Update on Building and Stuff

You will all by now be convinced that all I do when I am here in Kigali, is to drink coffee, meet old friends, and watch football. So to put a few things right, and to give you encouragement, here is a summary of all things College:

• The College building will be complete in the next 4 weeks  - certainly by end of January - it is looking very good, and Jeff and his team are working solidly to meet this deadline
• The Big Give brought in sufficient finance to complete the essential works that makes the building functional as a working establishment. So it will be completed!
• The total cost of the building is £93,000 for a building of 500 sqm. (would cost £440k in UK!)
• It has 9 classrooms - for joinery, IT, 2 classrooms, machine workshop, plumbing, electrics and metalwork. There is a spare room for canteen, plus admin offices and toilets.
• The finance has been provided wholly by the enormous work of volunteers, Level 8 Projects, St Mungo's Church, and a very wide range of individuals  - MANY MANY THANKS.
• We have hopes also to build a workshop for £6.5k sometime later in the year. Equipment and furniture will cost £25k approximately -we are still assessing what we need!
• The courses will start in January 2013.
• We are in the last stages of arranging finance for 2 couples - the Fahls and the Schnurs - from Germany to come out and support the development of the College, working in Kigali for 3 years,  who will ensure that courses are high standard and guarantee that the street children get into work
• I have met with the person in charge of the national curriculum development, and this should be available to us at the end of January, for us to use to develop really beneficial courses.
• A detailed financial plan is almost complete taking a cash flow projection into the first 3 months of the 2013.
• Much work still remains to be done of course - equipment provision, a workshop area, employing tutors, creating the full business plan, developing life skills and business planning modules.
• My next stages of work are - produce a detailed accountability framework  - I am looking for a College person with a financial background to help with this - any offers will be greatly valued!

When ever you come to the end of a construction project like this there is a strong sense of honour and privilege to work with people who have put heart and soul into the work.

I would like to particularly to recognise these people for the amount of time they and energy they have spent on this. I am indebted to each of you. You are each BRILLIANT. God has richly blessed us with His Presence on this work, people's prayers have evidently supported a project which could have gone wrong in so many ways, and has not!

Roger, Jeff and Kayitare

Norbert