Hi Christopher

I have slightly modified the description of the task, and moved it into the step related to income generation.

This is an interesting idea!

I don't play any musical instruments, so would welcome comments from anyone with experience of this.

Do you teach any music in school now? I know its something that many children enjoy, although all children will have their own preferences on the types of music they like - I used to (and still do) enjoy singing much more than learning to play anything.

I think it would take a long time to get a group of new players up to a standard where they could perform as a paid band at outside events. Also that it would cost a lot to buy the instruments - do you have any figures on this?

As you already have many needs for money and for equipment, I would suggest looking at all of these and setting priorities. Maybe there are other things that you can do more cheaply e.g. expand the piggery or rabbit businesses, use the vocational training equipment to make things to sell as well as for teaching.

I am certainly not trying to tell you not to do this - that is for the school to decide, just suggesting that it may be a longer-term option.

For making music there are other options. For example children could learn to sing, form a choir, which would not take much (if any) outside support to get going. Also, do people in your area play any local traditional music? If so, I would suspect that whatever instruments you use for that would be fairly readily available and/or could be made by people in the area, maybe they could even teach the children to make them?

Would be very interested to hear what others think!

Mary

Hi Christopher-

I agree with Mary that this is a creative way to look at bringing in money to the school, but I also believe that this might be more of a long-range goal to consider versus something that can bring an immediate impact. I think if you do pursue this, that it should begin with a small group. Brass instruments are very expensive and again, if you cannot purchase these locally shipping may prove problematic.

I remember that you and I spoke about using things like a choir or drama group for a similar purpose. As Mary indicated, these things cost very little money(if any money at all)to get started. I would also recommend as Mary suggested that you investigate local traditional music. I think it is very important to teach children about their community and culture so that they can carry on traditions through generations. You may even find a local music group in the community willing to volunteer their time to teach the children how to play the music.

All the best-

Jennifer

Hi Jennifer

I would agree with the drama idea too.

A drama group could have many purposes, depending on the interests of the school and the students.

Like playing music, performing in a group will help students increase their confidence, and will also be fun! They can also make money from local performances. And drama has proved to be an effecive method of community education e.g. by holding performances about HIV, other health issues etc.

And its possible to mix the local culture in with that - in Omiito (Kumi district, Uganda) local people are working to start community-based tourism. As part of this they have formed a drama group to recreate cultural events, both as a way of passing on their traditions among themselves, as well as a way of making money from tourists who will pay to watch - see http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/omiito/images

Mary

Dear friends,thank you very much for the contributions.
l myself,lam good and quite tarented in music and drama.
One of our teachers here is also so good to music as a teacher and also as a talent.
Last year,our school participated in music and drama district festivals,and we become number one overall performence.
When we talked it over with teachers and Headteacher,they suggested a Brass band.
In the whole area there is only one school with such.
If this is acheived then we could do better with available market.
im my former school,there was a brass band and lam so good at most instruments.I will post a photoe for our school in drama soon.Your advice is also very good and taken.
Christopher

Hi Christopher and the neighbours,

I have been checking around a bit and I'm really impressed with your work and results, and how motivated and committed you are. I'm trying to find how I could be of help.

I feel a bit confused, since I can't say there is a "project" here, but rather tasks on finding things for the school. I believe it would be better to first define what and how to do to generate income, which would be then used for getting the things for the school - rather than the other way around. I understand that there are some urgent things like lab equipment now, but after this one there will be other urgent things to get...and that will distract us from the most important goal - school's sustainability.
I must admit that demotivates me a bit :( I'm much more motivated to help with income generation.

I checked the shipping prices from Bosnia to Uganda and I don't think it pays off. I don't know about the prices from other countries, but if we will raise funds for transport, then maybe it would be better to use those funds to buy things locally? Especially because there's a risk that they will never come or will come in a bad condition (like broken lab stuff etc).

As for this discussion, I very much welcome such ideas. I didn't understand whether you have instruments? If you already played I guess you should have some?
Did you check the market? Do you have idea where and how often you could play, and how mych you could earn?

Keep up great work!
Sonja

Hi Christopher

You said "Last year,our school participated in music and drama district festivals,and we become number one overall performence."

So this means you already have music and drama skills within the school. Have you looked at the possiblility of these existing groups to creating some income through local performances?

You say there is only one school in the area who has a brass band - I suspect one of the reasons for this is the high cost of setting one up. Do you know the people at that school well enough that you could go and talk to them about it?

As I have said in the past, I very much agree with Sonja about the importance of planning, of looking for simpler, low-cost ways for the school to earn income using things you have already. Then, later, you may be able to go on to more ambitious projects. And you will have an ongoing source of money to buy things for the school.

I would suggest this is something you should discuss with the others at school. We have a general task about income generation at http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/masaka/project/task/discuss-and-researc... so, if you are interested, we can use that as a place to discuss other options.

For the more urgent items, it may be better to look for money to buy locally rather than try and ship everything from overseas. I do not know if this is something you are pursuing or not.

I would recommend going through the current tasks, deciding which ones you want to focus on at the moment. That will depend on the priorities at the school. And, when you have the information, please update the lists of potential book and bike donors so that we can see who you have contacted and what response you got. Once we know that, we can start to look at making contact with the others.

You are doing a great job! But with clearer focus and plans, tasks that don't just ask neighbours to find things for you, I think you can achieve even more through Nabuur.

Mary

hi Christopher, Mary, Sonja, Jennifer and neighbours,
all the ideas are great! what sort of performance did your school do (singing, dancing, playing instruments)
I guess your school decided on a brass band because there is very few schools doing it and it is probably popular for events but you do have to weigh up the cost. Even if somebody donated these expensive instruments, the cost is huge to ship them and they would be very delicate and break in the shipping. You could create a drama group or a choir and eventually build up to brass band when other issues have been resolved.
Sinéad

Christopher-

It has been some time since you and I were last able to chat. During our last discussion, you mentioned to me that you do not have a comprehensive school budget (just budgets per project). I would really recommend that you consider having the volunteers here (skilled in that area) help you with taking a look at all of the current sources of income at the school versus the expenses. In this way, it will help everyone see where there are needs, or how possibly even some money might be reallocated to other areas to help meet the overall needs of the school. We did this in conjunction with a strategic plan in the Khandbari village and it became a very useful guide. It also helped us to prioritize immediate needs versus long-term goals.

One of the biggest difficulties I think at this point is that no one has had the opportunity to chat with you for some time. It is very difficult to always get a good idea about what is going on simply based on messages posted here. This I think is one of the disadvantages of the village not having a facilitator. Much to your advantage though, you have some of the most skilled volunteers at Nabuur participating in your village :)

I think it would be helpful if a chat could be arranged just so we can have a real-time conversation, make sure your tasks still accurately reflect the current situation at the school and update on what is happening on the ground in terms of income-generation. Maybe you can also update us on where things stand with the vocational training you planned to add with the rabbits and pigs? How are things going with this? Are they moving forward?

Jennifer

Dear friends,
Thank you very much for the update.
In brief,
1.We are making out a budget..it will require a look at and descussion.
2.The vocational school..we shall start teaching the subjects this year,term starting 02,Feb 2009.
3.The girls dormitory has been completed for the roofing.
it will reqiure plastering,fixing doors and shutters,painting ,then providing mosquiotoe curtens and beds for sleeping on.
4.This term,we shall put more and much efforts in digging using the small plot of land.the pig and rabbit will also be taken note of.
5.We request for FACILITETOR VOLUNTEER,to help us do some of the work and we need many other volunteers to help do contacting for some items or search or post fopr us proposals for support.Otherwise the work is piled on me and in fact i can do very little of it.
Some of the people who would help me have no knowledge of use of internet.

According to their website (www.musequality.org)this is a charity that was set up to take music to some of the poorest children in the developing world.

From their website:

"Anyone who has played a musical instrument, or sung in a choir or group, knows that it teaches skills that are valuable in other aspects of life. In particular it:

enhances education – teaching numeracy, pattern recognition, goal setting, problem-solving;
builds social skills – discipline, working in a team, leadership, negotiating, compromise, making conversation;
develops personal qualities – self-belief, self-confidence, self-esteem, ambition, a sense of identity;
demonstrates the benefits of working hard – individual effort brings individual rewards and benefits the group as a whole;
challenges prejudices – in societies where gender inequalities exist,
it gives girls a chance to demonstrate equality."

They can provide: musical instruments, sheet music, music stands, etc.

Their application for funding is located here:

http://www.musequality.org/applicationform.htm

The application is quite detailed, but I think that's good because it really makes you consider every aspect of starting a program such as this.

Let us know what you think after looking it over.

All the best-

Jennifer

Christopher-

Another resource that I came across in doing research for this task was a paper that focused on instrument banks and how students who cannot afford to purchase a musical instrument use these banks to obtain an in order to learn music. One such example is Benslow Music Trust. Here is a link to their website that speaks specifically to the bank:

http://www.benslow.org/instrument-loan-scheme.php

There are several other examples discussed in this paper:

http://www.ifacca.org/media/files/musicalinstrumentbanksreport.pdf

If you are able to secure some instruments for the school, a loan program such as this might be a way to obtain other instruments and develop a program that could provide a source of income to the school.
I know you were initially looking at this from the perspective of establishing a musical group and then having people in the community hire them for special events, but this may be something to consider in addition as well.

Jennifer

Dear friends,
Thank you for contributing on this task.
last month we did write and sent our application to musicquality.we have not got repply yet.
Last week,and by using the part of the school fees,we purchased a new complete set of local drums,this will help us do continued trainning for teachers and the children.
l myself,lam a talented drumer,and will do the trainning at school in the local druming.
Poeple here do enjoy alot music.
But it has no market for normal local perfomenses ans its the reason why we resorted to the brass band that is much wanted.
l did understand the loan issue,is it that the 100 pound initial deposit can work also for school in developing nations like ours ? if its so then we could go ahead and get the loan if payable in 100 pounds shifts each year being only 100 pounds.it its not 100 pounds or its more than that then we cannot go for it.
lam very much impressed by the many contributions to our progs .
Thank you once again.
Yours
Christopher
LR
MASAKA
NOTRE DAME HIGH SCHOOL
UGANDA

Hi Christopher

I get the feeling that the band idea may be something for the future rather than now, unless of course you are successful with that application.

Do you have tourists visiting your area? If so, they may be interested in performances of the drumming and be willing to pay to watch. If not, its still good that the children are learning - they will enjoy it, and its a way for them to learn about their culture too.

Mary