A good crowd, 31 Members and 26 guests, joined President "Risk Taking Robyn", for a very enjoyable meeting. Following club announcements and formalities of the meeting, (and a very tasty meal), we were privileged to have Sam Lucas speaking on Onja, the incredible social enterprise in Madagascar that our club has supported from the outset. Sam recapped the background of the project and delivered a very detailed up-date on the progress to date. He was joined in delivering his presentation by Business Journalist and Commentator Andrew Patterson and Sam's sister Claire. Pictured below is Sam (on right), Andrew and Claire. For more information click on "Read More", below;
Just over 3 years ago, Sam identified an opportunity in Madagascar, where top level students leaving school, could look forward to earning over US$1 million over their lifetime, versus earning US$20,000 over a lifetime, as a farmer. The opportunity was to take the best of the best students, teach them English and then train them as world standard computer software code developers. The name "Onja" is a local word meaning "Waves" and is pronounced - "Orn-za".
The setup would take three years and cost US$7,000 per student, money that Sam didn't have. This is where the Rotary Club of St. Johns, along with several other clubs, Rotary International and some private sponsors, stepped in to raise the funds required. After nearly two years of securing the required funds, facilities and the required staff, students were selected and commenced their first year, learning English, in January 2019. The students have now reached upper intermediate level and before the end of the year they will be fully qualified English speakers.
The next phase of the students training will be "Software Development" and Onja are now in the process of selecting and securing the required teaching staff. Before passing over to Andrew, Sam passed on a huge thank you to St. Johns and specifically Simon, Gary and Kevin for their guidance and mentoring as well as the past four club Presidents, Ainie, Peter B, Allan and Robyn and of course St. Johns members whose support has made this dream a reality.
Earlier this year Andrew visited Sam in Madagascar having heard about Sam and Onja via the Auckland University 40 x 40 group, being 40 of our inspiring young alumni under 40 who continue to shine in both their professional and personal lives.
Andrew was looking for a magic story about a new start-up and Onja ticked all the boxes, so in order to get a full understanding of the programme, he needed to fully immerse himself in Onja which is what he did for a month in February this year. More than 80% of start-ups fail, but he sees that this programme hasn't, and he likened the work to a quote made by Steve Jobs, - "You can't change the world but you can put a dent in it".
As an independent observer, Andrew summerised his feeling by saying that that our donations are being extremely well spent and Onja has the potential to be something really BIG.
Sams sister Claire, also a member of the club and an Accountant with KPMG, sees herself as the "Governor" of Onja ensuring high and transparent business standards are maintained and that the expenditure of all donated funds down to "cents" is accounted for.
If any members have any questions regarding Onja, the progress and the future, don't hesitate to contact Claire, Simon, Gary or Kevin. Click on the link below to see a snippet of Sam's talk to the club last week.