Comrades of Children Overseas Monitoring and Evaluation Report 2013/14 COCO is an international children’s charity that works with communities in remote regions of the developing world to alleviate the poverty preventing children’s education. We believe that investing in communities and meeting their needs will ensure that children can access the education they deserve and by giving a mother a loan to run her own business, drilling a well or building a classroom we can ensure that both the children and the community as a whole can benefit. Since COCO was founded in 2000, by Steve Cram MBE and Army Corp Major Jim Paton, over £2.8 million has been raised to fund small, sustainable, community led initiatives that enable children living in poverty stricken regions of the developing world to access education and the opportunities it provides. This year COCO worked with 11 project partners in East Africa. This report aims to show how the work we are doing is benefitting these communities around the world to build long lasting solutions to poverty. It focuses on Monitoring and Evaluation, something which we consider to be important at COCO, to ensure that the work we are doing is benefitting who it is supposed to be, and so that we can constantly learn and grow in the future. It also looks at how the projects relate to our new Schools for Life programme, which you can read more about on the next page! For more detailed information on our projects you can look at our website, or contact and us. We are always happy to hear from supporters and listen to you feedback. Our contact details can be found on the back cover. Comrades of Children Overseas (COCO), is a Scottish registered charity no: SC030428, Company 2 registration no: SC209819. Registered office address: 21 Ravelrig Park, Balerno, Midlothian, EH14 7DL. 3 4 CONTENTS 1. About COCO 4 2. Overview of the Year 6 3. What is Monitoring and Evaluation 7 4. Schools for Life 8 5. Monitoring and Evaluation Costs 10 6. Projects Hoja Secondary School - Tanzania 12 Hoja Tanzania 23 Nkwawangya—Tanzania 37 Londoto - Tanzania 39 Olomayani Nursery School -Tanzania 40 Kindimba Secondary School –Tanzania 43 Orlorte Acadmey- Kenya 45 Kenya Acorn Project 48 Mercy Primary School –Kenya 50 Nyamura Special School– Kenya 54 Mo Farah Foundation 55 6. Fundraising 56 7. Keep in touch! 58 5 Overview of the year: This year £177,337.88 was spent overseas , invested in projects in rural Africa, predominantly in Tanzania and Kenya. 13.5% of our money was invested in Monitoring and Evaluation and Project Coordination, to ensure that Projects run smoothly and effectively. The rest of our money was spent directly on the projects. The graph below shows where the money was spent Of the money spent directly on projects, £100,246.96 (65%) was spent in Tanzania £38,123.82 (25%) was spent in Kenya £15,000 (10%) went to the Mo Farah Foundation for their work in the Horn of Africa. 6 What is Monitoring and Evaluation? Monitoring and Evaluation is an important part of COCO’s work, used so that we know for certain whether our projects make a difference, how they make a difference, how much of a difference they make, which aspects of what we do are working, and how we could improve our projects to make even more of a difference. This means that we are always improving on what we do and changing the way that we work to better impact on those living in rural Africa. At COCO we believe that everyone involved should feel able to tell COCO if they have ideas for project improvement. Only if everyone is honest about what went well and what did not will we continue to improve what we do and how we do it. Not every project is a complete success, and sometimes projects can not be carried out exactly as planned. Each project is a learning process in itself and is part of a greater learning experience for COCO to continue to improve our work. How it works: MONITORING: an ongoing process carried out regularly throughout a project to explain what is happening, carried out by COCO staff. EVALUATION: tries to explain WHY things happen and to identify lessons to be learnt for the future. This is done at the end of the project or at significant point during the project. This may be carried out by COCO staff or an independent evaluator. The data can be collected in a number of different ways, which must be decided in the planning stage, and must be unbiased, and be able to identify any negatives of a project as well as positives. Ways that COCO collects data are: observation, recorded analysis, interviews, focus groups, community meetings, questionnaires, case studies and diaries. 7 Schools for Life Listen Learn Sustain This year, COCO was proud to launch our new programme ‘Schools for Life.’ After the success of Hoja Secondary School in Tanzania, COCO looked at replicating this model and after a site visit with partners, we came up with this new programme. Through Schools for Life we can pass on all that we have learnt in the past 10 years to benefit more children living in Africa. The Schools for Life programme consists of 6 key elements, which all of our Schools for Life will have: In order for children to be able to work and focus effectively, they must be provided with good quality classrooms. Many children walk for up to two hours in order to get to school, not only using up energy and time needed for studying, but also being put at great risk, especially girls: building safe and secure dormitories reduces this risk and increases Shelter performance. Teachers’ accommodation allows teachers to spend more time with the children, and gives the opportunity for starting up extra classes out of school hours. community housing education will teach the importance of good shelter and how to make the most of homes to make them a safer environment to live in. Only a quarter of Africans have access to electricity, this drops to 10% in rural areas. In rural Tanzania the number is even lower, where only 2% of people have access to electricity. Lighting in rural Africa usually comes from kerosene lamps which are dangerous to health, expensive to fuel, and harmful to the environment. In Africa the sun is free and in abundance. By using solar panels, we can power lights and computers that children need Power to be able to study at night, improving education, learning opportunities and productivity. Safe drinking water is essential for good academic performance and attendance at school. Clean water means less illness caused by unsafe drinking water amongst students and teachers; it saves time previously used walking long distances to collect water; and can be used to water plants for food. Sanitation is also essential for health reasons, building Water and toilet blocks specifically allows girls to attend school who would sanitation 8 otherwise have dropped out of school at puberty. Schools for Life Listen Learn Sustain Through Schools for Life we will listen to the needs of each individual community we work with. Understanding that they do not want hand outs or to rely on aid to live, but to be independent and free to choose how they live and raise the aspirations of their children. We will learn from each community we work with giving them the opportunity to sustain their own futures. Growing food in a food forest and providing training in sustainable agriculture (permaculture) allows children to eat nutritious healthy food, whilst learning about the importance of a healthy diet. Malnutrition is not only detrimental to health, but also means that many children cannot reach their full potential at school due to deprivation of Food essential nutrients needed for brain development. Recreation cultivates great friendship and encourages social interaction. Team sports and competition promote motivation and enthusiasm whilst also creating a healthy lifestyle. Schools for Life offer children the opportunity to enjoy sport and recreational activities, producing healthy and happy well-rounded children with confidence and skills both inside and outside the classroom. The UN promotes sport in Recreation schools to improve health, teach important life lessons about respect, leadership and cooperation, and promote equality for all by bridging divides between people. Many young people have insufficient Entrepreneurship skills relevant to helping them to find employment. This not only results in high unemployment for young people, but also means that the economy cannot grow as fast without the talent of young people. Schools for life promotes group debate and participation, as well as training in vocational skills, nurturing curiosity, equality and an entrepreneurial spirit; helping children to reach their full potential; and giving them the best possible preparation for the future. Income Generation Programmes and business management training for parents and carers of children also help to ensure project sustainability. 9 Monitoring and Evaluation and Project Support Costs As Monitoring and Evaluation is so important, a percentage of our overseas budget goes towards costs relating to the implementation of the projects, from sourcing new potential projects, to planning projects, ensuring they go to plan, and collecting data for Monitoring and Evaluation. This year COCO spent £23,967.10 on Monitoring and Evaluation, Project Support Costs, and Project Coordination in the following ways: Project Coordination Project Coordination is essential for the success of all of our work overseas. COCO pays a facilitation fee to an IGP coordinator in Mbita, Kenya, and three Project Coordinators.