In August we ran three GEAR Lab sessions in Haiti: the first for 20 students, the second for 14 and the third for 13. Together with the 14 who completed our first session in July, 61 students have now been through the programme.
We are behind our projected student count for one main reason. Gang activity severely disrupted the school year. The ministry closed schools later than expected, in July, and then opened the new school year earlier than expected, on 7 September rather than in the first week of October. That shortened the summer, so we could not run nearly as many sessions as we could have, and it made it harder to generate interest among students who had so little time off.
Budget-wise we are doing well. Our spend so far stands at $5,139.68 (about £3,830): $2,346.62 on mentor stipends, $866 on student food, $785.54 on robot kits, $520.53 on marketing, $335.99 on mentor onboarding, $156 on fuel and transport, $75.16 on transfer fees and $53.84 on miscellaneous costs. That is just about two fifths of the budget.
We still have a couple of months in the year to organise more sessions and reach our target of 120 students. With the school year already under way, those sessions will likely run at weekends rather than during the week.