PRETORIA PROPOSAL -- FY'09 TAFT FUND FOR REFUGEES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 000728 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/S, PRM FOR M.LANGE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREF SOCI ASEC CASC SF ZI SUBJECT: PRETORIA PROPOSAL -- FY'09 TAFT FUND FOR REFUGEES REF: A. STATE 14280 ¶B. CARRAWAY-LANGE EMAIL OF 14 APRIL 2009 -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. Post hereby submits a proposal (ref B) for PRM's FY 2009 Julia V. Taft Fund for Refugees (ref A),recommending a grant of $20,000 to Ikenze Kungwe Mazwi Community College, a start-up elementary and high school serving children of Zimbabwean migrants in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Funds will be used to purchase PCs and printers for a student computer room, microscopes and electronic equipment for a science lab, and a long list of basic text books. Given the increased influx of Zimbabwean migrants into South Africa in the last year, many of them coming to Hillbrow, these teaching aids are intended to bridge the gap until the College can sustain itelf with government support. End Summary. -------------- Project: Purchase of School Equipment -------------- ¶2. Proposed purchases fall into three categories: computer room equipment, science lab equipment, and a school library of teaching textbooks. For the computer room, an existing facility with a dedicated teacher but insufficient stations for teaching entire classes, are budgeted 30 desktop computers (the largest line-item purchase, for about $13,500) and three laser printers. The science laboratory's largest purchases for biology and physics courses are three microscopes and three oscilloscopes alongside various other electronic meters, gauges, and experiment kits. Books encompass a full range of standard subjects for grades four, five, six, and seven. The proposal's budget appendix offers a detailed shopping list, including actual price quotes obtained from suppliers. The total of the three areas -- about $14,000 for computers, $3,000 for science, and $8,000 for books -- exceeds the grant value of $20,000, but that total is made up of many discreet items that can easily be pruned to the budget ceiling. ¶3. Given the nature of this proposal as a one-time procurement, rather than a year-long performance of an activity, Post recommends an accelerated timetable for disbursement. We suggest we divide the grant in two tranches of $10,000, per usual practice, in order to verify that money is spent correctly; but immediately on verification of the first tranche of receipts we ask that we may disburse the �00A;second tranche of $10,000 without waiting for midyear. -------------- Recipient: School Assisting Zimbabweans -------------- ¶4. Izenzo Kunge Mazwi ("Action Talks Louder than Words") Community College was opened in July 2006 in the immigrant district of Hillbrow to serve foreign migrants' children from kindergarten through grade 12. While its 700 students represent 14 nationalities, the students are overwhelmingly Zimbabwean, reflecting the lion's share of English-speaking migrants in the area. Accomodating migrants' often sudden or unplanned movements, the College takes in new students at any time during the school year, not just on the government's annual defined entry dates. It also takes a flexible attitude toward identity documents, a hurdle for many migrant children to gain admission to SAG schools. These two policies minimize the disruption of schooling often faced by children in displaced families. Judith Sidambe Ncube, the school's passionate and persistent director, began calling refoff last year urging a visit, then conducted a two-hour Qrefoff last year urging a visit, then conducted a two-hour tour of every classroom (in a high-rise facility that seems to be an abandoned state school) cataloguing every need. Refoff sees good potential for positive press coverage of a handover of school supplies by our chief of mission. -------------- Criteria: Tangible, Urgent, Long-Use -------------- ¶5. Through outreach to refugee NGOs and their networks, Post was able to elicit 13 proposals this year, among them some very good options for PRM funds. Our six-member selection committee of political, economic, public affairs, and USAID officers initially had individual preferences for eight of the proposals -- a good sign of a reasonably high standard of PRETORIA 00000728 002 OF 002 submissions -- but was able quickly to converge on three finalists. We liked the African Disabled Refugee Organisation (ADRO)'s plan to send Cape Town asylum seekers to job-training courses at a local community college, which could potentially create income for migrant families; but past experience made us hesitant over job placement rates. Similarly we very much liked the Tshwane Leadership Foundation's concept of community-based action to discourage xenophobia and promote non-violence, action which is desperately needed in South Africa, but the proposal was not specific enough on the nature of its interventions for us to feel we could verify its impact. In the end we agreed on Ikenze's request, as a very tangible contribution to a community of new arrivals with urgent needs. The equipment and books will have immediate benefit but are also likely to be used for years to come. LA LIME