All this talk about food is making me hungry! (it's now lunchtime on my end of the globe) ;-)

I just wanted to inform you all that I will be out of commission, so to speak, for the next week, as we have family from out of town coming this weekend and staying at our house for a week. I'll try to check in once or twice between entertaining, 4th of July/Independence Day festivities, etc.

My plan had been to have all of the Girl Education page text completed at this point, but alas I haven't had the chance to do so. Much going on the past two weeks in terms of work projects (funny, I'm off from work but it's still keeping me very busy). So sorry... Are we sticking to the 20 July deadline?

I will try to check in with you all next week. Happy 4th of July to fellow North American neighbors,
:pint:

Cheers,
Marianne

Hallo everyone,

I have taken some time today to work a bit on the document myself (updated under Resources):

Some notes:

- I have worked on most of the document according to our discussions, except of the pages of Girl Education in Kyarumba which Marianne does and of the BWC, which Clare has.

- I have put some texts together or splited other apart

- Jessica, I have added some remarks in pink, where information from you is necessary.

- There are two parts, which really need to be developed and worked on:
a. Board of Trustees and processes – Info necessary from Jessica (comments in pink)
b. Sponsorship options

We would really appreciate it, if one of you could wotk on the Sponsorship options.... This is an open issue several weeks now....

- Dennis I have incorporated the text which you suggested about education fees in Uganda under Education in Kyarumba (Part 3). Jessica please approve if this text is OK with you.

- Marianne I have already incorporated the text you worked on with the statistics under the part which you are working on

Best wishes,
Eleftheria

PS Marianne I think it is improtant to stick to the deadeline – not everything has to be ready by then but it would be good to see a first version of the content on the web till then!

And....have a great time with your family and friends in the following week and happy 4th of July!!! :-D

Hi All,

Well, the dust has settled on my first semester of study this year, my niece has gone home etc so I now have some time to help out. I have one more week of semester break before going back into the pottery studio.

I've skimmed over the great progress, but would appreciate some guidance...

So, can you point me at a clear slab of text to work on - a small piece would be great - and the context that it is in....

By the way on the subject of "first person" sometimes it is not possible to stick to that - Governments etc are not a person, nor are organisations. When we talk about what BWC is doing we should refer to it as "BWC will be..." rather than "We will be..." (that's what I've always been told to do in "corporate" style communications - especially if anybody is looking at the site from an assessing how sound and professionally the fund will be run.

The stories of girls/women should always be in first person though!

The big issue is really "active" vs passive voice - it is hard for me to come up with good example - other than all sentences (unless just descriptive) need to be clearly describing an action! eg BWC will/have implemented etc etc. Also Microsoft word can test for this if you use the Tools/Spelling and Grammar option on the menu - it highlights passive sentences in the summary pop-up window at the end of a spelling grammar check... if it hasn't been highlighted as a problem earlier in the spell/grammar check operation.

regards,

Clare V.

Dear all,

Just a quick post to say I'm still here... I haven't forgotten you, but I'm snowed under with a campaign we're working on at the moment and have had very little time to do anything else. Hopefully this weekend I will have less to do.

Thank you Jessica for emailing me the photos. I shall edit them for colour (sharpness) and reduce them in size. Please let me know what you would like me to do with them from there? I don't know if this has been discussed, I'm afraid I haven't had a moment to catch up on the last week or so's postings.

Welcome back Clare V!

With best wishes,

Clare

Hi Clare

Just a suggestion - that you might use the pictures to colour web page stories appropriately, Jessica may supply captions as may be needed.
======
In finishing off this page
http://aplaceof.info/acoke/recovery.htm
I included a link he had provided to a paper on story-telling among war-damaged children in northern Uganda - very valuable paper, see link near end of that page.

That led me to this organisation:
http://www.sacbf.org.za/
-- see the papers from the 2004 conference.

D
p.s. I have done some photoshop things for Flory's pages, Clare..
http://aplaceof.info/fochi/nonkillingsociety.htm
http://aplaceof.info/kiliba/contact.htm
please say if you want help with the photos

Hallo everyone and thanks for your posting!

I really appreciate it, that inspite of your tight schedules, you all find some time to write in this Forum! :-)

Clare V. great to have you back. If you have time, we would highly appreciate two things:

a. It would be great if you could work on the part “Sponsorship options” of our working document (“Webpages for Kyarumba”, under Resources). This document is the document we have been working on in the past as well, so it should be familiar to you but we have been adapting for the web.

I think you were around when these sponsorship options were suggested from Clare. We need someone to:
- Write these options in a more generic but still cocnrete manner
- Say what each amount of money will enable a girl to do
- Add options for a once-off donation etc.

b. I have dome some work on this document as well but I think it needs to be reviewed from an english-sepaking person. So if you could read and improve it as well (except of Girl Education, this is done by Marianne), it would be very helpful and would help us to move a step forward.

Clare K., I have not seen the photos of Jessica but we are supposed to enrich web text with them. Dennis has offered to help with this!

Thanks,
Eleftheria

Hello every one,

Thanks for keeping the discussions on, I am sorry for the absence. Baby sitting is another full time Job eating up most of my time. My other Boy has just come out of hospital due to Malaria infection but is now fine. I wasn't able therefore to keep with you here.

Marianne the revisions of the text on enrollment rates is ok we can have it as is in the web text.

Dennis about secondary education,
During the just concluded elections president Yoweri Museveni announced upcoming implementation of free Universal Secondary Education beginning 2007. I think the Ministry of education is now developing the framework for implementation and this would only benefit entrants in senior one next year not continuing students in senior two and above. However with the experience of how free primary education has worked, the new development may not help our girls so we will go ahead and develop our model.

Eleftheria,
I will work on my assignment too

Thanks
Jessica

Hi,

I've downloaded the doc and will try to go through it and make any adjustments / edits this weekend.

Clare V

Jessica - glad to know your son is OK after the malaria.

Hi All,

I've looked at the sponsorship section and changed it to what I think is a better flow and also changed some wording etc.

I edited just the subsection and I'm attaching that piece now.

Eleftheria, you might want to put this into the main document now!

Have a great weekend all!

kyarumba webpages - 05 July-sponsorship-section.doc

Hallo all,

Jessica I hope your little boy has recovered completely from malaria and is feeling really well again, so you can have two little boys to babysit for : )

Regarding your comment on the decision of your President for secondary education, do you want to have the text of Dennis in the document/site (about education being fee-obligatory) or should I take this out?

Dear Clare, thank you so much for your posting and your work on the sponsorship options....the problem is that I cannot do a lot now, because I cannot access it at the moment... (would be highly appreciated if you could e-mail it to me).

Thank you very much!

I am wishing to all of you in Africa, in Australia, in Europe, in the U.S. and in Asia :-) a lovely week-end!
Eleftheria

Dear Jessica

I do hope you are all well now. As you know, I had hoped to get to Uganda this year but health problems have gotten in the way. We have been hoping to go half way, less complicated, test my wings again, going to India... and to check what is possible I have been trying out the anti-malaria drug Larium. And have had some unpleasant reactions... so must try something else. It means, so far, that I do know that the symptoms of drug treatment are nt easy either, for an adult, not just for children... you know this all to well...

I think it is important that we find right words and strategic direction with the new policy and funding of secodnary education. Are you saying that from 2007 each year an extra year will become non-fee-paying, starting at the bottom? Is that the government's plan? If so, is that from January 2007 or does the year begin mid callendar year? Would that mean that future BWC contribution to fees might be for older girls, while for those entering at the first year of secondary, different support would be appropriate?

best wishes

Dennis

Dear Clare V.,

I have managed to access your text and copy it to our working document – thank you for the good work! I think that the sponsorship options are now clear and concise, maybe an excel format of the options as well could contribute to a quicker understanding, especially important when one is rushing through pages. I will be doing this in the followig days and see how it looks – if someone else would like to try it, just let me know!

Dear Neighbours,

please review the updated Sponsorship Options, as updated by Clare Vivian and give us your feedback.

Another point which shouldbe discussed are individual donations – we speak of individual donations but we still the options we offer are repetitative monthly donations. I think for some people it is important to have the option to send the amount of money they wish, without having to calculate the number of months etc. Maybe we could have s thrid category of once-off donations, where we say something like “these money will be used by the BWC for administration projects or for an awareness campaign etc., so feel free to donate any amount you would wish”.

Clare V., would it be possible for you to write a paragraph of such donations? It would be great.

As Clare also mentioned in her review, when we download girls´ photos, we need to clarify which stage of the education a girl is in and how many years at least should a sponsor commit.

We are waiting Jessica´s input on the various questions raised in the document and by Dennis but meanwhile, anyone having the time to go through the document and update parts of it, please do so, there is a lot of room for improvement!

Best wishes,
Eleftheria

The village of La Rinconada has an Action Needed on this subject.

The problem is that international money transfers (like Western Union) and international bank transfers (via bank accounts) are very expensive.

It is my own experience that the costs may be incertain when you are sending money to a number of countries in the South. Banks may charge costs sometimes or local banks may use unrealistic exchange rates.

Now that Jessica is opening a local bankaccount: a solution would be to open an account with Paypall or another account in the North and accumulate the money before it is sent to Uganda. This way, you pay the transfer costs only once for a large number of payments.

Hallo Pim,

nice to see you around : )

Thank you very much for your posting, I will copy it to our discussion about money transfers and will post my message there.

Thanks!
Eleftheria

Dear Pim

There has been substantial discussion of this in this village and it would be valuable for you to review the appropriate discussion thread.
http://www.nabuur.com/modules/villages_issues/index.php?villageid=116&ac...

- it goes back into May and June and before that in now 'lost' discussions, threads closed....

It is not possible simply to accumulate funds from strangers to personal accounts in donor countries, there is a need for a legal framework for doing that. You will find that Eric Cooperman kiliba/nabuur is working on this but it would be good to see some more concerted contribution from nabuur as there are many many villages facing this same situation and they have the same problems:
- a legal fiduciary structure for gathering funds in donor countries
- a way of certifying different nabuur projects as meeting some standards of conduct and worth
- systems for sending money
- trust standards of groups receiving money

The nabuur villages offer some transparency as to where projects come from and how they are being conducted. But that alone is not enough to encourage strangers to donate.

As long ago as last December I suggested to the nabuur office this model:
http://aplaceof.info/worldneighbourlink/

which is much the sort of thing Eric has been working on separately. I have had no reaction from nabuur. I am not able to develop this myself now, for health reasons, but I do encourage nabuur to begin to focus on all the work being done in different places and seek to draw it together.

best wishes

Dennis