Three critical elements must be primarily addressed in the Busengo area:
- The high school drop-out rate of primary students
- The dire socio-economic situation of many young single mothers
- The improvement of families’ economic perspectives
The project therefore plans to implement actions to help overcome these critical issues. Features common to each action include:
- Full decision-making responsibility is given to the community itself, through the establishment of a steering and monitoring committee, composed of representatives of both local community groups (women groups, notably) and representatives of the local parish.
- Detailed accounting of investments and results achieved.
- Periodic auditing by the SPOT program team
- Progressive implementation and tuning of actions, guided by results
According to the above, a preliminary phase has been launched, aimed at first testing of two different actions and of the associated models.
START-UP PHASE (DECEMBER 2023-AUGUST 2024)
1. Micro-finance loans
In order to support the self-sufficiency and economic independence of families, the SPOT project is co-financing the local collective savings scheme, which offers microcredit loans to to families in need. Approximately, the initial SPOT project contribution allowed for a doubling of community savings, significantly accelerating the achievement of goals.
Loans will be granted on a case-by-case evaluation. As part of the application for the loans, the families have to present their chosen micro-credit investment plan to the steering committee , and with that demonstrate how they will spend the funds and generate a sustainable income from the scheme in the future.
25% of the loan will have to be paid back to the micro-credit scheme, so that other families can benefit from similar opportunities in the future. The local parish will manage the micro-credit scheme and ensure the payments are done according to the agreement stipulated.
Sponsors supporting the micro-credit scheme in the preliminary phase will receive detailed accounting and investments results.
2. Primary school drop-out prevention campaign
In order to try to prevent further school-drop out in the academic year 2023-2024 in the sector of Busengo, during the preliminary phase we are supporting selected families that are struggling financially to keep their child in school. The SPOT project is also supporting educational tutors in seven schools that will ensure that the selected students get the help and support needed to continue their education. The tutors will also monitor the project’s performance, by caring about the supported kids, checking their attendance and identifying as early as possible any problem with their schooling.
The local committee will on an ongoing basis identify the students that could benefit from scholarships and where extraordinary economic challenges are faced by the family these will be highlighted. For this purpose, the committee is working very closely with the representatives from the various local primary and secondary schools.
The scholarship granted to the students in the preliminary phase will cover the mandatory fees requested by the school for the students to benefit from the lunch programme, as well as cover any expenses school related expenses such as schoolbooks and other material. The tutors will be rewarded with 80 Eur per year (roughly equivalent to an extra month’s salary) and their action will ensure prompt control over the project development.
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FULL PROGRAM (starting SEPTEMBER 2024)
The feedback received from the preliminary phase will allow to optimize the design of the models to be eventually adopted, starting from September 2024.
All the students that will have benefitted from the scholarships in the preliminary phase will be given an opportunity to continue to benefit from scholarships, and will not be abandoned. Extension of the scholarships toward secondary, vocational and boarding schools will be taken into account.
The micro-financing scheme will be tuned according to the lessons learnt in the preliminary phase.
Also, plans for the implementation of a safe place for vulnerable women will be developed, possibly in cooperation with other funding agencies. Such “House of Good Will” will provide such women with an opportunity to get back on their feet, by receiving the necessary training and support to be able to start an income-generating activity that can sustain themselves and their children (tailoring or butchering programme, possibly other in the future). In a broader sense, the house will enable training activities aimed at youth as well and will serve as a gathering place for the community.
