Here are some organizing tables for your information. Yell if you need help filling things in.

I've spent most of today writing up an application to the Nominet Trust for funding Butterfly in four areas - Kampala, Lyantonde, Gulu and Masaka. I have had a promise of some support for Butterfly in the existing projects, but also some opportunity to apply for funding to another trust for the Gulu project.

Some of this will materialise, I'm certain, but a realistic start for Gulu/Masaka might be Spring 2010, with the remote possibility of new year. If minimal funding comes through, then I think we will concentrate on just the existing two projects and make sure they work well.

Ben Parkinson said:

I've spent most of today writing up an application to the Nominet Trust for funding Butterfly in four areas - Kampala, Lyantonde, Gulu and Masaka. I have had a promise of some support for Butterfly in the existing projects, but also some opportunity to apply for funding to another trust for the Gulu project.

Some of this will materialise, I'm certain, but a realistic start for Gulu/Masaka might be Spring 2010, with the remote possibility of new year. If minimal funding comes through, then I think we will concentrate on just the existing two projects and make sure they work well.

Thank you Ben for making this possible. The promising news potrays the value people attach to the Butterfly Project. We shall keep our hands crossed so the required funding can be raised for the four projects to be implemented.

Ben thanks for working hard to see that all these is happening , I mean the far that you have gone. It's never easy to set up anything, but I am happy that the pace at which this one is moving, is still very okay. We keep praying that all these get going .

I have just returned from Kitgum with Grace after visiting two villages, who have women's groups farming, but also gathering shea nuts, the main reason for the visit.

I saw the chance to interview a few children living in the tiny village of less than 50-60 people. Most were a little scared to say anything but one, in particular, was ready to talk about her circumstances, how the village could be improved and contribute to the adult debate. She was probably around 12 and clearly a Butterfly prospect.

A few will know that the original pilot was tested in such villages (in Nigeria), where the dwelling were huts and the livelihood the lands around them and I felt a yearning to try to realise the project in Kitgum, which has been the district in Uganda most impacted by the war. Now people are returning to their villages and there is a need for social innovators, people who can not just revive and rebuild their previous lives, but also those who can design and build a new future for villages in Africa.

While our project is still very new and finding its footing, we have discovered some very special young people, who could be these social innovators and I feel quite strongly that we are in a better position to recruit another group, now we have learned what we are looking for.

The other issue, of course, is Social Enterprise Africa's work to stimulate the shea butter industry there and the need in time to train up young people who can capitalise on these assets in the future, as well as conserve these very trees from becoming charcoal. So we are starting to link up our visions on Butterfly with the agricultural development aspirations.

I am currently in Yumbe, about 80km NE of Arua, which is 500km NW of Kampala. There is no electricity here, but it seems like they've adapted. Prices are quite high here, the generators go on, when the sun goes down and there seems an awful lot of innovation, for an area of disadvantage. There is oil quite nearby at the Neptune drilling rig and I guess that may have had some impact on the money circulation.

I have found another useful partner organisation here, called "Here is Life" and we have been discussing Butterfly and the shea nut issue and feasibility. I feel I have matured my thinking a little now and consider that Butterfly is now one of a batch of initiatives, which need to work in parallel:

1. An obvious local asset, such as shea trees, where local people can be mobilised to become more efficient in their "production"
2. A graduate entrepreneurship "orientation" programme. Graduates from a rural area, currently languishing in Kampala unemployed are taken onto a practical entrepreneurship programme, already devised by KEST
3. A specialist farm senior school, where the most competent pupils are given free places and given an enhanced and expanded curriculum to include farm management and agricultural entrepreneurship
4. The Butterfly Project, where gifted and talented youth are trained up to be visionary citizens of the world and devoted changemakers in their communities.

So...

b), c) and d) are funded by profits from a).

Yumbe can now be added to our list of feasible locations, with viable and enthusiastic partners.