Nyanga – 02

6min. .

Alright.

Time to sort out some of the thoughts that have sprung up as we have been working at the center.

Monday #

  • Finalized the contract, and sent it over to Wendy at head office.
  • Ran into Varkey George and a norwegian physician named Signe (the lady who’d tipped Mari of Varkey and set this whole program in motion).
  • Roamed around the center discussing the computer skills program, but we couldn’t get far without Sicelo’s input.

Tuesday #

  • It was raining so heavily, so we postponed going to the schools until the day after.
  • Contract was approved, but the contract ends during the holidays and that must be arranged for.
  • We discussed Isaac’s, one of the it – tutors, future employment. Isaac seems quite keen to keep working at K2, which we’ll happily oblige to and keep Sicelo (the head it – tutor.) Later that day we hired a guy named Tando for a two week period of teaching.
  • Sent out requests for food donations. Asking for aid is not quite the social entrepreneurial way, since it just makes the center reliant on some other organization besides SHAWCO. We’d to it for this time only, but our focus must remain on heightening the center’s income.

Wednesday (today) #

  • The two schools we were supposed to visit are currently preparing for the holidays, so the principals from both schools were too busy to have us over today. So, we moved it to the day after. We need to get to the schools before Friday, which is the start of the holidays.
  • Assisted at a handout – event organized by a local N.G.O.. Food was handed out to parents with babies. It seemed to be something of a problem with parents who didn’t carry the proper papers  or hadn’t weighed their child at all. Some parents had to be shown away, because they lacked proper proof. A strong experience for us newcomers to be sure.
  • Finally met up with Sicelo, and he gave us rundown on how the IT – center have been doing as well as giving us a list of points he would like for us to keep in mind. Laura is someone at head office, responsible for Masizikhulise. We should make an appointment with her, and talk about the computer skills program’s future. Also discussed price with Sicelo and Jack, and we landed on R200 for three months of CS training. We will have to see what prices Cilulo charge for their CS training.
  • Priced the beadwork at R10 – R50. I had some ideas about the seniors who’s making the beads becoming part of a neigbouring organization’s BEE. (Black economic empowerment.)
  • Tando suddenly became superflous as step-in tutor since Sicelo seems to have been free during the week after all. However it would be wrong to cut off Tando at this point, so we made arrangements. (Not quite sure what they were.) Regardless, it results in Tando being the tutor for these two weeks and splitting the payment with Isaac who left without properly informing Eunice.
  • Denver, the IT guy, has been contacted and asked to come by on Monday to fix internet for all the computers. We would have to follow up on that, making sure he does show up and teaches Sicelo how to maintain the IT – system.
  • Decided to offer the security company the kitchen of the side building, which is actually not bad. We came to the decision while considering how to give the IT – center space to grow. Hopefully the security company will find it acceptable, or else we’ll have to make a new proposal.

Tomorrow #

  • Research whether or not the seniors who can make beads are available to run bead workshops. More importantly we need to find out if beads can be donated, who owns them?
  • Make arrangements with Etafeni, for a meeting to air the idea of a job marketing site.
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