but 3 might be dropping the course – some are changing schools)

·      No SEC project yet. 

·      Plan on starting vegetable growing project.

·      Fundraising with individual contributions from the club members (in course 2,500 ; for members not in class 1,000).  Also accept contributions in kind (i.e. seeds instead of money).

·      School has given them a plot and they are going to design flowers and beautify the place – it’s going to be the social entrepreneurship section of the school.

 

Kitara SS (Thursday @ 3:20 PM)

·      Second biggest school with over 1,000 students

·      Two shifts to accommodate all the students

·      Government aided

·      15 scholars

·      Haven’t implemented a project yet but have done projects to improve the school:

o   Last year renovated the girl’s urinals in school. 

o   Also did some community work cleaning.

o   Plan to start a poultry project and a tree planting.  Poultry is a business but the tree-planting project is just a way to give back to the community.

·      Have raised 30,000 from their own contributions and fundraising from Mentors and other figures.  Plan to hold a fundraiser where they reach out to all the students of the school to get contributions from them.

 

Morningstar (Friday @ 11:00 AM)

·      Smallest with around 200 students

·      Privately funded

·      13 scholars

·      Implemented a tomato-growing project.  Tomatoes are growing right now.  Should be harvesting around 200,000 worth of tomatoes.  Want to use this money to start other projects and help needy persons in the community.

·      Club executive covered the costs of the seeds (5,000)

·      School provided the land.