SELF - RELIANCE
Towards paying our own way
Living Music Foundation is funded by donations from Germany. They pay for teachers, transport and instruments, and they are the reason the lessons are free.
But donations depend on people we cannot control, and we do not want a child’s music lesson to depend on that forever. So we are building income of our own, here in Mbarara.
What we are building
A RECORDING STUDIO. Musicians in Mbarara pay to record their songs with us. Our own students learn how to record and produce, which is a trade they can live from.
A SOUND SYSTEM FOR HIRE. We hire outa PA for weddings, church services and celebrations, with one of our team going along to operate it.
Donations and Business are kept apart
This matters, so we say it plainly.
Donations pay for teaching. teachers, transport, fuel, instruments. They do not pay for studio or the Sound system.
The Equipment was not bought with donated money. It was financed separately and is being paid back out of what the business earn.
The business pay their own way, and as they grow, they take over the runniong costs here – wages, the room, transport, – so that donations can go entirely into reaching more children.
Where this leads
Every recording we make and every event we supply is one less shilling the foundation has to ask for. The aim is simple; the work in Mbarara pays itself, and donations stop being how we survive,and become how we grow.
This is the same idea as the lessons themselves. We do not want to hand people something once. We want them to be able to carry on without us.