Many fundraising initiatives have been started by OBs of TC for the benefit of the school, most of these with quite aggressive targets. They have had varying degrees of success and sustainability, mostly due to the set amount to be contributed being rather high, thus many OBs drop off along the way when the financial pressures of the day bite.
A few OBs, reflecting on the above trend, thought, why not set such a ridiculously low amount for monthly contribution that even when times are tough, an OB can still somewhat manage? The monetary equivalent of 4 drinks at an average hangout was thought to be a good benchmark and thus the 20K initiative was conceived!!!
The initiative started off in 2020 with 16 active members led by Mr. Stephen Ojambo as Interim Chairperson and Mr. Bob Mayeku as Interim Treasurer with Mr. Dan Namwiza as Chief Mobiliser.
The guiding philosophy was borrowed from The Buddha!
– A journey of a thousand miles starts but with a single step…
The Buddha while sitting in the woods saw an otter furiously dipping its tail in a large pond, scurrying to the woods, and shaking its tail dry.
Pray, tell me, what are you doing most honourable otter? asked the Buddha.
“Can’t you see I am emptying this pond so I can cross to the other side?” replied the otter.
The Buddha with an incredulous look asked, “and when, good sir, do you think you will complete this task?”
Oh well, that will be “never” by myself… but good sir, there are one million otters in these woods that were only waiting for one to start, they will soon join in and once they do, this pond will take no longer to empty than a small puddle” answered the otter!
Thank you, Sir, said the Buddha to the otter as he left marvelling at the wisdom in the lesson on leadership and teamwork he had just learnt from the little otter.
Whereas it is a tall order for one OB to make a UGX 100M contribution to their old school, for 1,000 OBs it just takes 20K a month per OB for 5 months!
With the above perspective, OBs contributed, and teachers were rewarded at special functions at school that ended in memorable parties at the Head Teachers residence as summarised below.
Summary of contributions and rewards
| Academic Year | O-Level Teachers (UGX) | A-Level Teachers (UGX) | School Administration (UGX) | Total Amount (UGX) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,000,000 | – | – | 6,000,000 |
| 2022 | 11,000,000 | 2,280,000 | 1,300,000 | 14,580,000 |
| 2023 | 8,785,000 | 1,785,000 | 1,500,000 | 12,070,000 |
| Total | 25,785,000 | 4,065,000 | 2,800,000 | 32,650,000 |
Note: UGX 32,650,000 was given out in total, with [name partially unclear in the image] as the highest individual contributor, UGX 5M.
It is noteworthy that the S4 class of 2023 was the last class under the old teacher-controlled curriculum. The S4 class of 2024 is on the new curriculum which is student controlled. The reward mechanism therefore must change as well and the TC20K team under the SPECTOBA executive is working out a new reward mechanism.
