Raffle New #2

Dear Mmakau Bike Raffle Donors,

We have decided to stop donations to the Mmakau bike raffle sp please do not sent any more money to Paypal.  With the funds donated to date and two pending donations, we expect to be able to add over ten bikes to the raffle.  This part of the project has been a big success.  Thanks to all those who donated.

For those who were intending to donate but did not get to it yet, we appreciate that you would have contributed eventually.  For those of you who elected to pass, we understand that there are priorities.

Initially we had intended to have no limit for the donations but as we have progressed in the raffle we decided to cap these contributions.  The reason is that raffle ticket sales by village children and by Tsogo Secondary School students have been disappointing.  Of the 750 school children in Grades 3 to 7 eligible to buy tickets, only 76 have purchased tickets so far.  It takes 85 tickets to add one more bike to the raffle.  We have explained the raffle to all the kids and, although many say they are going to buy a ticket, few do.  We are perplexed by this lack of follow through which, quite honestly, is common here.

During the first week that the Tsogo class leaders agreed to sell tickets to be donated to needy village kids, they sold one ticket.  Tomorrow we will address the assembled Tsogo learners again in an attempt to interest them in this donation.  Whether or not these teenagers get behind the effort remains to be seen.

So the reason we are stopping donations is because we did not want this raffle to be entirely one sided.  As it is, the donated bikes will well outnumber those provided by raffle ticket sales.  We will continue on hoping things will improve on the local level.  Regardless, it will be a success because of friends and family who gave.  Thanks.

Gary and Merideth

Raffle News #1

 Mmakau Bike Raffle

 

If you are reading this you probably have some idea the purpose of the blog which is to let you follow the bike raffle here in Mmakau.  And you are probably one of those people who generously donated the let us buy more bikes for the raffle.



 

So far we have good news and bad news.  The good news is that from the various friends and family members we solicited for a donation to the raffle, we have received ten donations which will allow us to add nine bikes to the raffle. The majority of the donations have been enough for one bike which is great.

 

The bad news is that the raffle sales to the kids is going slow.  We have only sold 36 tickets during this first week.  In addition the bike shop owner told us that because these bikes are imported and the value of the rand has dropped since he gave his first price, the new bikes will cost $95 each.  It's still reasonable and we believe the shop owner is giving us a good deal because the bike, helmet, and lock if bought separately would cost probably $20 more than the price we are getting. 

 

Last week we took a taxi to Brits and purchased two 26-inch boys mountain bikes - one red and one blue.  Since it was Ramadan this month, the shop owner was unable to help us with transport to Mmakau so we are trying to figure out how to get the bikes here.  We might just ride them the 25 km. distance.  We will post pictures of the bikes as soon as we get them here.  We figured if the kids saw these shiny new bikes, they might be motivated to buy raffle tickets.

 

Finally, we met with the student leaders at Tsogo Secondary School and got them started with selling raffle tickets to their fellow students.  These tickets will be donated to deserving kids in the village who cannot afford a ticket themselves.  If Tsogo sells 200 or more tickets, we will raffle off to them Gary's blackberry.  If they go over 400 tickets, they will have our old digital camera included.  Incentives.  We will meet with them every Friday to see how they are progressing.

 

We will also try to update this raffle blog once a week during the upcoming five weeks when the raffle will end and a bunch of happy kids (11 so far) will be riding their new bikes.