Annual Report 2018

Annual Report 2018
Stichting Studiehulp Kay-Kok

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, 9736 CK Groningen, The Netherlands

Postal address : Postbus 1485, 9701 BL Groningen, The Netherlands

Telephone: + 31654786602

RSIN: 8555.41.143

The Foundation aims to raise money to offer adolescents from the village of Kay-Kok, Ile a Vache, Haïti the opportunity to attend to vocational training thus enabling them to earn an income.
Stichting Studiehulp Kay-Kok is enrolled in the Foundations and Associations Register of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and is recognized by the Dutch tax authority as a charity organization (ANBI).

In this report you can read about the most important developments within our project during the year 2018. 

Achievements 2018

• Of the 6 students that started this year, 3 graduated in July: a plumber, a climatization technician and a pastry cook. We were able to send (instead of the minimum foreseen of 4) once more 6 students to school in 2018: 3 for their second year, and 3 new people. A major factor in enabling us to do so, was the fact that the contributors we feared that would stop their donations to our project not only continued, but they even broadened their donation, so that we were able to extend our activities (see ‘Main developments’ 3). In the second place we were able to find an important new contributor who made a commitment for several years, so that we can look with confidence to the future.  We collected about € 9500,00 where we need this year about + € 9300,00. So we were able to keep up our financial buffer.
• Since one of the goals of the Foundation is to be active during a period of 5 years we started to prepare for the last year: strictly interpreted as of the course of 2019/2020 (the 5^th year of functioning) we could not take in students any more for courses that take more than 1 year. Since it appears now already that we have sufficient financial room to phase out (with those students still attending school) we can add for those starting their 2-years courses in the 5^th year, an extra 6^th year.
• In our considerations about the admittance to our program we paid extra attention to the perspectives for work of the studies chosen. For example: since we helped already 3 people to become electricians, we preferred now to take in students who want to learn other professions. For this reason this year we admitted a student to the training in administrative sciences and another one for accounting. The last one we admitted - because we wanted to include another female student - is the second in row to become a (pastry) cook.   
• So far this year we have not encountered problems with schools not being able to deliver or students dropping out. The careful selection of schools and students by our local representative will have contributed to this. Since the protests that started in Haïti last summer and that are still going on and that also affect the schools, we have to await if this academic year will be continuing as smooth as it started.
• As to the housing, this year again the female students (2) found their own accommodations. The house we rent is entirely occupied by the 4 young men, so this makes the house renting this year a valuable investment.
• After a year of cooperation with our new local representative, Madame Joleine Placide (the mother of our first representative Nickenson St firmin) and her second son Edisson St firmin, who functions as our communication hub, we can conclude that everything works smoothly and to great satisfaction. We observed that they act more pro-actively which is to the advantage of the project. In order to enable accurate communications we decided to pay Edisson a monthly compensation for his data expenses.

Finance
 
For the academic year 2018/19, we had available + € 9500,-- from donations, of which by December 2018 we spent around € 5500,--. Based on our experiences so far the cost per person per year should be set on € 1550,-- (+ $ 1700, --), which leaves € 4000,-- for the second half of the academic year. The expenditures for the academic year 2018/2019 are thus covered.
The school fees for the six students amounted for the course 2018/2019 to + $ 2800,--. This is only $ 100,-- more than the year before. In the academic year 2018-2019 an average of $ 200,-- per person is being spent on schooling materials (books, copybooks, rucksack, tools, laptops, calculators, internships) for the first year students. This is less than the previous year. If the school is more than 30 minutes walking (Haiti is situated in the tropics!), we provide for a bicycle. Diplomas and graduations also cost money, the amounts varying considerably per school and type of course. So far the conclusion is we have to reckon with amounts of about € 250,-- per person. The graduation of a student in Haïti is supposed to go with some kind of a party (food and drinks), but we decided that to pay for this is not an aim of our project.

We have rented the house again where during the academic year of 2018/2019 4 boys live. Rent is $ 1000,-- per year and $ 10,-- for electricity monthly. The furnishing had to be renewed partly. The remuneration to the boarding houses of the (female) students who found a shelter on their own accord is € 150,-- pp / pa.
To these costs should be added the monthly cost of food and drink. This is set on $ 60,-- per person per month (but can be raised incidentally when food prices rise suddenly due to some kind of disaster, which happens in Haïti).

Depending on the more favorable exchange rate between euro and dollar we pay the transaction and other banking costs out of the price difference if we take the costs incurred in Haïti payable in US $ while calculating for our own administration in euro’s (transaction costs approximately € 35,-- per 1000). Of course this can become a liability again when exchange rates between $ and €  change.

Main developments 2018

1.      As already mentioned above our Swiss contributors, who in 2016 had committed themselves to sustain us during 2 years, decided to continue their contributions. In addition to them, in 2018 we were able to add a new contributing family, that committed themselves for a longer period of time. Also most of our other important contributors continued their affiliation to our foundation. Of course some contributors discontinue their donations. To compensate for them we continuously try to raise new funds. And indeed this year again we attracted some new contributors, so that we have a financial basis to continue our activities the next few years

In general compared to the starting years we can now count on fewer contributors but they give us larger amounts of money, also with the commitment for a longer period of time.

2.      In 2018 the school fees nor the educational materials have, compared to 2017, become much more expensive. If this will stay that way is questionable, since the protests that started by the end of 2018 have made life in Haïti considerably more expensive. 

3.      We always put the perspective on work high on our list. After 3 years of our project, in which 10 students graduated we have to conclude that finding a job in Haïti, even with a good starting qualification in hand, like our students have, is very hard. For this reason we started already during our last visit to Ile a Vache in 2016 to raise consciousness about the option of becoming self employed. But that is not an easy path in Haïti either. Not only do most people lack money for investments, but also they have to conquer many uncertainties regarding nearly everything. For example: current is often only available for some hours a day, which has consequences for nearly every kind of work. Micro credit is widely mistrusted in Haïti, because costs seem sometimes to exceed the advantages (we are still examining the backgrounds of this). Since poverty in Haïti in very widespread (about 40% of unemployment, 2/3 of the labour force is underemployed resulting in about 60% of the population living under the poverty line[1]), purchasing power is very low, so small businesses will always be very vulnerable. Certainly waiting for a job leads to nowhere. And starting up a small business is nearly the only way in Haïti to reach some kind of income. For this reason we decided to help our ex-students, who come up a good plan, to set up a small business. For this our Swiss contributors made available a part of their money. And since using micro credit is as yet still too complicated for our students, we can use this money for our first startups. In due time we hope to learn how to turn from gifts into loans for new startups. When we are able to set up a system of providing for loans to these startups we have already at least one investor.

After more than half a year of preparations, as we are writing this the first startup is ready to make her start with a so called cybercafé (copy shop, internet café, general service point for administrative activities and maybe in due time even more). We helped write her business plan and provided basic equipment. 

Our local collaborator and remuneration policy
 
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 collaborator receives for her work nor a reward nor compensation from the Foundation. We only compensate the cost of data credit, in order to facilitate regular communication about the project.

We have an private financial arrangement with our local collaborator Mme Joleine Placide. This is organised entirely outside of the budget of the Stichting Studiehulp Kay-Kok.

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[1]https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ha.html