Board: Mw. J. du Bois-Minholts, president
Mw. L.M. Kuijer, secretary
Mw. R. van der Kroef, treasurer
Website: http://ileavache.blogspot.com/
Email address: reinhildevdk@gmail.com
Bank : NL06TRIO 0391025457
Address: Jensemaheerd 147, 9736CK Groningen, The Netherlands
Telephone: + 31 654786602
RSIN: 8555.41.143
The project in numbers
|
Tested in 2015 |
98 |
|
Qualified in group A |
20 |
|
Group A (adjusted¹) by 2021 |
18 |
|
Admitted 2015/2016 |
6 |
|
Admitted 2016/2017 |
3 |
|
Admitted 2017/2018 |
4 |
|
Admitted 2018/2019 |
3 |
|
Admitted 2019/2020 |
2 |
|
Total admitted by December 2020 |
18 |
|
Still awaiting admittance group A |
0 |
|
Graduates 2016 |
3 |
|
Graduates 2017 |
4 |
|
Graduates 2018 |
3 |
|
Graduated 2019 |
3 |
|
Graduated 2020 |
1 |
|
Graduated 2021 |
2 |
|
Graduated 2022 |
1 |
|
Total graduates by 2022 |
17 |
|
Expected graduate by 2025 |
1 |
|
Total to be graduated by 2025 |
18 |
|
Group B 2015 (not qualified) |
44 |
|
Group B adjusted by final 2018 |
29¹ |
¹ Due to migration, death, illness, not yet finished secondary school, study does not fit in our goals
Who, what, where, how?
A. The general goal of our Foundation is to fund as of 2015 during 5 years, the vocational schooling of maximum 10 students per year. We decided to keep up our program once more in the year 2025 for the last student that is still in. This concerns – due to delays because of the pandemic, the earthquake and riots – still 1 student. She finished her thesis in June 2024. But, since the central government in Port au Prince is misfunctioning/closed down, due to the anarchy and violence in Port au Prince, graduation has (so far) not been possible. We have to wait until things in Port au Prince are going to function again.
B. Funding of our project is mainly found in our personal social network. But after 9 years, in which many of our sponsors have been contributing loyally, and the fact that we are now fading out with the educational project, some important sponsors have decided to stop. There is still enough money left for the last student to graduate. The startup-branch is still trying to survive the setback of the draught in the season 2023/4. When necessary, we might try to find specific funds for a clearly circumscribed and one-time project connected to our startup.
C. We discovered that in spite of the good diploma’s they acquired, our students do not find regular jobs, and for that reason we extended our goal in 2020 to help our graduates to a job/income, preferably by founding 1 or more (small) businesses in which they can become partners or workers.
D. We want to help our graduates to become self-employed, which we consider with our actual knowledge of Haitian society the only way for them to create a perspective to a more or less regular income and economic independency. We wanted to concentrate this in 1 or more (small) businesses, for which the initiative had to come from themselves with our support. The plan should be
1. realistic (taking into account Haitian possibilities and limitations),
2. it should be based on some kind of a marketing research to convince sponsors of its future creditworthiness,
3. it should preferably use skills they acquired during their training and
4. it should lead to some sort of regular income.
In order to realize this, our ex-student and former trainee business administration started up a banana plantation (see our yearly report 2023), which was looking very promising and in conformity with our set goals (1-4 above). Regretfully this time it was climate change and EL Niño, causing exceptional draught in the first months of 2024, as observed for example by the World Food Program: “Rainfall conditions during the dry season (December to March) were relatively close to average, but have worsened in March with most of the country showing rainfall deficits, at a time when land preparation and planting for the main growing season are starting.'[1]. This situation caused an immense setback. Even the well has dried up recently so that about 75% of the plants have died and the part that is still there, lacked much behind to bear fruit. For this reason, the expected harvest from the surviving plants for 2024 had to be postponed over half a year. The remaining plants will sprout in due time and thus create new plants.
April 2024: ¾ of the plants died due to draught
By the end of 2024 the first fruits ripened
The first startup, the cybercafé, took off in 2020 and functioned as our pilot in order to learn how to start a small business in Haiti. From this activity we have learned that starting up a business in Haiti, for people without experience in that area, is not possible without very close guidance, which we cannot provide for from a distance. For that reason, we will not prolong in that direction. We will only try to help the cybercafé surviving the logistical problems caused by the anarchy in Port au Prince, and secondly, we will try to guide the banana plantation to the next year, hoping for a rewarding harvest, that will enable it to become independent from our project.
Objectives 2025
Ø Objective in 2025 is support the remaining student from Kay-Kok, Ile à Vache to graduate. We hope graduation will finally take place this year. Finances for this are available.
Ø With her graduation the educational part of our program will come to an end.
Ø From the inventory between our (16) graduates in 2021 it appeared that the majority has not found a regular/fixed income. Some have migrated to Chili, the Dominican Republic and the USA, but that has not basically made a difference in their economic situation. 6 Of these students have informed us (on our request) that they are interested to set up a small enterprise of their own. After more investigation into their plans, it turned out that these plans are not solid enough to bear fruit to provide them with a regular income. When they are willing, they can try to apply for work in our banana-plantation (see next point), once this project is generating income.
Ø To maintain in close cooperation with our collaborator in the start-up project, Ubain Pierre, the banana/plantain[2] plantation, that has got the potential to expand in due time and to offer work and income to several of our graduates or other inhabitants of Île a Vache. Ubain Pierre is the business administrator of this business, and as such he is supposed to become the local leader of this part of the project. As soon as possible he is supposed to earn his living from the enterprise.
Ø Once the abovementioned startup is up and running, we (in close cooperation with Ubain Pierre) will explore the possibilities to diversify the plantation, preferably aimed to offer work to some of our young female graduates. The intention is, that these initiatives will be financed with the money generated by the plantation. The plantation in that sense has to become the engine that sets off more activities.
Ø Work out a new way of cooperation with our local collaborator in the (closing) educational part, Bithovens St Firmin, who is also part of our first startup, the cybercafé. Since the educational branch of our project will stop as of 2025, his tasks in that activity will also come to an end. For the cybercafé we tried to provide equipment and materials for at least 1 more year of working. Regretfully this has so far not reached Haiti, but we still hope that this will succeed soon. In the end we aim that the cybercafé can keep up itself entirely and offer Bithovens St Firmin and his family a more regular income.
In the second place we have to establish a new form of cooperation with our local business administrator Ubain Pierre, as our local collaborator in the plantain plantation, when he is able to take over the project management.
Finance
For the year
2025, we have available + € 3000,-- from
donations. The biggest part of this money is meant to be invested in the plantain
plantation. It is not entirely clear so far when the graduation of our last
student will take place. The graduation is estimated to cost $ 700.
In 2022 we postponed our call for contributions, because we first wanted to be able to present more concrete plans to our sponsors. Nevertheless, we were glad that we still received some donations; at the start of 2025 our remaining regular sponsors are asked to contribute to our last call for donations to the irrigation project for the plantain plantation. We aim to collect an amount of US$ 3000,-- all together.
Remuneration policy continued
The Board nor any other person in any way involved
in the Stichting Studiehulp Kay-Kok receives remuneration or compensation for
their work from the funds of the foundation. Our onsite collaborators or
representatives receive for their work nor a reward or compensation of the
Foundation (see also under "our local collaborator” in the Annual Report).
During the months that such activities from his side are required, our
collaborator Bithovens St firmin gets $ 22,-- per month to cover the costs of
data credit in order to keep up regular communication with the school, the
student and us.
We have private financial arrangements with them. This is organised entirely outside of the budget of the Stichting Studiehulp Kay-Kok and is supposed to be replaced in due time by the income they will generate from the cybercafé and the banana plantation.
[1] Haiti: WFP VAM Bulletin - Food Security Analysis, April 2024, https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/haiti-wfp-vam-bulletin-food-security-analysis-april-2024.
[2] ‘Bakbananen’
