Emmaloba community grant

I have mentioned before that we have a substatial grant from Rotary to enhance the school and community in Emmaloba. With an original grant we supplied uniforms, books and a feeding schedule for the school.

This larger grant is to supply computers to the school as well as incoming generating projects for the community.
The women's group here has been wonderfully faithful in paying back the small loans we started a few years ago. The 'chairlady' of the group told me what a difference the small loans have made in her life. She is a widow, 'But,' she says, ' I don't care any more, because I can look after myself'.' This group is now ready to form a recognized group (They call themselves: We have woken up) and handle their own finances and loan scheme. Our trainer, Alex, has met with them and will do so again to assist them in their organization. Charging interest (which they will have to do) is a troubling concept and Alex is guiding them through.
Last Saturday there was a large community meeting.Many of the people in the community have already formed groups and are trying to initiate projects to generate some income. We are happy at the basic initiative and determination shown, so we were able to apportion the funding from the Rotary grant into the projects that these communities already have and which correspond to the grant proposal. They will meet again next week with Alex. The rules we set were:1) arriving on time (one man arrived two hours late last week and was upset that his group did not receive a project) 2) majority of members of the group must be present(or the project will go to a 'waiting list' of groups.
We hope that the implementation of this grant might serve as a model for the smaller Rotary grants that will involve more than just handing out money or materials but will leave a sustainable legacy in a community.
The only part of the proposal that we have not yet followed up are the comnputers. The school is scheduled to receive power and the head teacher has innvolved the local MP in hastening the completion of the power line (Yes, MPs in Kenya can do that) If they have power we will be able to purchase more desk top computers instead of the solar panels intended to run laptops. We hope this will happen in the new year