Coaching weekend for Tjeko

I have to say --- the idea to start a social profit themepark in Uganda has not left my thinking for more than 12 hours at a time. I know i've not written too much about it - partly because I am slowing down on web-time/partly because I've been moving houses. But trust me - we are moving forward. It's amazing too see the reactions. but it can't just stay with reactions. It is time to get things rolling further.

So I decided a while back to sign-up for a coaching program of COS, a organisations financed partly by the dutch goverment to help people set-up projects in Int. development. Pretty cool that our goverment makes money availible for this! Not only do they coach, they also grant money (about 300,000 euro every month) to projects done by INDIVIDUALS, regular folks like us.

Anyway - the training was in a beautiful location with lots of food (they were not trying to 'sober' our thinking about development work). The idea is that they get a group of (in our case) about 16 people together, and coach them in their ideas of project-based working. 

I knew that our project is different... very different... most people (as was evident in this group) want to help build a school, a clinic of some sort, an orphage... but a themepark... Not too many...

Huub Severiens, the instructor of this weekend suggested me the second day: Ferdi - I think your project is actualy more of a Buisness  - why don't you try to get investers to look into it, and set it up as a buisness...

That's great - because i've had that thought several times already. He gave me some good tips. One of those I am working on today: The dutch goverment appartmently give back-ups to investments to 'buisness in development work'. Interesting... 

So where does this leave me... With new energy to get this project into reality. One day indeed, maybe all the way in 2012, we will host the president of Uganda at the official opening of the first 'social profit themepark of Uganda': Tjeko.

Stay tuned.