Search for our next school starts

I am definitely best left at home when the investigative trips are made to decide on our next school projects.     The Ministry of Education gives us the schools at the top of its “most desperate” list from which we choose our projects.  Put me in any of those schools and I’ll decide that we absolutely have to help them out.  But it’s actually not that simple.  Need is only the starting point – we have to identify a school with a co-operative and energetic community and also one where the money we spend will have a significant effect on the school and the kids.    That’s where Agostinho Soares, our  Timorese project manager (in the stripy shirt) comes in.  He visits the sites, talks to the community and its leaders and the teachers.  He also works with the builders to produce good pricing – and monitors work once it has started.   That process is underway now – more info soon.