Stabilization before Progress

As my last days are counting faster than I can even keep up, the work still to do seems endless. I have this feeling every time I come and this is just about the right time for the panic to set in. We have worked days and nights to stabilize FANAKA so we do not lose another school. It was heartbreaking to lose ELA and I refuse to not do everything we can to keep the school open. Now that we have a proper management team in place, it is now time to reanalyze our priorities; starting with the resources we already have.

In order to get a working budget for some of basic needs (security lights, toilet repairs and light bulbs) we need to liquidate some of our excess supplies. From the sea container there still remains 80,000 sheets of large paper. This does not include the paper used for examinations, stationary needs or the needs of FANAKA for a two year supply. We have been able to sell some to a distributor that cuts the papers into school notebooks and sells them back to schools at a discount. The others we will be used in our advertising strategy. I have developed fliers and brochures for the school to use for advertising. We have a representative of FANAKA going from school to school with these fliers and brochures to try and get FANAKA closer to full capacity.  Once we can have a proper enrollment amount, funding our new teaching, management staff as well as the necessary academic changes (such as tutoring classes for those behind in subjects) will all be possible. In addition to letting our neighbor schools know about FANAKA, we will also be giving the extra paper to these schools as gifts. This means more schools can share in our gifts and is a strong move in making FANAKA known to everyone. Thanks to a generous donation from Sean’s high school, Dakota Ridge, as well as Metro State University, more soccer jersey’s and balls are coming to FANAKA. This means the excess jersey’s can be shared with our neighboring schools so we can really spread the wealth.

Although I would love to report all the progress we have made on self sustainable projects, the reality is the condition we found FANAKA in required TEP to adjust our mission this summer. It was necessary to focus our energy on organizational restructuring, prioritization, advertising and networking in order to put FANAKA on a plan for success. Countless hours were dedicated to the evaluation of past projects and research of future TEP projects; this allows our work from America to be as strong as possible. I will not allow TEP to break ground on projects until all business plans are certain and risks limited. If this means the TEP budget sits until these requirements are met, then so be it. It’s not only best for TEP donors but truly best for everyone. If we have no school, our self sustainable projects will be for not. Thus, stabilization is needed before we can work on the future.

-Cassie