Define the Project for Zabef (Closed Discussion)
Status: 
Step:
1
Here is where, along with the Local Representative and a Project Manager, the project of Zabef will be defined into steps and tasks for the Neighbours to work on.
More information on the project has been attached. A couple of project definition techniques which can be used for defining the project of the Village have also been uploaded.
Attached files:
Dear Pastor Fred and Noel,
In follow up to the email sent this morning to the both of you, the discussion space here is now open for you to prepare the tasks for the village.
Once you are done with the tasks, please let me know and I'll upload them to the project.
I'll check in once in a while, but if you need anything, don't hesitate to contact me via email or by leaving a message here.
Good luck!
Romina
Dear Pastor Fred,
How are you? How did the day go? I have seen that you have been having a lovely weather around Jinja (not too warm, not too cold), isn't it?
I have read thoroughly the information provided and, before starting to post proposals or ideas, I would appreciate if you could further clarify a couple of things.
Regarding resources, you mention that the following is available:
-We have LAND where to build the school.
-We have the building for computer training.
-We have already registered our organization as NGO in the government of Uganda so we are protected with no interference from any body.
-We have the Board which can guide us in what to do.
Could you please specify:
- How much land is there available? Is it attached to the building?
- Does the building have any kind of facilities (electricity, water, etc)?
- Where is the building located? Is it in a village, in the suburbs or in the countryside?
- Could you develop a bit further about the Board of Directors? What is their background (more or less) and preparation? What is their commitment to the project (money, time, etc)?
I saw your website, and must admit that I am fascinated. The design looks clean, professional and complete. Besides that, you even have implemented a donation tool. Not a bad job at all!
Could you let me know how is it working? Have you received any donations so far? What's the current income of the project? (you can send me this information by email, if you prefer)
In any case, I see that you have already a great starting point with achievements that are, many times, difficult to reach. This should help us moving further and getting support from external sources.
Let's move forward from here, on!
Thanks in advance for your answers!
Best Regards,
Noel
Dear Noel,
Thank you so much for the great and wonderful question really they come from your Heart and show same one who wants to help others. I am doing well and my wife she is well plus the children we are caring for.
In Jinja is very lovely place and most of people world wide live it because of weather being average I hope you may understand me well and I very open to you dear and I believe I have got you the same open.
Thank you so much for reading the information I sent and that one on the website this is very great for me and the ministry in Uganda
Question and Answers:
1-How much land is there available? Is it attached to the building?
We have two (2) Acers of Land and not attached to the building.
2-- Does the building have any kind of facilities (electricity, water, etc)?
The building has no any kind of facilities.
3-- Where is the building located? Is it in a village, in the suburbs or in the countryside?
The Building is located in near by town of Jinja.
4-- Could you develop a bit further about the Board of Directors? What is their background (more or less) and preparation? What is their commitment to the project (money, time, etc)?
The organizational structure of Gidcco is as shown below;
(1) General Assembly is composed of;
-Board members
-Staff
-Church Leaders
-Guardians
(2) Board of Directors is composed of 7 members who are:
1-Chairperson- Dr Magumba M.Godfry. is doctor by profession and is good at advising
2-V/Chairman- Nasani Nabanji is Farmer , he helps to chair meetings when the children is not around.
3-Sectary - Susan Musilike she is sectary to Nakanyonyi girls primary school she helps in sectary work part time .
4-treasurer - shirimi Musomesa she is accountant Walukaba Primary school,
5-Member -Pastor Oundo Milton is self employed helps were it needs him work physically
6-Member -Mr:Tenya Waiswa is self employed
7-Members -Matthew Mususwa is peasant
(3) Management Committee which is Headed by Executive Director (Pastor Fred Mwanje) Fulltime in the ministry and assisted by head of departmental who are:
1-Directors Evangelism -Pastor Okecho David is doing spiritual part of it in Children volunteers.
2-Director Social Serves.- Pastor Paul is working voluntary
Could you let me know how is it working? Have you received any donations so far? What's the current income of the project? (you can send me this information by email, if you prefer)
Thanks first of all website of Gidcco is a gift from same one called Jack to the organization GIDCCO well we have put the ways of same one can send the support but only few people have sent support through western Union to support children feeding and sponsorship to 5 children each $25 for each Month and it’s now 6 month.
My brother Noel thanks for the encouragements and the truth is I don’t know much but I need your advices mostly so that we can grow from this step to others, just feel free with me and share with me what is on your Heart.
God bless Pastor Fred
Dear Pastor Fred,
Thanks a lot for the detailed answer. I strongly believe it is very important to have clear from the beginning where do we stand and, before trying to find resources outside of the organization, we should try to squeeze (in the good sense of the word, don't missunderstand me!) the existing members and power their expertise in order to obtain the best results.
In that sense, just to recap, our ultimate (long term) objectives, as you describe them in the document, are the following:
-We expects to get friends who can advice.
-We expects to get naibours to Volunteers in our ministry in Uganda and lend us their power to teach,advice and help where possible.
-We expects to get used computers from our friends through nabuur.
Those are, as mentioned, long term goals and, in order to achieve those (and many others that will complement them), we should start defining mid- or short-term tasks that will slowly let us arrive there. In any case, I assure you that the first of them will soon get accomplished! You will find many friends around here, specially if they see your dedication!
Summarizing:
- GIDCCO, and Zabef, have an awesome website. This is an important step already, as most projects lack this at the beginning.
- You have 7 members in the board of directors that seem well capable of managing a school. Let's try to find their strengths and weaknesses. We will then . For example, it could be that Mr. Nabanji would prefer to use his expertise in order to teach agriculture and farming to the kids, or that Mr. Godfry can help organizing HIV senibilization tasks. In any case, we will arrive to that later.
- The three members of the Management Committee, including yourself, have the responsibility of leading all the operations. You should, of course, work very closely with Mr. Godfry and the rest of the team. With his medical expertise he should be a valuable resource to develop health plans and educate the kids and the community.
- GIDCCO has land available. This could be used (if you dont do it alread) for farming or in order to grow plants. The older children could support this, in order to help making Zabef autosustainable.
- No electricity or water are available in the building. Before thinking about computers, obtaining this should be a first priority. We have to find ways to access to water and to get a generator, at least.
In that sense, I see several threads, to start with:
- With a sponsoring program active, we should use Nabuur's neighbors in order to attract visitors and donors, of course, to the site. Besides that, we should find ways to keep the website updated and 'alive'. A marketing campaign is needed.
- As mentioned, in order to educate children properly, we need to have facilities. We need to create a plan in order to obtain 1) a power generator and 2) access to water
- We should not only depend on external money. The website can help but Zabef should do its best in order to avoid depending on external sources. To achieve this, we must investigate how to make use of the land you got (animals, fruits, vegetables, etc)
- In the same line, other income sources must be found. This should be arranged in a way that we cover two purposes (education/occupation + getting money). For example, some of the widows could sew and sell their creations. If you think they currently don't have the education, then an extra task would be finding people to teach them those skills.
Some more questions, then:
- Are you currently using the extra land in some way?
- What is the building used for, right now? Could you please detail a bit more how big it is, rooms, etc.?
- You mentioned you have one computer. How do you power it?
- In the website I see a number of Development Programs. If it's not too much effort, could you write a short document explaining what's the current status of each of them?
I think that, with the points above and once everything is answered, we should be able to start creating the guidelines for a Project Plan. The next big step.
Thanks a lot for reading till the end!! Such a long message! :)
I hope to hear from you soon!
Warm Regards,
Noel
Ps: From Saturday on, I will be unable to get online for two weeks. If you manage to answer before Friday evening I will try to answer back, in order to prepare the conversation for once I am back.
Are you currently using the extra land in some way?
We are currently using the piece of land for subsistence agriculture (for food purpose). We haven’t put it into bigger use, but we have prospects of building a school for the orphans on that land, in case we find enough funds. You may give any suggestion for now on how best you think we should use it!!
- What is the building used for, right now? Could you please detail a bit more how big it is, rooms, etc.?
The building we have is basically for rental purposes now, i.e. we decided to have people rent it, this has been helping in terms of generation of small income.
The building, to be precise is 12x12 ft. single roomed house. Asbestos roofed, with no power, small windows, timber made doors.
- You mentioned you have one computer. How do you power it?
I use a small generator; of about 110 volts.
- In the website I see a number of Development Programs. If it's not too much effort, could you write a short document explaining what's the current status of each of them?
• The heart of God nursery school so far has three classes running fully, with teachers.
• The widows project is still crippling, the activities they curry out are quite many though not on market, hand craft, as you know most communities are poor. They only get a chance to market their products on occasion of visits by tourists and other well placed people.
• Vocational training has started but at a very low rate due to lack of machinery and power.
• Piggery project is running on quite well!! We have given out at least 5 five pigs to five widows.
• For now, that’s it!!
Warm regards,
Pastor Fred
Dear Pastor Fred,
After reading again our last conversations, it seems we have already some points in order to start defining the project plan and tasks for Zabef.
In that sense, from my point of view, the following points should be discussed further and, ultimately, solved:
- Probably the most important point is to obtain facilities, such as a power generator and access to water. A plan is needed for this.
- Find sources of volunteers willing to travel to Zabef in order help the community ‘physically’ and help GIDCCO organizing themselves;
- Set up of an ICT training centre. This can have several goals, such as using the computers in order to train the local villagers, as well as offering internet connectivity and create extra funds for the organization, among others;
- Increase the reach and impact of the existing website and sponsoring program. Creation of a marketing campaign.
- Find ways of using the existing land in order to generate revenues;
- Find alternative sources of revenues (commercializing handcrafted products, internet café, nursing, etc)
From your point of view, as expert in the local community and people of Zabef, could you try to prioritize those tasks and talk about the feasibility of the same, considering your existing resources and income? I will then give you my feedback about it based on your suggestions.
Could you also tell me the following:
- What’s the current income that GIDCCO produces? Do you have any savings?
- How much time per week (in average) can you, the management committee and the rest of the board of directors employ in helping developing the community?
- Are the development programs producing any money or are they offered for free to the members of the community?
- From my understanding, Jinja is one of the touristic centers in Uganda due to its location. In that sense, it may be possible to take advantage of that in order to create employment and, of course, extra income for the organization. Are the activities of GIDCCO located near the Nile, sailing club, Gandhi’s memorial or the golf course, among others?
- Where do you have the pigs? Are you planning to increase its number by making them breed with each other?
I look forward to hear from you!!
Warm regards,
Noel
Thank you for your reply to the message I sent you the last time we discussed,
I have tried to list the possible answers to the questions you raised and I hope this will help to elevate us to the next level. I may not exhaust all that you may have needed but please be free to comment.
Probably the most important point is to obtain facilities, such as a power generator and access to water. A plan is needed for this.
According to this statement, you probably are trying to enquire on how the power generator is going to be run and the possible aspects in the way of maintaining and running costs.
Once the generator has been received, we plan to use it for the ICT section, running probably 20 computers in a day, of course that can only work if the computers are available, but as for now, we do not have that number, in fact we have managed only to get one more computer.
We are planning to connect Umeme (Electric Power) to the training facilities in the course of time when and as the funds are got. For, the cost of running the power generator is high. If chance shows up, we have a plan to introduce solar panels since these regulate power to a certain extent.
As for the case of access to water, regarding the conditions at the moment, the only feasible access to water can be the boreholes and piped water, this is for the case of the village and town respectively, as you may know Zabef is partly in town and partly in the near by village where access to piped water is almost a myth.
Find sources of volunteers willing to travel to Zabef in order help the community ‘physically’ and help GIDCCO organizing themselves;
As for volunteers, these may help in terms of teaching in the ICT section, volunteer in psycho-social work in terms of advising and encourage the affected person (orphans and widows), and any other form of training that they may be willing to offer. As you know we have no accommodation, so they may have to accommodate them selves, feed etc.
Set up of an ICT training centre. This can have several goals, such as using the computers in order to train the local villagers, as well as offering internet connectivity and create extra funds for the organization, among others;
The point listed in the question actually suffice.
Increase the reach and impact of the existing website and sponsoring program. Creation of a marketing campaign.
We are willing to add a few things in the website but then that would involve talking to the sponsors of the website whether they can be in position to add a few things, but if possible, another site at nabuur can be of great help along side the exiting one. Could you possibly have a better view about that?
Find ways of using the existing land in order to generate revenues;
Possibly we can use the land for setting up a poultry farm and increase the number of pigs as well. This can cost about 30 million Uganda shillings for about 1500 chicks, this much can only cater for he purchase of chicks at a cost of 2000 shs per chick.
Find alternative sources of revenues (commercializing handcrafted products, internet café, nursing, etc)
Actually that is what our widows can do and do, but the biggest problem is that the raw materials needed for this kind of work are quite expensive for these widows, training costs, and the only available market is from the tourists who do not of course visit every day.
From your point of view, as expert in the local community and people of Zabef, could you try to prioritize those tasks and talk about the feasibility of the same, considering your existing resources and income? I will then give you my feedback about it based on your suggestions.
As I had said earlier, we have very limited funds, in fact we haven’t received any funds from any organization as of now. In fact we struggle very much to see that we can get funds from donors but as you may know it is not very easy to get them. However, we can only implement all these point listed when we have had the funds, but as for now, we do not have any available funds.
What’s the current income that GIDCCO produces? Do you have any savings?
No, we do not have sources of income for gidcco, meaning we have no savings.
How much time per week (in average) can you, the management committee and the rest of the board of directors employ in helping developing the community?
Four days in a week is what we can handle. In this case, not all the board members participate in doing this, but a few selected individuals.
Are the development programs producing any money or are they offered for free to the members of the community?
These programs are free, in fact every service that we offer to the community is free.
As for the piggery section. Yes it produces income, but this is not for the ministry, every money goes direct to the widows.
From my understanding, Jinja is one of the touristic centers in Uganda due to its location. In that sense, it may be possible to take advantage of that in order to create employment and, of course, extra income for the organization. Are the activities of GIDCCO located near the Nile, sailing club, Gandhi’s memorial or the golf course, among others?
No, we are about 10 kilometers form the nile, and the other tourist centers.
Where do you have the pigs? Are you planning to increase its number by making them breed with each other?
The pigs are in Mayuge and Zabef. Yes increase is mostly in line with mating. But in case funds are availed, then we can purchase more.
Well I believe those will help.
Thank you once again, wating to hear from you again.
Best regards.
Pastor Fred.
Dear Pastor Fred,
Following up with the conversation above, I believe we have then some clear points with which to start the project including more neighbors.
From my point of view, the initial tasks should be:
Step 1
- Search for Organizations willing to donate a power generator and/or solar pannels.
- Develop a marketing plan in order to increase the impact of the website
- Help find ways to obtain classroom materials needed for ICT training
- Find ways to use the existing land in order to generate revenues
Step 2
- Create alternative sources of revenues (commercializing handcrafted products, internet café, nursing, farming...)
- Find sources of volunteers willing to teach onsite the community of Zabef
Step 3
- Connect GIDCCO to the world! Grant internet connection to the community.
I would assume that, during the development of step 2, the funds obtained should be asigned in order to construct a shelter where computers will be placed and trainings will take place. In any case, this deployment shall be managed by GIDCCO, that's why I don't include it as a task for Nabuur.
In that sense, I would suggest to open the project in order to let other volunteers collaborate and offer their support and active help. I will coordinate this with Romina.
Please, let me know if you think I am missing any point.
Warm Regards,
Noel