Bursary fund
Running · 1998
Termly fees, uniforms and examination registration for students whose families cannot meet the cost.
Welfare& projects
Two halves of the same work: a member in difficulty can ask for help without explaining it in public, and the association builds things the whole community uses.
Gulu Town Skyline 01 by Alemeneghini · CC BY-SA 4.0
What it covers
A request is filed under one of five headings. The heading decides what the desk asks first, not whether the request is heard.
Bereavement
A death in the family, and the costs that arrive with it: transport, food, and the funeral itself, often before a household has had time to plan.
Medical
A hospital bill, a procedure, or medicine that a household cannot meet in the week it is needed.
Education
Fees, uniforms or examination registration, where a family's income cannot cover them in the term they fall due.
Hardship
The sudden kind: a fire, a flood, a lost job, a harvest that failed, or a business that closed without warning.
Other
Anything the other four do not fit. The desk reads it and routes it rather than returning it unread.
How to apply
A request is four short moves, all inside the member portal. No form is downloaded, and no letter has to be delivered by hand.
Sign in
The welfare form lives in the portal, behind your membership. A request is never anonymous to the desk, and it is never visible to anyone else.
Choose a category
One line on what happened, then the account: what the money is for, what has already been paid, and what the household can carry itself.
Say what you need
An amount is optional. If you know it, give it; if you do not, the desk works it out with you rather than turning the request away.
The desk reviews
Requests are read in the order they arrive. Urgent medical cases are flagged so they are seen first, and the member can follow the status without asking anyone in person.
Sign in to apply
The welfare desk opens with an approved membership. See the four steps.
Confidentiality
Asking for help is not a public act. Nothing about a welfare request is published to the membership, and a member does not have to explain their circumstances to a committee in person.
Who reads it
The welfare desk and the treasurer. Not the directory, not the announcements, and not other members.
What is published
Totals and categories, never names: how many requests were met, in which month, and from which fund.
Where it is held
In the member database, readable only through the portal's role permissions. Welfare details are not part of the public register.
How it is recorded
A decision is not a telephone call. Every one leaves four marks, so the fund can be explained a year later to someone who was not in the room.
A status
Submitted, reviewing, approved or declined, and disbursed once the money has moved. The member sees the same status the committee does.
A reason
Whoever decides writes a note. It is attached to the request and readable by the member, whether the answer was yes or no.
A record of who
The account that decided it and the date. A decision cannot be made without an account, so it cannot be made anonymously.
An audit line
Every decision is written to an audit log the executive can read, so a change of committee does not lose the reasoning behind a payment.
Projects
Works the members agreed to fund together, each with a status and a year. The entries below come from the demo project record and stand in for the association’s own list.
Demo projectsWelfare desk
Running · 2004
Members facing bereavement, medical costs or sudden hardship apply to the welfare desk; the committee decides and records every decision.
Market drainage
Completed · 2019
Channels and covers at the market entrance, handed over to the traders' association with a written maintenance agreement.
ICT room
Running · 2022
Refurbished computer room, power stabilisers and a stock of refurbished machines for the school's practical lessons.
Girls' kit drive
Running · 2023
Reusable sanitary kits and a term's supply of soap, delivered through the school's senior woman teacher.
Alumni hall roof
Planned · 2027
Re-roofing the meeting hall so events can run through the rainy season. Planned, not yet funded.
Talk to the desk
If you are not sure which category fits, or whether a case is one the fund can meet, ask before you file. A question costs nothing.
Female Acholi Dancers by Bettycath · CC BY-SA 4.0
Gulu Market by Erinamukuta · CC BY-SA 4.0
Women Sitted under an Elephant Statue in a Market Entrance, Gulu by Chapelle musa · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs of Gulu and Acholi life from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0 / CC0). They show the world around KOSA, not the association itself.