Making Donations
“The Got Matar Community Development Group thanks the large number of people as well as foundations and trusts that have generously contributed to our educational programmes. We have done our best to make prudent and efficient use of your donations and we hope that you can share our pride in what has been achieved. With your help, the livelihood prospects of thousands of young people have been transformed and the whole community can look to a better future.”
How to Donate
Most donors prefer to make gifts to Got Matar through payments made to our partner registered charities that issue receipts that can be used to claim income tax rebates and – as in UK – to enable the intermediary charity to benefit from Gift Aid. The two charities are Ace Africa (UK) www.ace-africa.org for donations in Sterling and other currencies and, as of July 2023, KARIBU ASSOCIAZIONE ONLUS www.lakaribu.com in Italy for gifts denominated in Euros, The concerned charities will retain donations and periodically transfer the accumulated funds to Kenya when these are required by GMCDG for implementing agreed priority programmes.
Please note that Associazione SONIA is no longer accepting donations for Got Matar.
Arrangements for donations by these channels are explained below.
It has become increasingly easy for individual donors to make their donations directly to Got Matar Community Development Group’s bank account in Kenya and so I suggest that you may want to explore this option.
Donate to Global Giving
GMCDG is a registered and certified member of Global Giving and this make it possible for North American donors to make tax-deductible gifts to GMCDG.
Donations in support of Community Housing Programme may be made via
Link: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/kenya-build-houses-for-poorest-rural-families/ Short link: http://goto.gg/70736
Donations in support of the boys’ hostel construction may be made via Link: https://www.globalgiving.org/
Donations to pay school fees to support 120 vulnerable children at Got Matar Secondary School and provide free school lunch programme for the 420 children at Got Matar Institute of Technology to enhance their concentration and well being in school and also prevent them from dropping out may be made via Link: https://www.globalgiving.org/
Summary:
Got Matar Community Development Group (GMCDG) aims to provide low-cost decent housing for 30 very poor local rural families within 3 years. This will protect them from risks of building collapse, lack of security and bad sanitation and will enable them to live in dignity.
All planning and building work will be done by teaching staff and students of our Community’s flourishing Institute of Technology (IoT) where Global Giving is already helping students to construct a much needed boys’ dormitory.
In addition to their normal training, 140 students who are being taught to be masons, plumbers, electricians, blacksmiths, and carpenters will gain valuable joint learning by doing experience through being retained as paid in-house apprentices. This will enable them to pay their tuition fees and to take pride from helping people in need.
Funding Amount/Goal:
284,000 US DOLLARS.
Our goal is to raise US$284,000, of which direct costs of house building would be US$ 210,000 and the rest would pay for extra building equipment (US$60,000) and extra management costs (US$14,000).
Challenge:
Around 2000, our Got Matar community was ravaged by HIV/AIDS that killed many of its working-age population and left 30% of children as orphans mostly cared for by surviving grandparents.
We had to accept that we had lost a generation and realised that we would have to work together to do everything in our power to address this disaster by creating good educational opportunities for our remaining children.
We have stuck to this goal for 25 years and – with support from donors and the government-we have upgraded our 10 primary schools, created a secondary school with almost 1,600 students, and, since 2012, have been building, equipping and managing the non-profit IoT where over half of the fee-paying 400 students are female.
We are proud that many of our former students are doing a lot to uplift the local economy but we are very worried that hundreds of families still live in deep poverty, visibly reflected in deplorable housing conditions.
Solution:
We have decided to extend the IoT’s practical training activities so that these have a direct impact on poverty while enriching students’ learning through engaging them in real-life situations. For this, students will be retained as paid apprentices to work together on planning and building houses out of their normal study hours. To strengthen a sense of ownership, new house owners will be invited to help, to the extent they can, in building (e.g land clearing, painting).
We have tested this approach by building a new cottage for Mary
who is the impoverished 80-year old widow of the land owner who gave the Community the land on which the Secondary School and IoT are built.
The new building (400 sq ft) has been constructed entirely by student apprentices and their instructors, for a direct cost of US$7,000, close to Mary’s collapsing lodging.
Both Mary and the students and their instructors are very happy! Please click on the link: (https://www.gotmatar.org/community-housing-programme/) to read the full story and see photos.
Long-Term Impact:
Enabling poor families to live in better conditions in rural areas will reduce inequality, lead to better health and hopefully stimulate lasting rural development.
Students who have taken part in the programme will be better qualified for employment in Kenya’s growing construction industry than those whose practical training has been confined to single skill courses in the IoT’s specialised workshops.
The existence of the programme, in which students will earn enough from their practical training to meet their tuition fees, is likely to stimulate increased enrolment in the IoT.
The house building programme also sets a valuable precedent for students attached to other IoT training departments, such as ‘Beauty Therapy’ and ‘Food and Beverage’ ,to have part of their training involve voluntary activities to improve health and nutrition in the community.
We also hope that our donors will draw satisfaction from being able to be sure that their donations are being put directly into such worthwhile investments.
[Please note that donors who, alone or in a group, meet the full costs of a house, can request that it be named after a person or place of their choice. The request should be made to the GMCDG Coordinator by email (ochienggrace2012@gmail.com)]
Donate to Ace Africa
Donations in support of the educational programmes of the Got Matar Community Development Group may be made via the registered charity Ace Africa (UK): https://www.ace-africa.org
Donors are asked to pay either by cheque or bank transfer, made in the name of Ace Africa (UK). It is important to indicate that the purpose of the donation is ‘support to Got Matar education programmes’. UK tax payers should indicate whether they would wish their contribution as eligible for Gift Aid. To ensure that full information is provided, donors may wish to complete the donation form which can be downloaded here:
Cheques
Please send a cheque payable to ‘Ace Africa’ to: Ace Africa (UK),
c/o Lockton Companies LLP,
The St Botolph Building,
138 Houndsditch,
London EC3A 7AG
Bank Transfers
CAF Bank: 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4JQ. England
Account name: Ace Africa UK
Sort Code: 405240
Account number: 00017187
SWIFT: CAFBGB21XXX
IBAN: GB65CAFB40524000017187
Contact
ajay.vasa@ace-africa.org
tel. (+44) 07440122478
Donate to Karibu Associazione ONLUS
As noted on the home page, Salvatore Fabrizio (Popi) has kindly agreed for Karibu Associazione ONLUS to receive Euro denominated donations to Got Matar, and to forward them to GMCDG’s bank account with the Cooperative Bank of Kenya by foreign bank transfer (‘bonifico estero’). He will issue a receipt to the donor and share a copy of the transfer document (which includes information on his bank’s transfer fee) with both the donor and with the GMCDG Programmme Coordinator, Grace Ochieng Andiki.
Grace, in turn, will forward to the donor an e-mail receipt (prepared by the GMCDG treasurer) that indicates the applied exchange rate and
local bank handling charges. She will attach a scanned version of the receipt in an e-mail letter of thanks in which she indicates the specific purposes for which the donation will be used.
Donations may be made in the form of bank transfers, credit card allocations or cheques. In all cases, the donor should make it clear that the funds are intended to be used for Got Matar (rather than other Karibu activities).
Banking details:
Account name: Karibu Associazione ONLUS
Bank: Banca Popolare di Sondrio
IBAN: IT78K0569601609000006933X61
Bic/Swift: POSOIT2105Y
We suggest that potential donors contact Popi by email (kiborafarm@lakaribu.com) or telephone (0039 3889782864) to explore options.
Donating directly to Got Matar Community Development Group
If donors are not in need of receipts for donations for tax rebate purposes, they may find that the simplest way of donating to GMCDG is to make a direct transfer from their bank account by bank transfer or ‘bonifico estero’.
The details:
Beneficiary Account: Got Matar Community Development Group (GMCDG)
Address: PO Box39, Nyamonye, Kenya
Bank: The Cooperative Bank of Kenya Ltd Financial
Account number: 01100013704300
Swift/BIC: KCOOKENA
Purpose: Donation to Got Matar Community Development Group (add details – for example ‘to buy computers’, etc)
If using this approach, please inform Grace in advance by e-mail at: ochienggrace2012@gmail.com and then send her a copy of the transfer document.
The GMCDG accountant will prepare a receipt, indicating the amount sent; the exchange rate: the amount in local currency transferred into the GMCDG account, and amounts paid for local bank handling charges. Grace will forward this by e-mail to the donor, together with a letter of thanks that would indicate the specific purpose for which the donation was used.
Total Donations
The total amount of foreign donations to Got Matar between 2006 and 31st December 2022 amounts to approximately Euro 1 million (US$ 1.1 M or £860,000).
Of this, about Euro 550,000 has gone to the Secondary School with Euro 315,000 being invested in buildings and equipment and Euro 235,000 covering the initial recurrent income deficit and the bursary/scholarship programme.
Since 2012, most donations have gone into the Institute of Technology. Out of a total amount of Euro 450,000, about Euro 265,000 has been spent on buildings and equipment, while Euro 185,000 has covered the operating cost deficit.
National Funding
The Ministry of Education meets a large part of the staff costs of GM Secondary School, and is responsible for maintaining the facilities. Other operating costs are met by school fees paid by parents/guardians and, in the case of bursaries, by the Bursary Fund. The Ministry has built teachers’ houses, as foreseen in the school development plan. In 2010, the Constituency Development Fund paid for the installation of a mains electricity connection for the school, and has also financed the construction of a full-scale science laboratory, additional classroom space and an administration block, opened in 2020.
Individual Kenyan contributors have financed the purchase of a school bus. Former students of the Secondary School are now financing most of the present bursaries.