Work Update

  Progress at work has been a bit slow as of late because I’ve had to await further instruction or approval from my supervisors. I can happily say, though, that my strategic plan is officially completed, my work plan for the first three months has been submitted, and my budget for my seed grant has been approved! With the $300 seed grant, I will be constructing a seed nursery at the community demonstration farm. The money will go towards construction materials and tools, as well as seeds, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides, and irrigation supplies.

  The seed nursery is a crucial step for the community demonstration farm. The hope is that with a one-time purchase of good quality seeds, each subsequent season we will have been able to grow our own seeds at the farm so that we don’t have to purchase them each season. This greatly improves sustainability of the project and the farm, and is not to difficult to begin. Hopefully the seed nursery can grow into a seed bank, whereby community members can donate seeds at the end of each harvest, and then withdraw them before planting season. They can support one another if one happens to have a poor yield and also learn about the importance of planning and saving for the future. Because of the long Christmas holiday, the construction will begin in January.

  In the meantime, this month I will be working on a number of things. I have almost completed the ideal budget for the farm (for the first year) and will be finalizing that. Once that is completed, I will begin applying for funding through grants, or targeting different fundraising opportunities. Stephen, the manager of the Orphans and Family Support Program (where I’m based) has also asked me to take on two additional projects. The first is to edit and format the new Child Protection Policy for the organization (which shouldn’t take long) and the second is to create a Strategic Management Plan for the entire Orphans Department to set out how they can meet the objectives set out my the organization’s strategic plan. This will include identifying funding sources, coming up with activities designed to meet the objectives, instituting new policies for the existing programs, and potentially consolidating the existing programs to prevent overlap, or cracks. This last task seems monumental and I hope I’m up to it!