Brainstorm ideas to cut the costs of school fees
Status: 
Step:
1
To increases enrollment and retention of children at the school, we need to brainstorm ideas to cut or eliminate the costs of school fees for the 350 students, with the help of scholarships or donations.
See attachments.
Hi all,
I have read through the information that Ken has attached, about teach a man to fish.
The information given therin is very helpful for projects that need ideas for developemnt.
please take time and read through.
Moses
--
Thank you and may the almight bless you!
Moses - hi - I was just speaking to Esther today and I wrote a letter to Tonny - how can it be that you have 350 orphans in your village - how big is it? To me that is just amazing. The first way is for parents or guardians to start making vegetable gardens the way Ken suggests. And to make 'no till' farms - they will increase their yield and profit by 3 times. Does anyone have any statistical background on the village? Why are the farmers not succeeding since this has been their livelihood through the ages? In some villages, I understand the men are too lazy to tend their fields. Are they not planting enough - some to eat - some to sell? We need to know what the problems are of a village before we can hope to address them. Do you have a committee who 'runs the village'? Do people vote them in and respect them? Will they listen to new ideas or do they continue to resist change? If so, it is important to be able to make them understand that they are starving because they continue to farm in the same old way. If they want to continue - fine. if they hope to make their lives better they must make changes - just like pioneers elsewhere. We did not succeed in having the farmers change their methods in kyomya - and I am very hesitant to try it elsewhere. The boys in Wakitaka have started a project, and I believe Eddy will also very soon. let's see how they do - and what knowledge they can pass onto you and other nearby villagers. If we can't prove it to the old timers, it is pointless in trying to get them to change. I wish you well -
--
Ginger :)
Hi Ginger,
I think the issue you have raised is very important, these guys are subsitent farmers, may i say those kind of farmers, who grow very little just for the sake of survival, in other words they do not have such big gardens to plant alot of crops or big chunks of land. The major issue that needs to be discussed here i think is how to deal with that small land for better production. Well, i may say others (but a few) have some good acres of land, but the majority is limited to only two to three or four gardens.
The other issue is that, no one, i think, has come up with a better way to utilize these gardens in a much productive way, because all they do is grow cassava from year to year, i think you get my point?
Do not hesitate to pass on your ideas, they might have not worked somewhere else, but that doesn't guarantee thet they won't what else where.
Moses
--
Thank you and may the almight bless you!
Hi again Moses! I am curious what the size of these 'small gardens' are - and only eating cassava cannot be good for your health - legumes are necessary, eggplant, tomatoes, etc. I am hoping that soon you will be able to travel to Wakitaka and see what Emma is doing - I believe their 'small garden' is much larger than yours - but maybe Eddy will try a small one - let us know what size your typical subsistence farmer plants and we can work from there.
One idea that I want to see what you think about is - these subsistence farmers - tending a tiny garden is maybe an hour a day of work. And probably their women do it!!! What do they do all day?? Maybe we can introduce the idea of 'share cropping'? it is how the poor began here in the U.S. They 'rent' the land from a farmer who has too much land for him to work - and then he pays the farmer by giving him some of the goods he harvests - therefore no one has to lay out money! it was how the American farmers began - so I think it is time to try it in Uganda. Are there some people who would be willing to let their 'standing alone' soil be worked by someone else??? Then we can talk about the 'no till' that you will learn from Eddy which is a much better way to plant.
--
Ginger :)
I knew I had seen this before - a real step-by-step for a small garden - probably requires a hand hose and scythe (probably can borrow) and need seeds for tomatoes, eggplant, cassava, lettuce, legumes. perhaps these to can be borrowed - but do let me know what the cost of seeds would be - I bet no more than $15-20 per farmer. You need to talk to some responsible, young men who are willing to give this a try - most importantly they must agree to NOT TILL the land, because it takes out the nutrients and makes the land wash away during monsoons. Follow the instructions below and I believe they will see a difference. The Will need to water in the morning and the afternoon - NOT during the sunny time:
hi from Malcolm!
It is good to note that you have started the kitchen compost heap.
Also the animal and polutry dropings are already fertiliser itself, butt needs to be prepared well so that it does not over fertilize the plants.
Once you have the people set and the plots for the farming do this:
1. Do raised beds 3m x 5m facing the rows north to south, so that you will have good sunshine as it rises from the east and sets in the west. The beds should be raised atleast 20cm with a pathway of 40cm in between each bed.
2. Clear any trees and shrubs from this raised bed and chop it up as finely as possible and throw it into the kitchen compost heap.
cut small plants and remove any flowers or seeds on weedsthrow away from the beds, rest of the weeds must be cut in level to the soil and left right were it is.
3. Mix the animals and poultry dropings with some sand ( mooist to form small marbles) and then put this into the furrows and cover with a little soil. Now you can put your seeds in these furrows and coverlightly with sand and the mulch ( weeds and grass, etc). Please water this bed twice a day once in the morning and late afternoon until the seeds have germinated and till they are strong.
4. make sure that you have proper spacings for the plants to grow healthy.
5. By this time you should have completed your drip irrigation system providinh water tp plants as the sun rises.
6. Clear any weeds that may grow on the beds.
7. After 2 weeks of germination, fertilize once again with the animal and poulty dropings mixed with some sand next to each plant.
Tips:When providing water, never water plants in mid day or evening, as this will cause stress to the plants and cause fungal diseases on the plant. Always water in the early mornings no matter how hot the day will be.
Chicken and animal dropings on their own, is very powerful for plants and has to be mixed up with sand before applying, as a rule you will use 3 handfuls of this per square meter.
Collect wood fire ash and use as a natural source of potassium for the plants, sprinkle this on the soil or mix with the animal and poultry dropings with sand. Hint, use 1 handful to 10 kgs of mixture.
a handful of wood ash mixed in 5l of water and left over night to settle is an ideal general fungacide and insecticide sprayed over plants.
Plant garlic, marigold or nasturims around the beds as a natural insect reppeler.
Crush garlic and marigold plants together and use this in 5l of water to spray onto plants as a natural insectide.
--
Ginger :)
Hello Ginger,
The situation am trying to narrate to you here specifically apply for serere village, i don not know what happnes in mawoito village, i think the best person to talk about mawoito would Tonny mulambe.
As for the the question, why these people grow mostly cassva is;
1. The soils favour cassava growth
2. Cassava is higly in market for commercial purposes, it is the crop they grow to earn a living.
3. since the gardens are small, less than an acre, it becomes a bit difficult to partition this piece of land for other crops, but i think the idea you rasied up there has never been tried, these people do not use that kind of knowledge, if it is worth a try, but how??
If the farmers can get to this kind of agricultural practice, of course with start up kits, since water sources are not near, and the other thing is that some families have oxen for ploughing...
I don't know how one would do it, but i think you can start by giving u the ideas.
BE welcome
Moses
--
Thank you and may the almight bless you!
--I am glad once again to share my ideas with any one concerned in regards to this challenge and hope it makes sense to you. Though money may not be needed to make a change, but it is required to cause a difference. In schools management if i am asked whether funds are required? The obvious answer is yes. Then should we say eliminate costs to make schooling free? What about paying teachers? and meeting the daily school operations? Well, I would therefore say before considering any of that, that a school should have a system. The marketing department should be strong and providing quality education will help no matter where the school's location students will join and ready to pay, because will know why they have to.
However, it is also very important consideration not to over charge. When you make every thing free in schools the community will forget its responsibility. My living example is the Universal primary education in Uganda. Before, this policy parents used to pay for their children and looking after them well, but ever since, children are going to schools hungry, without uniforms, pens, pencils, books, extra. At my village Kasaka there is Kasaka primary school. This is a huge school Aided by the government of Uganda. There is a peace corp volunteer working with the school and manged to secure them some funds to renovate the school that has not had such renovation for the past 20 years i guess. This is a co-funding and the parents are asked each to pay three thousand Uganda shillings but failed and if they don't meet the donor's deadline they are going to miss the the help. I conclude by saying that it is important to make the community or others responsible having a share in their projects. In this case i would not support the elimination of fees.
Kenneth