Pink Floyd, money and Abana

What do you do with money? You spend it, you save it to spend it later, or you save it for the sake of saving it. Should Abana spend now or save for later? In my view, it should spend now and raise more funds for later...
I knew I would be criticised for giving a book and a pen only to the children who had none, who were possibly (but not necessarily) the poorest among the poor. Everything done to help will have some ideological implications, some implied strategy and will always be seen as unfair by some. So, where and how to start spending Abana money? If I have a flat tyre on my car, do I replace all four tyres in the name of fairness? Do I focus on the most needy one? A lot of money could be spent at Rugerero Primary, a lot has been spent on the walls and roofs already. That was the easy bit. It has been done efficiently. Now, what’s next? How should we spent extra funding?
The long term and sustainable priority should be: V and pay the teachers more reasonably and it will make an immediate difference on the quality of the education provided (see my ‘letter to the President’). Would it be the role of Abana to increase the salaries of teachers (currently working from 7:00AM to 4:45 PM for 45 US$ a month), so they consider staying at the school and regard primary school teaching as a career? The ramifications of such a move would be enormous. Perhaps some form of ‘scholarships’ could be devised? This idea of financial reward for providers of education is a very important issue...
A school should have books – a library. I have already been approached by many teachers and a few senior pupils: ‘please we need books, we need English dictionaries, we need simple English ‘readers’, we need more textbooks and books for teachers. I could easily spend a couple of thousand dollars here. Could books be donated from Australia and send here? Please investigate that possibility...
We need a few hundred dollars to maintain and / or repair a few things around the school. There is a huge hole in one of the classroom roofs and it is going to rain every day soon (pouring equatorial rain fell yesterday). WE need to fix this urgently. I have asked the management of the school to do so. The usual answer: ‘we don’t have enough money’. They are not lying.
Classrooms are very dark. No electricity, no glass on the window, so shutters have to be closed to protect from rain or the wind. Replacing the sheets of corrugated iron by see-through panels would make a huge difference.
This should not preclude from bringing electricity to the school. I have looked into this and have sent a quote to do such a job to the Abana committee through its president. The quote is in your court!!! This would make a huge impact in the development of Rugerero Primary. A few computers could be brought in, one printer perhaps a small photocopying machine. Internet access would be possible...
The staffroom / teaching resource room will need expanding: more shelves, one cupboard will be required to store all the teaching material which is currently so badly lacking and which also need to be purchased.
Similarly, if we want the headmistress to do a proper management job, she needs to have a proper office from which to operate. She would need to invest in a few items of office equipment (a proper desk, a filing cabinet, shelves, files, folders, a stapler... just to name a few
What to do with the children who come to school barefoot, with no pens, notebooks, in ragged clothes? Do we help them? Do we provide all the children with a school uniform or just the destitute ones? (Do we change the four tyres or just the flat one?). Such uniforms could easily be made locally through the ‘sewing project’ that Sister Josephine has set up. I have discussed this with her already. It had been done in some other local schools. This would cost about 5000$ for 600 uniforms (school population = 1600).
So money can easily be spent. We all know that! Would this be long lasting, sustainable and generative help or would it just be short lived, beautiful fireworks? I always come back to the issue of solid school management working with a small group of dedicated people working closely with Abana Australia and monitoring any help provided.
As for me, I have less than two months here...
‘Allo, Houston, can you hear me?’
If you have any idea how to help please contact the President of the Aban committee through their website www.abana.org.au.
I also welcome any comment from any reader of this blog on my blog. It does help me ... At least I don’t need any money!