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
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, Haรฏti 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 5th 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 5th year, an extra 6th 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 Haรฏti 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 Haรฏti 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 Haรฏti).
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 Haรฏti 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 Haรฏti 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 Haรฏti, 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 Haรฏti 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 Haรฏti, because costs seem sometimes to
exceed the advantages (we are still examining the backgrounds of this). Since
poverty in Haรฏti 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), 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 Haรฏti 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 cybercafรฉ (copy shop,
internet cafรฉ, 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.
With this impressive masterpiece Adlene St Firmin graduated as a professional decoration patissiรจre.
John Peterson Placide only joined our programme when his first school year 
And last, but not least we congratulate Dieuvoit Jean. He wanted to become a diesel mechanic. And that is precisely the profession he learned and graduated in this month. We are very proud that he succeeded to make his dream come true and we hope this will be the start of a shining future.
