Chrissie,

Enclosed is a 'Future Funding' Plan, which I hope covers the events needed to discuss, decide on, and implement a solution, that will provide future funding.

Matopeni Future funding.pdf

Hi Ron,

As always, great stuff! I'm going to add it to the resource section so that it can be found easily again.

Thanks again!

Chrissie :-)

Chrissie,
I had a look at the building plan and have a few questions:

1. DO we have a final idea of how big the school will be?
2. How much available land do we have for it?
3. Do we expect to take all the children in? Do we have predictions for the increase of students in the next few years?
4. Do we know where to order building materials from? Is it far away? What kinds of material can be ordered?
5. What kind of soil do we have in the area?
6. How many people will be physically available to build the school? DO any of them have previous building experience?
7. DO we have any machinery available?
8. Is there anyone in charge to do a specific engineering design for this building?

I think a clearer view is needed before we start to expand the plan!

Deb

Hi Deborah and welcome to Matopeni!

Thanks for joining us and you already bring up some excellent questions most of which I can answer quite easily, so I'll take it question by question. :-)

1. The requirements part of the plan and action have been put in place with the sole intention to answer most of the basic fundemental questions. If you hop on over to the action, you'll see that Stephen and I held a meeting the other day to discuss many things regarding the requirements - one of which is what rooms we will be building. So far, we know we have to have a minimum of six classrooms (There are only six teachers at present) internal toilets and washroom facilities (they are on a sewage line) a teachers room, an outside area. We're thinking basic at the moment, but if you can think of any other rooms that we'd need, please let us know as neighbours are still in discussions :-)

2. Potentially, we have as much land as we need to build the school although this will need to be purchased first. If you look further down this thread you will see some costings for land that Stephen, our local rep, has investigated. Land purchase will form part of our funding programme, but until we know how big the school will be we won't know how much land to purchase - all has a knock on effect.

3. In the first instance, we're building the school for the 197 existing children. Community members are more that willing to sell their land for future expansions which is the general idea. We need to start with the basics so that the community can build out when and as. We don't have as yet the predictions for student increase year on year but is something that Stephen and myself will work on.

4. Building materials can be sourced locally. Again, stephen has investigated this area and reported on a previous what those basic materials are. (You will also find a seperate result with the relevant details) I have asked Stephen to provide us with costings for those local materials so that we can take that into consideration when we design the school.

5. Soil - good question, I hadn't thought to ask, but I will put it to Stephen - should have an answer for you in the next few days. :-)

6. The local community have advised they will help build the school - I will ask stephen to give us specific numbers if that helps? We've also discussed the ideas of using volunteers (externally sourced) and is something that I'd like to investigate further.

7. Machinery availability - could you elaborate what sort of machinery? Hand tools will not be a problem but larger electrical machinery will be difficult as the community is not connected up to an energy supply.

8. We have two or three people already with architectural backgrounds that have offered help. Two are neighbours: Eduardo and Geeta and the other is a maybe - Steve one of our neighbours may know someone. If you are yourself an architect, please feel free to let us know and join the team - Eduardo and Geeta will join forces to produce drawings and plans for us in the future and it would be good to have as many people working on this as possible - that way we can make sure the drawing plans are accurate and right before we implement. :-)

I hope that answers most of your questions. Please feel free to contact me either on the thread directly or by email: christina_e_wright@yahoo.co.uk if you would like further clarification.

Also, have a quick look through the closed threads and actions to find out what we've done previously.

Ron, from the UK, is our Project Manager for this project. We've come up with an initial basic plan - when we come to build that will obviously be a seperate plan and far more detailed so don't worry! :-) Why not have a look over the plan (it's in it's individual sections) at top of this page under "View Resources" and give us some feedback - we could really do with some help on timescales around the build itself!

Warm Regards

Chrissie
Matopeni Facilitator

Dear Deborar,
Thank you for joining us in this village.However the soils of this area is rocky loam soil this can withstand any given wait of a building,
Regards,
Stephen

Hullo Stephen and Chrissie,

Illitracy is the enemy number one to most developing countries.

Looked through the list of your preject plan and felt should make acontribution on the sustainability of the project.

To ensure sustainability you need to get the poeple develop a sense of ownership.This can be done by making them contribute a small amount of money or involve them in carring constructiom materials.

This also help the people to always care for the school because they will not look at it as something that belongs to other poeple.
(this is reffered to as participatory approach to project planning and manegement)

Thanks so much for the work you are doing.
Best regards.
Peter Byaruhanga.

Hi Peter and welcome to Matopeni!

Glad to see you join in straight away. :-) Your feeback is most welcome. I know that the community will be involved with the building of the school, but will also agree to any blueprints etc before we begin the actual build which is good news!

Stephen, Peter raises a good question - would some of the community be willing to make a small contribution towards the build in a monetry sense? That way they could feel they have not only helped with the build etc but helped to make it possible in a monetry sense. Let me know your thoughts!

Chrissie :-)

Hi everyone,
I think that Peter's idea is a really good one, and makes alot of practical sense. Besides fostering a sense of school community, it is an incentive for people to continue contributing to the school.

Whatever is contributed, whether by way of money, goods or labour, though, should be acknowledged, perhaps with all contributors names being put on a wall in the school. Ongoing helpers could have their names added to this list, as there may be people in the village who aren't able to help initially, but who can later help with ongoing maintenance of the school, administration tasks, etc. That way people feel that their conributions have been, and are continued to be recognised.

Maybe Nabuur could work on the idea (much later on) of assisting in putting on a celebration for village contributors at the completion of the school! It could be a kind of school birthday celebration.

Hi Lynley! :-)

Absolutely and agree 100%. This is something that came up at hte meeting with Stephen last week (see the requirements thread for a summary!) and is something that will be encouraged for sure. This will definitely be a community build and will continue to be community led way after our project finishes which is great to know and also conforms to the Nabuur model. :-D

I like the idea of a plaque - I'd like to take this idea forward Lynley ready for the opening ceremony. (Which has it's own little section on the project plan :-)) Although this is some way in the future I want this to be part of the overall goal - a community celebration bringing everyone together at the end of the build - a new school and the beginnings of a new life for it's youth. (Gosh, I'm not doing too bad for first thing on a Monday morning!!)

It's a great feeling to know we're all thinking pretty much along the same lines. I have great faith that if we keep pushing forward our project in Matopeni will be a success for the community.

Chrissie :-)

Hi Neighbours!

Right, I think we now need to move this action forward a bit further. I'd like to sign the project plan off shortly so we need to start looking at the timescales on the plan.

Funding is always a concern for projects so I'd like everyone to look particularly around the funding section to see if this looks realistic or whether we need to extend further.

Architects and builders - could I ask that you take a look over the building timescales and report back with your feedback and views on timescales. Please don't be concerned - this is just an outline. Nearer the time we will look at a specific project plan for the building work. This will allow us time to gather all the relevant details. It is just an overview that is required for this section at present.

Stephen One thing I forgot to ask at our meeting last week were the seasons. Could you look at the build section of the plan too and let us know what the weather could be like? Do we need to move the start date back or forward becuase of expected bad weather (seasonally)? Are there are many months of the year that building would be completely ruled out?

Hopefully once we've looked at these questions we can begin to think about closing this action and signing off the project plan - milestone one of our project! :-P

Chrissie :-)

Dear Peter,lynley and all,
Sory for delaying answers to your questions.I totally agree with you that there must be a sense of ownership of school from community a round.As you know the school is running and its the community giving maintanance fee for the school to run smoothly. All of them will contribute on construction although as lynley has said Ongoing helpers could have their names added to this list, as there may be people in the village who aren't able to help initially,due to limited resources.However construction is allowed throught the year chrissie,this is becouse no weather can interfear with construction throught the year.
Stephen

HI,Stephen and Chrissie,
I have perused abit of details concerning the Matopeni project, Kindly i would wish that issues partaining to:
1.Nature of contractual arrangement be clearly analysed to guarantee quality and at most economic price, sorry i may be thinking too much Economics but we all know the ideal of proper resource mgt.
2.We should atleast think of bringing on board an individual with architechral skill to serve as our clerks of works as the kenyan protocal would require or preferably approach the concerned ministry.
3.Full participation of the community should not be an undertone at any point of the project,it would sustain prosperity and ultimately sustainability.
4. I wish we have a look at the workbreakdown structure and the impementation plan.

Hi Nelson and Welcome to Matopeni!

I can easily answer all of your questions so I'll taken them in turn:

1. We will strive to keep costs down on the project wherever possible, but not to the detriment of the project. Funding will come from approached organisations that we will look at in a future action.

2. We already have several people with architectual experience on board. Geeta and Eduardo have both expressed a great interest in drawing plans for the school and Steve may know of someone else outside of the nabuur community that may be able to help. Steve is yet to confirm.

3. We have the full support of the community. Nabuur projects exist because the community as a whole have come to us requesting help with a specific issue. Nothing is taken to the next stage unless the community have given the go-ahead. We intend to look at sustainabiity of the school as a top view for the purpose of hte project and funding and will look at it in more depth during one of our next focuses. This is such a large issue (Sustainability) that justice cannot be done to it sufficiently whilst we're focussing on the build.

4. You can have a look over our Project Planby clicking into the resource tab. This is not signed off as yet and is still open for feedback and changes. We imminently need to be looking at timescales and last fine tuning. I hope to have the plan signed off soon. The build part of the plan is an overview - we will get together with the architects closer to the time once funding is in place to put together a step by step project plan specificially designed around the build.

I hope this answered everything you have asked. Please feel free to contact if you have any further questions. I look forward to working with you Nelson!

Chrissie :-)

Dear Chrissie,

Your school has a very big population. Do you have some disabled children in your school? If so, have the architects provided for their accessibility?

Yours Sincerely,

Musenyente Elijah (Physically Disabled)
Chairman

Uganda Society of Hidden Talents (HITS).
P.O BOX 7304 Kampala- UGANDA
TEL: 256-71-839801
E-Mail: hiddtalents@yahoo.com

Hullo All

Thanks to the Uganda Society of Hidden for that grate contribution. You know we are in a period where we need to uplift the standards of the poeple who have been for so long marginalised.

Thanks for good plan.