As the first day of school drew nearer, Pastor Maula and I began to suspect that we might see an increase in our numbers. I was hoping we might grow from 35 to 50. By October 1st though, the first day of classes, 100 children had enrolled in the school. 100. More than three times our current volume.
“The parents of the community have heard about the school last year and the program so about 100 children registered for school this year,” Pastor Maula told me over Skype. “Some of these children, their parents cannot afford to send them to school and some of them, they are going to school hungry and the teaching is not good so they are not learning. But their parents heard about our school and our program so they have sent them here.”
I couldn’t have been more thrilled. I had been praying for an opportunity to expand our influence and here it was! The community had heard about us and was coming to us for help. And we would help them. My mind would not entertain any other alternative.
But.
Despite incredible generosity, we’ve been struggling to cover our expenses of $1025/month. Tripling our numbers is going to mean increasing our budget significantly within a very short period of time. Three weeks, in fact.
Pastor Maula, Elda, Cara and I spent long hours agonizing over how to reduce the overall cost per meal without reducing the quality of the food. The first step we’re taking is to reduce the portion size of some of the smaller children so that the cost per plate for a child under 5 is 50-60 cents and the cost per plate of a child over 5 is around 90 cents to a dollar. We’re also going to stop juicing the fruit and give it to the children in whole pieces to eat instead. While the children tend to enjoy juice more, we will waste less this way. What we will not do is cut out the most expensive components of our meals: meat, eggs and dairy.
Our bottom-line goal for our expenses for this month is $1700. Considering the fact that our previous budget for 35 children was $1025, this is pretty conservative. But it’s still a $700 deficit that needs to be met in the next three weeks.
I’m working with the Institute for Social Entrepreneurship at my university to develop some long-term plans for sustainability. But in the short-term, we’ll need your continued involvement to weather our growing pains. Spread the word about the Rosemila Project. Organize a fundraiser in your community. Make a gift. It’s thanks to you that we’ve gotten this far and it’s thanks to you that we will continue to expand.
The Rosemila Project 