Worklife update

Update: lots of debriefings, some core team planning, training sessions, and the Champions' graduation

Part I: HOPE people debriefings.

Roger Morgan, an Englishman living in Brussels, is HOPE's Europe & Africa Regional Director. He flew into Kigali for a MFI board meeting with Urwego Opportunity Bank, of which HOPE is part owner. While I am in Rwanda, I work for Roger. He spent a week and a half here when we first arrived and helped me understand the program, my expectations, and he also introduced me to a lot of people. Roger left November 20.

Malu Garcia is a Filipina, and she has many Filipino friends. We hope to convince them we are from the Philippines, too, because they like to get together, celebrate, and eat. Malu is a sweet, wonderful woman who is expert on savings and credit associations and training (see Chalmers Center). She has been training trainers here, and she got me up to speed on daily operations and what she has accomplished here so far. Malu has been year 1 of HOPE's savings programs, I am year 2. Malu leaves December 10.

Brenna O'Brien comes to Lancaster by way of Atlanta, a nice route, and she is a multitalented woman who works with me on the programs team back at CSU (central strategic unit). Brenna now specializes in IT systems for HOPE's network, and she actually came to Rwanda by way of the Philippines where she was helping a partner institution. She is helping us do some strategic planning for the next phase of the program. Brenna leaves December 15.

Part II: Core team planning.

Our core team for the Rwandan savings program consists of Emmanuel Karegyesa, Marie Jeanne Uwimana, Malu Garcia, and yours truly. We have done some strategizing for next year. 2008 has been training intensive, training trainers to train savings group leaders for a goal of 5,000+ savings groups. 2009 will be monitoring and evaluation, program growth, and more training. Also, we are working to strengthen the Anglican Church's capacity to do transformational development, and we are equipping the core team to be self-sufficient after I leave, though Malu and I will likely continue supporting them regularly. We are now establishing our action plan for the next year, a Gantt chart, some new policies, and trying to wrap our minds around the reporting challenges for a program operated mainly through volunteers with high costs for communication and travel. How many groups do we have and how much are they saving? Suggestions?

Part III: Training sessions.

Champions Graduation. There are 3 Champions per diocese that train trainers and promote savings. They have gone through intensive training with the core team, and on November 20^th, we held a graduation ceremony for those Champions who completed all of the training. It was a great celebration with speeches and gifts and songs and food and diplomas. Check out the slideshow of the graduation:

I also attended part of a savings group training for members of a child-headed village. There is a significant population of orphans after the war of 1994, and they have now grown up and are self-managing their own communities with the assistance of a social worker (Aunt Harriet), church staff (Especio), and some government housing. With drumming and singing in the main hall of St. Etienne's, orphans from the child-headed village prepared for another day of savings lessons including discussions on discipline and guidelines to create an atmosphere of trust and order. They have some very sophisticated ideas of how to establish trust because they have relied on their own leadership for so long now. Not all attendees were heads of households, some were younger, some missed training because they were caring for their household or working part-time somewhere or visiting a friend in a mental hospital, most were in school between early college and early high school. They all valued savings group training highly.

Soon we have another training here in Kigali, and on the 21^st there is a new bishop's ordination in the new diocese, Kivu. On the 23^rd Christmas vacation begins and goes until January 5^th.

This week, we have a new office to set up at the provincial headquarters … not to mention saying goodbye to Malu. Don't worry, she'll be back for four more trainings next year.