Policy plan of the Foundation, 2023 – 2025
The goals of the Foundation (from the Articles of Association)
- Help provide making it possible for all the children of San Francisco El Grande in Yucután, Mexico, to go to school.
- Offering support to the local schools.
In this policy plan, a distinction is made between the why, the how and the what (The Golden Circle Principle).
Why: Why do we do it?
The mission of this foundation is: the foundation wants to ensure that all the children from San Francisco el Grande, in Yucatan Mexico, have the possibility for education and thus a fairer chance in life.
Our mission stems from a number of visits to the town. It became clear that there are children who, due to a lack of financial resources, can’t go to the school that suits their development. This mainly concerns students with specials needs that require special education. If these students want to go to school, they have to go to a special school (far) outside of the village. Due to the lack of financial resources in the families, they can’t pay for the transport. The children with specials needs are then kept at home and are therefore deprived of opportunities for a better life when they grow up.
Our vision prior to our mission is that every child, anywhere in the world, has the right for education.
How: How do we do it?
How? The foundation tries to achieve its goal (Why) by providing services and/or equipment to (the parents of) individual students. This allows them to participate in education in Mexico, which is subsidized by the state. Those resources will mostly be practical in nature and preferably not in the form of money.
Examples of provided resources: subscription to public transport, punch card for the taxi or, in the case of supporting the schools themselves, by donating material items used at school. It’s very important for the foundation to be able to monitor whether the resources are used for the rightful purpose. From previous experiences of assistance from board members, it’s clear that monitoring should be organized.
Resources are needed to realize the mission. In the first years a basis was laid to fund activities on a limited scale and to purchase materials. It goes without saying that the activities must be of a sustainable nature. This means that a continuous, stable income must be generated during the period of the policy plan, which is a basis for the intended activities.
“Unknown makes unloved” is a Dutch saying that can be applied to the ‘how’ in our policy plan. What people don’t know, they won’t invest in. So, if people know about the foundation and its activities, the bigger the awareness and donations for the foundation will be. To achieve more awareness, it’s important to have an updated website, use different social media channels and use our network.
What: What do we do?
What are we going to do? Various actions can be distilled from the ‘how’. For the year 2023-2025 of the policy, these are structurally and systematically as follows:
- Expansions and/or replacement of our current contact person on site. At the moment we don’t have a clear picture of the influence our first team has, what support do they have among the schools and parents and to what extend can they act independently? In 2023, at least three board members of the foundation will visit the project in Mexico and conduct a research. These board members will submit a proposal to the other board members before the first of August 2023 to improve the ‘care infrastructure’ on site. This also means there will be a proposal for the policy on how the foundation will deal with current issues, regarding the state-operated ambulatory education services in the region.
- Looking at the current flow of income, these resources are currently only used for the transportation of the students. The responsibility of the selection and scope of the transport is for the team located in Mexico. But it’ll only be implemented after interim or regular consultation between the team in Mexico and the foundation itself.
- The sub-goal of the foundation mainly concerns the purchase and provision of the material goods. This sub-goals will be secondary with the current flow of income and will only be used after full approval of the board of the foundation.
- In the policy period of 2023-2025, the use of social media will become increasingly important. In addition there will be an up-to-date website. Not only will they provide information, but both the website and social media will generate funds (constant or once). This means that one of the board members will be responsible for this part of the policy. However, all board members will provide content.
- Digital awareness is important, but so is local familiarity. The aim is to have 2023 contracts met local representatives, such as: united in the Lions and Rotary Club of Valladolid.
- In addition, it’s important to visit the activities on site to form your own perspective of the activities. The goal is to visit the project at least once a year by at least 1 board member.
Annual Account 2021
This school year, the schools in Mexico reopened after a closing of a year and a half. This meant that we were finally able to start working on our goal: good education for all the children from San Francisco el Grande. This was easier said than done, because of a lack of reliable people on site. After an extensive visit, this problem was solved and a highly motivated team of three people, led by school psychologist Ana Milca Uitz.
By joint effort we strengthened the ties with two schools in the village, we established good contacts with the regional educational organization CEDE and the good results occurred immediately. Giovanny was finally able to go to school in Valladolid, Gema was allowed to come back to the Secundaria, just like prelingually deaf Marcus, and Geyler could dream of his dream to follow a degree to being a cook. We were allowed to provide the classrooms of Primaria with new projectors and we’re currently investigating in what ways we can help Secondary Education rise to a higher level.
Alll of the above has become visible in our account with expenditures in the last few months of this year. Since the ice and pandemic weather lately, we expect our to have more spending in 2022. This shouldn’t be a big deal, because that’s what we’re here for. However, we now need to consider how our funds can grow equally to the spending. Truly, a great goal for the board that’ll expand with two new board members. We’re excited for the future ahead of us!
The Debit and Credit Balance
On December 31st 2021, the Foundation had no buildings, inventory or other material items. The balance on the account had an amount of 18.348,87 euro’s.
Profit and Loss
Income:
Periodic donations €900,00
One-time donations €4420,00
Total €5320,00
Expenses:
Fees for volunteers €3600,00
Subscription website €264,92
Transaction costs €149,35
Allowance €229,69
Donations €984,16
Total €5228,12