Best Budget Meeting Ever.
Is it odd to say that 2.5 hour budget meeting this morning made my day?! 🙂
I got to spend the bulk of the morning with Charles and Margaret to work on solidifying Hope’s 2012 monthly budget. Going line by line with everything from textbooks to Grade 7 exam fees, we hammered out a tight budget that will allow Hope to continue to provide all of their valuable services to the children at Hope Community School and Hope House.
While spreadsheets and accounting and budgeting are not sexy, they are the backbone of organizations around the world like Hope and Spark, enabling them to produce life-changing results for communities around the world.
For example, we recently learned that all 21 Grade 7 students from the last school year (which runs from January to December) passed the national exam that allows them entry into Grade 8. (Hope serves Grades 1-7, so after that students must go to government schools, which often have fees and uniform/shoes requirements that can be expensive.
That’s a 100% pass rate compared to the national average of 90%. It’s an incredible feat, especially when considering the impoverished circumstances of many of Hope’s students. How is it not exciting to spend the morning pinching pennies to make sure that these students will be able to be supported to continue their education in Grade 8 and beyond?!
So, after another long and joyful day, I’m signing off. (Here’s hoping I won’t wake up at 3AM tonight like I have been for the three nights! Not sure why jet lag is trying so hard to knock me out on this trip!)