First and most important update is our newest batch of scholars:
Please say hello to Selma, Julia, Johanna, and Asteria. We normally would have introduced them back in January after getting their test results but thought what a great time to generate interest in GCE by building a whole lot of unnecessary anticipation. That and some logistical hiccups.
Second update: Those logistical hiccups. If you don't recall or didn't notice or didn't whatever, GCE changed its funding formula a couple years ago after the Namibian government abolished school and testing fees. Whereas we used to make just a single payment to each school on behalf of our scholars at the beginning of the year, we were now making similar payments to the schools (government wasn't paying hostel costs) in addition to individual payments directly to the families at the end of the year to reimburse them for transport and uniform costs. Our man on the ground generally makes the payments when he's back in the village for December holiday and mistakenly applied a payment we had sent for the previous year's transport and uniform costs to the following year's hostel costs, and it's been an adventure ever since getting the families caught up on what's theirs. Nearly sorted, though.
Third update: Perhaps you picked up on us using the past tense when talking about our new funding formula to account for the Namibian government covering the tab for school and testing fees. Well, the Namibian government is now broke with a capital NOOOOOOO and can no longer afford those fees, so GCE is once again back to our original funding formula. Bad news for the students of Namibia but okay news for anyone who needed a Tylenol after reading this.
Second update: Those logistical hiccups. If you don't recall or didn't notice or didn't whatever, GCE changed its funding formula a couple years ago after the Namibian government abolished school and testing fees. Whereas we used to make just a single payment to each school on behalf of our scholars at the beginning of the year, we were now making similar payments to the schools (government wasn't paying hostel costs) in addition to individual payments directly to the families at the end of the year to reimburse them for transport and uniform costs. Our man on the ground generally makes the payments when he's back in the village for December holiday and mistakenly applied a payment we had sent for the previous year's transport and uniform costs to the following year's hostel costs, and it's been an adventure ever since getting the families caught up on what's theirs. Nearly sorted, though.
Third update: Perhaps you picked up on us using the past tense when talking about our new funding formula to account for the Namibian government covering the tab for school and testing fees. Well, the Namibian government is now broke with a capital NOOOOOOO and can no longer afford those fees, so GCE is once again back to our original funding formula. Bad news for the students of Namibia but okay news for anyone who needed a Tylenol after reading this.
