The ‘Scattered Seeds’ programme involves the developing of Mission Watoto Australia non-denominational, volunteer building teams from areas other than the Brisbane Northern Suburbs. The members of such teams could be drawn from anywhere in Australia, or possibly even located in other countries. It is recognised that generally, the team members would not be available to meet and fundraise together.
It is our belief that there would almost certainly be many people who would want to be physically involved in helping the parentless children in Uganda but for one, or a number of reasons, cannot become part of a local team. Perhaps some people’s circumstances don’t allow them the time to work with a team for fundraising and attending meetings, others might live in isolation. Maybe there are some who would have liked to travel with a team in the past but were unavailable when the team went to Uganda. Relations of team members living interstate may wish to join them and become an active member of a volunteer building team.
The Scattered Seeds Programme caters for all these situations. The main criteria of course, is that those wanting to be part of the programme are passionate about helping Uganda’s parentless children.
With today’s technology it is possible to use email, social network sites, and instant messaging programs to keep in touch with each other and keep up with what’s happening for each team. Programs such as Skype can be used to have conference calls instead of meetings around tables, and emails are an easy way to touch base with the progress of fundraising activities. By fostering regular communication between participants we can develop a team relationship, which we believe is vital prior to travelling to Uganda.
The members of a Scattered Seeds team would probably only get together physically a day or so before departure, but it would be hoped by then some of them would have already met informally. Those who hadn’t, would still feel they had a reasonable understanding of their travelling companions because of the communication in which they had been involved during the lead-up period prior to leaving together.
Mission Watoto Australia would provide the management and administrative arrangements for the team and have two experienced Team Leaders travel with them. It would be necessary to recruit 12 or 13 team members who would be required to perform their own fundraising of a min. of $3,500 each. This money would all be used to pay for the building the team would help construct in a Watoto sustainable village in Uganda.
Each individual would be required to pay for their own fares and other costs that form part of the trip. This figure would be in the vicinity of $5,700 Aus. and would include air fares, meals, guest house accommodation, transport, a 3 day African animal safari plus other sight-seeing excursions in Uganda. It would also include a component to help with the team leader’s travel costs, plus the administrative costs associated with the management of the group. The trip would take approx two and a half weeks. Options would be available for stopovers at Dubai and/or Singapore on the return journey at additional expense.
As the team would be formed under the Mission Watoto Australia banner, the members would have access to Mission Watoto merchandise along with help and suggestions about successful fundraising ideas from our Fundraising Manager. They would have use of existing Mission Watoto brochures, stationery and website and even our P O Box number if that was required. Separate banking accounts would be opened for each team member so a continuous record is kept of their fundraising progress.
Communication and distance is a barrier and adds to the cost of the administrative process but this is not insurmountable, and with the communication technology available to us today, it is much easier to pull together all the people who have a passion for helping those in need in Uganda. The real positive that comes from the Scattered Seeds concept is that people who would not normally have the opportunity of helping give Uganda’s orphan kids hope and a future can now do so.
