The highlight was the Chair’s report where Bev went through the aims of Choko which had been agreed in a committee meeting on 28th January 2008, where we discussed the form the project should take up to the World Vision anticipated end date in 2015.
The aims were (and, except for the special needs centre, still are):
- Build cohesion between communities
- Become an easily recognisable brand and be known as providers of good events and products
- Raise money
- Fund the special needs centre
- The long term aim is to make a sustainable change to the lives of people in Kodumela
She gave the following examples of how each of these was being achieved.
Build cohesion between communities
- The forthcoming trip where over 25 people will be visiting the project
- Link between Cholsey School and Mamokaile School
- Link between Cholsey Pre-School and Mankconyane Creche
- Link between Crowmarsh School and Masokane School
Become an easily recognisable brand and be known as providers of good events and products
- Beer festival – greatly enjoyed by many, including all the volunteers who helped out so capably. It truly was a family event and we hope for similar good weather for this year’s beer festival on Saturday 26 September 2009.
- Notelets, CDs, gift catalogues – 105 Christmas Carol CDs sold in about a week!
- Big Food Event – the quality of the food was good but would not necessarily be welcomed as a daily diet by those sampling it!
- Beer Festival was a great example of this and also allowed Choko to give a gift to the Cholsey Styleacre house
- Hilary Handley raised money on her sponsored Dale’s Walk
- Students at York University (with Lizzie O’Dwyer) are raising money to support an agricultural project
- Product sales on the Forty and elsewhere continue to raise income
- There have been a number of donations made to the project
- The Women's Enterprise Group and the Goats Project are now sustainable
Fund the special needs centre
- This was founded by a mother as there was no provision in the Kodumela area
- The building and equipment have now been fully funded by Choko so they will be able to move out of the derelict church pictured below
- We will be able to see progress during the forthcoming visit
- A plaque has been donated (and will be fixed on the wall of the Centre) to say the centre has been given to the area by their friends in Cholsey and South Oxfordshire
- The new rainwater for crops project will definitely make a sustainable change
- 200 early beneficiary households (20 per village) will be established as examples of the Roof To Garden Rain Water Harvesting system.
- 25 of them will be taken on an exposure visit to Hammanskraal where the system is being implemented with great success.
- The entire group of 200 will each be given 20 metres of PVC sheeting to line Rain Water Harvesting furrows at their houses and 3 pockets of cement each to build reinforcing walls along the sides of the furrows.
- Training will be given to 40 leader farmers on trench gardening, a highly appropriate farming methodology that has proven its worth in a number of World Vision Projects
- These 40 leader farmers will be early beneficiaries with a proven passion for sharing their knowledge and expertise.
- Having been trained, each of them will train up another 20 farmers within the first year.
- The 840 farmers will also be provided with limited seeds and seedlings to get them started.
- This will require a total of $50,000 to be raised by Choko to complete the full project. As it will be implemented in phases, it can start once we send the first instalment.
Other items discussed in the AGM included:
Finance
Many thanks to Estelle Brown who is handling what is now a substantial budget, with over £25,000 being raised and disseminated in 2008.
As all held funds have all be used on the Special Needs Centre, we are effectively starting from scratch on the new project.
World Vision
Many thanks to Annette Humphreys who has been our contact at World Vision since the project started. She has now moved job, so we are pleased to welcome Mim Shaw as our new contact point. World Vision will be doing a project review and re-design on the Kodumela Area Development Project during 2009, which will give us a clear picture of potential activities for 2010-2015.
Ongoing merchandising
Notelets and Gift Catalogues will be available year round, at Choko events or by contacting info@choko.org.uk. Online shoppers are asked to put a link to http://www.buy.at/choko into their Favourites and go through that to place orders with Amazon and many other online shops. At no cost to the shopper, the site then makes a donation to Choko. Very nice!
Forthcoming events
7 March – Dance at Cholsey School
Now and throughout the summer – Choko Games
16 June – Post trip information and social evening at the school
26 September – Beer festival
Choko consititution
This was amended to reflect the wider interest in Choko. “Cholsey” has now been replaced with “Cholsey and South Oxfordshire”.
So, to sum up, a great evening celebrating a great project!
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