Annual Report 2019
Stichting Studiehulp Kay-Kok
Board: Mw. J. du
Bois-Minholts, president
Mw. L.M. Kuijer, secretary
Mw. R. van der Kroef,
treasurer
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, Haiti 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).
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 in the year 2019.
Preface
Because of the riots in
Haiti during the year 2019, several things that we had planned to accomplish in
2019 (see our Policy Plan 2019) have been delayed. There was a lot of patience
asked from students, the startup that we planned to be up and running by the
summer and from ourselves at a distance as well. Even more regretful: life in
Haiti has become more difficult once more.
Since things in Haiti seem
to have calmed down by the end of 2019, we are expecting that 2020 will see the
startup running and the schools be reopened. We can only hope that prices for
daily commodities will return to ‘normal’ levels again.
2019 in hindsight
- Three of our students graduated in 2019: Again a young lady became pastry cook and -decorator. A young man became diesel mechanic and another one electrician. Though because of the premature closure of the schools (because of the riots) they got their diplomas and there official graduation several months after they finished their school, they are now trying to find themselves jobs. We had 3 students in their first/second year and they wanted to continue their studies for the second/third years as of September. They are schooled in administrative science, accounting ( 2 young men) and agronomics (a young woman). Regretfully this was also delayed until December, but by the end of the year we were happy to understand that they were frequenting school again. From our tested group A we had still 2 students left to be taken into our program (see Policy Plan 2019). They have been admitted to the project in August 2019 and (because of the closure of the schools) belatedly started their studies in December. Their studies of choice are communications/journalism (a young man) and pedagogy (a young woman). By admitting them, we are happy to be able to add two entirely new and highly valuable professions to our group (and to the Haitian society). All together in 2019 3 students graduated, 3 continued their studies in their last year and 2 new students started their studies. The academic year 2019/20 sees 5 students in our project.
- Of course all this is only possible because we have a group of very loyal contributors, who continue to sustain our project. We also acquired some new contributors, who made up for those that stopped. So again we were able to collect € 9.200,00, which was nearly enough to cover the costs. We were still able to keep a small buffer intact.
- Since one of the goals of the Foundation is to offer vocational schooling to young people from Île a Vache during a period of 5 years this was the last year to take in new students. As we had already decided last year we have taken in 2 new students for another 2 years: since we have sufficient financial room to phase out (with those students still attending school) we can add for those that started their 2-years courses this year, an extra 6th year (2021/2022)
- As to the housing, this year again the female students (2) found their own accommodations. The house we rent as usual houses the 3 young men.
- We had the intention to start this year with our startup: Cybercafé Websterline. We have been able to send all necessary equipment (a laser printer with extra ink cassettes, a generator, an alternator, 4 fully installed computers, a lamination device) to Haiti in the spring. Regretfully because of the riots in Haiti it took about 2 months extra to deliver the box with all the equipment. And then it appeared to be too dangerous to open the enterprise, since there was a lot of looting going on in town. Apart from that electricity was down altogether and gasoline had become too expensive to use the generator as a 100% alternative. So we were obliged to be patient and wait for things calming down again and figure out a solution for the electricity problem.
Finance
For the academic year 2019/20, we had available € 9200,-- from donations, of which by December 2019 we spent around € 5200,-- which leaves € 4000,-- for the second half of the academic year. Based on our experiences so far the cost per person per year could be maximized on € 1600,-- (+ $ 1700, --), of which about 50% has already been paid for, leaving $ 4000,-- for the second half of the academic year 2019/20. The expenditures for the academic year 2019/2020 are thus covered, while the financial year 2019 had been closed with a negative result of € 1079,--. The buffer had therefore diminished bit but since we have paid already a large part of our expenses of the academic year 2019/2020 in advance, there is still enough to cover the remaining expenses for the academic year 2019/2020.
The school fees for the six students amount for the course 2019/2020 to + $ 2510, -. This is averagely $ 40 more than the year before. In the academic year 2019-2020 an average of $ 50,- per person is being spent on schooling materials (books, copybooks, rucksack, tools, laptops, calculators, internships) until December, which is much less than the year before. Since the delay of the start of the schools we can expect this amount to rise before the end of the academic year: it is not precisely predictable how much still will be required, but we expect it to be less than last year ($ 200,--per person). 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 Haiti 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. All together we expect the total costs per student to stay a little bit below the aforementioned € 1600,--.
For the academic year 2019/20, we had available € 9200,-- from donations, of which by December 2019 we spent around € 5200,-- which leaves € 4000,-- for the second half of the academic year. Based on our experiences so far the cost per person per year could be maximized on € 1600,-- (+ $ 1700, --), of which about 50% has already been paid for, leaving $ 4000,-- for the second half of the academic year 2019/20. The expenditures for the academic year 2019/2020 are thus covered, while the financial year 2019 had been closed with a negative result of € 1079,--. The buffer had therefore diminished bit but since we have paid already a large part of our expenses of the academic year 2019/2020 in advance, there is still enough to cover the remaining expenses for the academic year 2019/2020.
The school fees for the six students amount for the course 2019/2020 to + $ 2510, -. This is averagely $ 40 more than the year before. In the academic year 2019-2020 an average of $ 50,- per person is being spent on schooling materials (books, copybooks, rucksack, tools, laptops, calculators, internships) until December, which is much less than the year before. Since the delay of the start of the schools we can expect this amount to rise before the end of the academic year: it is not precisely predictable how much still will be required, but we expect it to be less than last year ($ 200,--per person). 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 Haiti 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. All together we expect the total costs per student to stay a little bit below the aforementioned € 1600,--.
We have rented the house again where
during the academic year of 2019/2020 3 boys live. Rent is $ 1000,-- per year
and $ 10,-- for electricity monthly. The remuneration to the boarding houses of
the (female) students who found a shelter on their own accord can be maximized
on € 150,-- pp / py.
To these costs should be added the monthly cost of food and drink. This is set on $ 60,-- per person per month. Although the schools have been kept closed from September until November, we decided to pay the monthly costs nevertheless during these months as well, since the students have no other way of income and because of the riots the costs of daily life had risen considerably. Although as yet it is not clear if schools will add the lost months at the end of the course, this, even when that would be decided, will not cause a financial problem for the foundation.
To these costs should be added the monthly cost of food and drink. This is set on $ 60,-- per person per month. Although the schools have been kept closed from September until November, we decided to pay the monthly costs nevertheless during these months as well, since the students have no other way of income and because of the riots the costs of daily life had risen considerably. Although as yet it is not clear if schools will add the lost months at the end of the course, this, even when that would be decided, will not cause a financial problem for the foundation.
In 2019, because of problems with
the Haitian bank account, we have been obliged to start to transfer the money
to Haiti with Western Union. This results in considerably less favorable exchange rates than when we
were able to use the bank. Still on yearly basis we have been able to keep up
with the 1:1 $ to € rate as we had been used to. By 2020 we started again to open and use a (new) Haitian bank account on
behalf of our collaborators in Haiti for the money transfers.
Remarks about our project
1. We put the perspective on work high
on our list. After 4 years running our project, in which 13 students graduated,
we have to conclude that finding a job in Haiti, 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 Île a Vache in
2016 to raise consciousness about the option of becoming self employed. But
that is not an easy path in Haiti either. Not only do most people lack
money for investments, but they have to conquer many challenges regarding
nearly everything as well. For example: nowadays current is hardly available anymore
and the prices of gasoline have more than doubled the last year. Micro credit
is widely mistrusted in Haiti, because costs (20 % interest) exceed
the advantages for most people. To startup something of your own triggers often
‘jealousy’ in Haiti. Since voodoo practices are still more than common
‘jealousy’ means you are at great risk to become a victim of voodoo. This is a reality which cannot be denied nor
refuted and it has important consequences on the initiatives people dare to
pick up.
Since poverty in Haiti in very widespread (more than 40%
of unemployment, 2/3 of the labor force is underemployed resulting in about 60%
of the population living under the poverty line by accounts of 2016 and 2017,
in the mean time these figures will have become even worse, because of the
riots in 2019[2]),
purchasing power is very low, so small businesses will always be quite
vulnerable.
Certainly waiting for a job leads to nowhere. And starting up a small
business is nearly the only way in Haiti to reach some kind of income. For
this reason we decided to help our ex-students, who come up with a good plan,
to set up a small business. For this we had available some earmarked money in
2018 with which we have been able to fund a substantial investment in our first
startup.
After more than 1 ½ year of preparations and waiting for the society to
calm down again, 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 hope that this first initiative will provide us with the knowledge
and the experience to let more of these plans of our ex-students follow in due
time.
And since using micro credit is too expensive and too complicated, we
will use our own money as a foundation for the first startups. The intention is
to start to give new startups small loans. When we are able to set up a system
of providing for loans to these startups we have already at least one
investor. Because of the many delays and
problems in the country, it is important to count with the fact that these
loans can only function when they are long term loans: binding the people to
tight repayment conditions will lead to big disappointments on both sides. For
this reason everything has to be based on a solid and real business plan,
learning from our first experience and a lot of trust.
2. 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 of our collaborator, 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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