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| Clement |
On Sunday night,
GHEI had their Annual General Meeting for the Humjibre Community. It’s become an anticipated event here, and a good
moment for GHEI to get the community up to speed on what we’ve been doing in
the past year. This evening was also an
important time for our mechanized borehole committee to update the assembled on
their progress. A site has been selected
near the centre of town and work begins soon.
As it has
happened for the last five years, the chief and many important members of the
Humjibre community were in attendance.
And also, as usual, a DJ with absurdly large speakers got the evening
off to a thumping start. And also, as
usual, the lighting played havoc with our photos so, I’ll keep this short.
Here are
some interesting stats that we presented:
- Over 430 Junior High School students attended our tutoring centre in 2011
- 12 new students are attending ECL classes with GHEI
- The library saw 20,000 visitors in 2011 (!) and now has 5,500 books
- GHEI extended the Malaria Prevention Program to a third community in 2011, Kojina, where the entire community received insecticide treated bednets
- Our education outreaches on proper handwashing at seven primary schools reached 1,512 students
- GHEI has begun a new partnership with local drink spots to sell condoms at subsidized rates
- Over 200 medical personal at clinics throughout the district received training on neo-natal recussitation from pediatric residents from UCLA working with GHEI
- We did not go over budget.
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| Happy admires Happy on powerpoint |
This last
part is important as a practice for an NGO, but if you only knew how small our
budget really is…We manage to do a lot with a little out here. We run four massive education programs, three
essential health programs, pay salaries for 10 full time staff, run an enormous
library, run a vibrant community centre, and reach thousands in need, in our village
and beyond. In a single year, we do all this
for less than the price of an SUV (….we don’t have a company car).
For a lot less than what most NGO executive directors demand in salary, we use to run an effective NGO. For this, and for many other accomplishments, we are proud.
