SPIDER DEVELOPMENT NETWORK

One People, One Community-   Purely A Youth Initiative

                                                     P.O. BOX 274-50400, BUSIA-(K)         

                               Tel: +254 735 369 516, Email- spiderdevelopment@yahoo.com

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May 7, 2012

ALL WELL WISHERS

RE: INVITATION TO THE PARTICIPATION AND CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE LAUNCH OF OUR WEBSITE AND GRADUATION OF OUR COMPUTER STUDENTS TO BE HELD ON 27/06/2012 AT TANGAKONA MARKETS.

Spider Development Network is a Self Help Group pioneered by young professionals across Busia (Busia County). We are located at Tangakona Shopping Centre, Nambale District.

The vision of the group is to see a first class society where all people live above the poverty line and literacy levels are of high standards. The mission is to have an adequate community where all members take part in development activities

The core objectives are (a) to bring all the community members together for the sake of development (b) to empower the community for the sake of development and social networking

The group started a program (Fight Against Computer Illiteracy Campaign- FACIC) in the large community. The first 35 students are graduating on 27/06/2012 and at the same time, the group will be Launching its Website.

We therefore request your office to help us in the preparation of the event both in kind and materially not forgetting attending the event. The deficit budget is attached.

The group is looking forward for your cooperation as we help the community to be computer literate.

For any clarification, please do not hesitate to communicate back.

Thanks in advance.

Okware Ong’aria Benjamin

Coordinator.

benongaria@yahoo.com

SPIDER DEVELOPMENT NETWORK

One People, One Community-   Purely A Youth Initiative

                                                     P.O. BOX 274-50400, BUSIA-(K)        

                               Tel: +254 735 369 516, +254 711 558 512: Email- spiderdevelopment@yahoo.com

 

WEBSITE LAUCH / GRADUATION CEREMONY

Date 27/06/2012

Estimate budget

The breakdown of the budget: Items that are not included are already catered by Spider Development Network
	Tents (3) two for @ 3,000/=, one for 1,500/=:  transport 1,500/=	9,000.00
	Plastic chairs- 200 chairs @ 10/=	2,000.00
	Sodas- 200 bottles @ 30/=	6,000.00
	Water- 200 bottles @ 35/=	7,000.00
	Snacks- 200 @ 25/=	5,000.00
	Branded t- shirts- 25 @ 500/= (for Spider Members)	12,500.00
	Banners  2@ 2,500/=	5,000.00
	Leaflets- 400 @ 20/=	8,000.00
TOTAL		54,500.00
NB: Ø Where the funds contributed will be more than the needed cash, the excess will help the Network to buy more computers for the community as the program has to continue to the whole population. Ø Kind contributions can be send to the lines above (M-Pesa and Zap) or deposited in the group account (Family Bank, Busia Branch- No. 079000010399- Spider Development Network S. H. G.)  or (Equity Bank, Busia Branch- No. 0780196822422- Spider Development Network S. H. G.)

One Community One People; Purely A Youth Initiative

P.O. Box 274- 50400, Busia Kenya

+254 735 369 516; spiderdevelopment@yahoo.com

 

INFORMATION OUTLET

Spider Development Network is a Self Help Group registered in Busia District with registration number 700877. The group was formed in the year 2005 and registered the same year with the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services on October 3, 2005.

OBJECTIVES, VISION AND MISSION

The core objectives are:

Ø  To bring all the community members together for the sake of development

Ø  To empower the community for the sake of development and social networking

Other objectives are:

v  To provide a resource centre in the area

v  To help vulnerable children get education

v  To promote understanding among the youth

v  To offer counseling services in the area

v  To help eradicate opportunistic infections

v  To help the youth in the locality be computer literate

v  To empower the society

Vision

To see a first class society where all people live above the poverty line and literacy levels are of high standard.

Mission                                                     

To have an adequate community where all members take part in development activities

BACKGROUND/ HISTORY OF THE GROUP

In 2005, the Students of Migori Teachers Training College had come to burry one of their lecturers (Silas Silver Dindi Onyango) who had passed away that year. The students thought that it would be wise to register a group to remember their tutor. They registered the group with the name Spider Development Network the same year as a Self Help Group. The group brought together all students of Migori Teachers Training College from Busia District, the current Busia County.

College and University Students from Tangakona formed Tangakona College and University Students Association (TACUSA) in the year 2009; in the year 2010, they opted to change the name to Rural Education Aid (REA) Kenya. The group remained unregistered until late 2010 when they opted to merge with Spider Development Network to form one umbrella group. As Spider was registered, they opted to retain the name Spider Development Network as their name. The former members of Spider Development Network were ready doing their personal businesses so they opted to live the group for REA Kenya. The group set up an office and started looking for partners to help it implement its mission. The community responded well and gave a helping hand in all this activities. Populations Service International (PSI) Kenya comes in.

Spider Development Network works with a view that as a Spider, you have to land where people do not imagine you can land there. Put a chair and a table in a room and live that place for a week, when you come back, Spiders will have developed a way out of that mess. You can fail to understand how it reaches and builds that path, but at the end of the day, a path has been build. This is how the members of this group operate- taking development where no man can dream to reach.

The Office of the Prime Minister- Ministry for State for Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 predicted that by 2012, the population of youths in Busia County would be 88,433 (Age 20- 39). In our estimates, we find that this is a very big number of people that need help to get a form of employment. The group thus comes up with internal measures that can help the general population to achieve this. Projects are the best measure to propel development in the county.

GROUP PERCEPTION

The group believes that the youths in the locality have a lot that they need to achieve. The young population had a mentality that agriculture is for the older generation; this is among the issues that Spider Development Network is fighting in the community. The projects that the group ran are towards income generating activities that will help the group to be among the top.

PROJECTS

The group will at all times make sure that the projects benefit the community members first as the group comes second, the specific members of the group will also be involved as they will be the first to benefit in everything.

Summary of Projects undertaken

Project	Location	Description
Poultry Project	Tangakona Shopping Centre	Rearing local poultry for protein i.e. chicken meat, eggs and manure
Pig Keeping	Individual homes of members who are within Nambale ans Teso South District	Keeping pigs for commercial purposes
Horticulture Farming	Within Nambale Sub- Location	Planting of horticulture crops like Sukumawiki, cabbage among other crops
Table Banking	Within members of the group	Having a rotational channels of cash where members can get some cash to improve their businesses
Health and other campaigns/ Computer	As per the MOU with the specific partners	This includes Malaria Prevention, HIV/ AIDS Education, BCP Workshops, Free Computer Trainings, Capacity Building & Empowerment among others
Maize farm	In the community	Planting maize for commercial purposes and if possible incorporating beans or soya

FUTURE PROJECTS

Project	Description
Rabbit Keeping	Keeping rabbits for commercial reasons
Restaurant	Have a place where the community can have a fordable standards meals
Horticulture Farming	Planting of horticulture crops like Sukumawiki among other crops
Revolving Youth Fund	Help youths have a fund that can encourage them invest in projects
Web site development	Have a web site that will help all partners access the information of the group online and reach a more wide area
Internet connection	Internet where the community can have a link with the outside world at affordable fees- a community cyber
Furniture- Office	Well-furnished office with enough furniture, tables and other material- this need to be in  the group shamba
BCP in schools	Training the primary pupils the need to abstain, have proper virtues in life and change general behaviors
Youth Tournaments	Mobilize the youths to participate in games as away of talent development and fostering unit
Members Empowerment	Take members out for tours/ trainings on community development and self advancement and where possible take them to colleges
Exchange Programs	Visiting other groups to see what they have done and compare with what we do as a group
Buy Land	Have land that the group can have an office and all the projects that it runs brought there, this includes plantings

SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE GROUP

Strengths	Weaknesses
Community backing Good relations with provincial administration and government departments Committed donor support and community good will	Some uncommitted membership Poor politics in the community
Opportunities	Threats
Many people willing to invest in youths	High insecurity level at a times Unpredictable weather conditions

Challenges in the group include lack of resources i.e. computers, stationeries- chairs, tables among others, financial constrains and lack of skills within some members.

PARTNERS

Among our partners we have the Community at large, Populations Services International (PSI) Kenya, Aligned Ministries and Departments, Local Government, CACC, Provincial Administration, Nyanza Health Reproductive Society (New- yet to begin) among others.

The group tries to bring the community together so as it can achieve a stable development; Thus the need for Behavior Change Communication.

With these and other, we do tend to believe that the group is doing well in the community and hope for the best in the near future. We wish that we got more partners to link us to more resources in order to help the community of Busia County and beyond.

IF EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE, TRY IGNORANCE;

Have good moral and live as per the social norms and respect the rule of law.

CHANGE BEGINS WITH YOU AND ME AND THAT YOU ARE THE CHANGE THAT YOU WANT TO SEE…

The journey that we started is long but we are optimistic that one day we shall reach the end.

We request that you be part of us. If you want the society to change, then be the change….

Regard,

Benjamin Ong’aria

Coordinator

benongaria@yahoo.com