By Iona Proebst | Director and Founder
It's been a busy start to the year! Highlights include a teacher training for Refugee Help Refugee for Pakistani asylum seekers and refugees in Bangkok, we hope to continue to build on this partnership with this inspiring community. A few days ago we returned from our second teacher training at Koung Jor refugee camp. The 'Effective Lesson Planning for the Classroom' teacher training was a great success and was attended by Shan, Burmese and English language teachers as well as the community computer teacher. One of the teachers that attended the training had the following to say:
"The most important thing I learnt in the training was how to effectively plan my lessons and how to make my classes more fun!"
Since the start of the year we have also implemented our solar project at Maw Kwee on the Thai-Burma border, visiting this community and seeing first hand the impact it had on the children in the boarding house was a personal highlight of the last few months. And finally, together we have provided solar lighting for an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Shan State, Burma. All the residents now have solar lanterns to light up their homes, however, we are still raising funds for the solar panels for the community school. If you would like to help us reach our goal please click here.
Not only do we like to keep you updated on our projects but also on the internal workings of the organisation. Up until now we have maintained a 100% funding model which meant that all money raised from the general public went directly to our projects and money for our operational costs were secured separately. This was possible due to a philanthropist who generously covered our overheads. Due to structural changes within her own business, this support stopped almost 2 years ago. Since that time we have upheld that model, however, I must admit it has been a challenge for us. In order to move forward in a more sustainable manner, The Branch Foundation will now take a small percentage of general donations in order to keep the office lights on and staff appropriately compensated for their hard work and dedication. As always we will be keeping our operational costs low, maintaining full transparency, whilst ensuring we have the necessary resources for the organisation to carry out our projects responsibly and effectively. I believe this is a necessary step to take to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for The Branch Foundation and all our projects.
Myself and the rest of the TBF team are excited to put this sustainable funding model into action starting April 1st 2015. We look forward to continuing to work with you to help give marginalized communities a voice and collaboratively working towards self-reliance and local empowerment. Thank you for your ongoing support!
Warm regards,
Iona Proebst and The Branch Foundation Team.
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