Social Enterprises

While parents pay a nominal tuition of $1 per term (much less than government schools) and village headmen contribute $400 per year, the majority of the income generated to achieve sustainable operations will come from social enterprises.

Each school will have an adjacent Social Enterprise center, staffed by paid employees. The center will tap into the electricity provided by the school's solar panels, enabling the following social businesses that are currently in development:

Cell Phone Charging Station

In rural Zambia, roughly 50% of men and 10% of women own cell phones which need regular charging. Market rate is K2,000 or roughly $0.40 per charge. We estimate roughly 8 charges per day in a village of 1500.

$1,168 per year

Community Pay Phone

For those that don't have cell phones, we will offer a pay phone. Through a special MTN deal, villagers can make calls at half price.

$1,095 per year

Talk Time Vending

The community pay phone has the ability to sell talk time to both MTN and AirTel customers, the two main cell carriers in Zambia.

$730 per year

Movie Nights

Zambians love movies. With the e-learning projector, we will offer two movie nights per week on the big screen (one for kids, one for adults). We estimate at least 20 kids and 20 adults per week at $0.20 and $0.60 per ticket respectively.

$800 per year

Mobile Banking

Soon MTN will be introducing mobile banking, so that with the community pay phone, villagers can also send or receive up to K300,000 ($60) for a nominal fee.

$730 per year

Wholesale School Supplies

A program that has already been running for over a year is purchasing school supplies at wholesale and selling at just below retail. This gets parents cheaper supplies (on credit if necessary) and makes money for the school.

$366 per year

Lighted Meeting Space

Already the schools are being used at night for adult literacy classes and for local NGO's to meet. A small fee can be charged for use of the lighting and space.

$183 per year
* Note that all revenue figures are only estimates.