Dear Supporters and Friends,
The month of September has been long and hard this year as our usual funding was not available. In July, we requested an advance of $7,000 USD from A More Balanced World (AMBW) to cover some urgent needs, such as past due school staff salaries and food for the students. AMBW was kind enough to give the advance, but all the August donations were needed to pay it back. Although it was painful to receive nothing in September, we truly appreciate AMBW for coming to our rescue when we needed them the most.
As none of our other partner organizations in Canada and Germany were able to wire funds, we were forced to rely on Plan B: income from the Dancing Heart K’ Bakery (currently being rebranded to Karen’s Kitchen Bakery due to name legality issues). Some contributions from parents also helped, as well as some emergency funding wired directly to us by one of our supporters in the United States.
In July, we had asked for a small loan from one of our supporters, Alison Harrower, to boost the bakery production and sales. Little did we know at the time how badly the bakery would be needed for the unforeseen crisis ahead. We literally drained the bakery’s resources throughout September. At the conclusion of this email, I’ve included our hopes for strengthening it as our plan B venture, to help in times of crisis.
We do not have much news to report about Portland schools in Amor village and Titan School in Jinja, but continuous assessments are going on well. We also received feedback from the students last week as they marked two weeks in school from the holidays they spent with their families. The majority of them are happy to be back in school; they mentioned that school food is better than home food and that they had missed their teachers and friends at school.
In mid-September, we received visitors from Globewise, a Netherlands charity that focuses primarily on supporting a variety of projects in primary, secondary and vocational education in developing countries. They visited Portland schools, Titan school and the bakery. It was a two day visit and the community welcomed them with lots of enthusiasm, joy and excitement. One of our longtime supporters, PJ, recommended this visit to them. We hope it will yield some support for the vulnerable young people we serve, especially those in Portland schools.
Although we have not registered many achievements in September, we have gained a lot from the experience and challenges that encompassed us throughout the month. We have more confidence, resilience, and courage to face the future with positivity. We are also very hopeful that the month of October will be one of the best months of our operations since the inception of PCE Foundation – just the opposite of what we have been through in September.
To conclude this newsletter, I would like to return to the subject of the bakery. It saved us in September, but the resources are now depleted and the equipment is worn out. We would like to ask for help in making it a fully-functional bakery again to create sustainable income generation and provide a vocational training program for the out-of-school vulnerable youths.
To revive the bakery and make it functional once more, we need:
- A 2-chamber Oven – USD $2,892.22
- A 50Kg Dough Mixer – USD $2,624.82
- 72 baking tins of various sizes – USD $294.67
- 30 baking trays (cooling racks) – USD $204.63
- Training manuals, kits, uniforms, packaging – USD $1,309.68
- A generator or solar solution USD $9,917.35
The total amount needed for this project is USD $17,243.37. We hope that support is available to make the bakery a viable Plan B once again, in case of future need.
Thank you for taking the time to read our monthly newsletters. We hope that you will share them with others who might be interested in supporting our work as that is an easy way you can help us keep going. We need your expertise, feedback, encouragements and any constructive ideas that can help us fulfill our vision and mission: to have empowered communities that can take charge of their own development; to enhance knowledge and skills within rural communities, and to promote the exchange of information and best practices through education, mentorship, advocacy and strategic partnerships for social, cultural and economic development. We seek to break the cycle of poverty and empower communities to take charge of their own developments.
Watch out for our October updates!