Key people: Timothy and Janepher Kakooza
We spent just over a day with Timothy and Janepher and had a great opportunity to catch up with them. They are both in good health and doing well. In April their daughter Jireh, who got married about two years ago, gave birth to a daughter so they are Meze (grandfather) and Jaja (grandmother). Their second daughter Mighty got married in November last year. Mighty and their other daughter Joy are both actively involved in the school administration. Joy helps with the finances and Mighty does a lot of the general administration. Their son Samuel is finishing university in Kampala this year and will join them in the ministry next year. We also met Timothy’s dad who was being looked after at the hotel property. He is 86 and had recently been sick so was recovering with them. He is a Muslim man but clearly grateful for being looked after so well.
The school has grown considerably. The roll is up from 674 last year to 738 now with 253 in boarding. They have a partially finished classroom block which will give them six more classrooms, four are already occupied. The floors are made of dirt and this is causing problems for some of the children as there are jiggers (insects which burrow into the feet) in the dust. The classroom block was funded by a church in Minnesota. We understand that it needs further capital to be finished but it was not clear whether there would be further funds from the U.S. to do this.
The photos show one of the new classrooms (right) and the new latrine (below).
The school is in good heart and there are now 48 staff as well.
On the lower part of the school site there are seven cows and three calves. The cows are milked each day by Emmanuel, one of the pastors, and the milk is used to supplement the feeding of the children. There are also crops grown on land owned by Timothy and Janepher about 5 kms from Katosi trading centre, which are used to supplement the feeding.
Unfortunately the first rains did not come this year and although there has now been some rain, it has not been much. Last year Janepher planted passionfruit and was expecting a good and fruitful harvest but this did not eventuate as the vines dried up and died because of the drought. It also affected their sweet potato crop. This year they have planted pineapple because although it takes longer to ripen it is a drought resistant and high value crop.
There has been some limited uptake on Foundations for Farming but it is small. Janepher has been using the principles and Emmanuel, who is now pastoring his own satellite church in a trading centre nearer Mukono, is still doing it. However it is clear that the drought has really affected a lot of people and that there has not been a lot of uptake in this area. We are unsure the extent to which Timothy is really ‘behind’ it or sees its potential but last year Emmanuel reported very encouraging results on his 3 acres of land.
Because we were only in Katosi for 24 hours we were not able to interview any of the teachers or other people involved in the ministry, with the exception of Davis.
Davis is employed by Centenary Bank and is involved in micro-loans. He works in that section of the bank and has a good knowledge of micro-loan programmes. A few years ago we raised the possibility with Timothy and himself and left them to come up with a proposal which we could then evaluate. For a range of reasons this did not eventuate. It now looks like they will make a proposal in the near future which will start with the church and will mainly be targeted at women who will form small mutual support groups. We found Davis to be engaging and very well informed in this area. We made it clear that we would want him to visit with one of our other partners first to see how their programme worked. We think that if this proposal is a good one, BHW should fund a small loan programme here.
This is always a little difficult to gauge in Katosi. Our observation over several years is that Timothy is an extremely influential man with a broad vision and respected in his community. This perception has not changed this time. In fact the ministry is growing both in Katosi and Mbale Village.
We spent a lot of time exploring with Timothy in particular things which could be utilised to help the school become more self-sustaining over time. There were some very good discussions around four possibilities:
1) Real estate - buying, selling and developing.
2) A maize grinding mill and business purchasing and selling primary produce.
3) A micro-loan programme
4) The purchase of event tents which would be hired out at a profit. Apparently there is good demand in this area.
There is some type of small scale table loan programme working among the teachers and Timothy therefore does not want any micro-loan programme to include the teachers as they already have something which is helping to supplement incomes.
The only other brief discussion which we had with Timothy was around a possible proposal which was going to be made on behalf of the Christian Schools Association of which he is one of the leaders in Southern Uganda. There is a real need for good curriculum resources to assist in teaching the next generation of Ugandans.
The biggest issue is how this school could ever hope to become self-sustaining. However this time Timothy definitely understood the change in focus that BHW is bringing. As he framed it in our discussion there is a tension between the growth in the school and the increasing need for resources, and the fact that it will take some time for income generation strategies to start to make a difference. It is important to note that there are now more staff, and also many many more mouths to feed. The budget for food now runs at US$10,555 per quarter, without the supplement from the food which is being grown, and the milk. BHW presently supports $4,000 of this.
In Timothy’s words "they need more ... of everything!”
It is noteworthy however that they are both growing food for the school and supplementing feeding with milk from the cows which are encouraging signs. On the negative side is the massive increase in the cost of staple foods. Drought, refugees and food needs from neighbouring countries have meant that the cost of some staples has doubled (or more than doubled) in the last year.
The school also needs a new girls latrine and new girls dormitory.
Timothy has come up with a great idea though and is going to put a proposal through. There is currently no maize grinding mill in Katosi and there is definitely a need for one. It would undoubtedly produce income for the school and assist it in becoming self-sustaining over time. His proposal is likely to include the cost of a mill (which we think should be a loan) and assistance to buy the first maize inputs. This idea has some real strength to it and if anyone can make it work Timothy can.
We had direct, clear discussions about BHW's direction of sustainability, sustainable growth and developing income generation to support the school into the future. Our sense was that he heard and was engaged in ways we have not experienced in the past. It will be interesting to see what occurs.
This year it has been pretty much business as usual with a lot of growth but unfortunately the resources don’t seem to be there to handle it at present, particularly because of the drought and difficulties faced by Timothy and Janepher as a result.
The vision here continues to exceed the resources available and we felt that this is putting considerable strain on what is going on here. Timothy and Janepher are in good heart and Janepher said that it was making a great difference having Mighty and Joy assisting in the school and taking the pressure off them.
We have made it clear that Bright Hope World cannot support unlimited growth and if Timothy and Janepher want the school to grow larger then generating some income themselves is essential (they have no other external financial support which assists with the teachers’ salaries or with the feeding).