It is really thrilling to watch the local women embrace the learning we’re bringing to them. Yesterday, the main topic of the session was budgeting, a concept that is foreign to most of the population! This topic is especially important to the women now as they will receive a micro loan, a large amount of money for them, and they need the skills to manage it so that it truly helps them create a business that will be sustainable and enable them to work their way out of poverty. We are committed to changing lives– not just lending money and having it repaid and thus, education is critical in this process.
After talking about budgeting principles, Scovia, the local trainer, trained by TGC, gave each participant a budget worksheet with a sample budget and a blank and asked each woman to create her own budget. Using the new calculators that we supplied to them, they went to work. There was intense concentration on their faces and yet a great enthusiasm filling the room.
Scovia (on the right) is helping ladies learn to budget!
As you can see in this photo, Scovia moved throughout the room, helping whoever needed help. The discussion afterward revealed the great need for the skill and gratitude for it.
As in any training, there is a diversity of ability and experience among the women. Those who are more advanced are delighted to share examples from their experience which is so helpful to the novices. That sharing along with a local woman delivering the training makes for a powerful experience for these lovely ladies.
Although we have trained the trainers in the TGC content (written in collaboration with a group that trains African women and culturally specific to them), it is impressive to see our local trainers add their own very relevant examples and techniques to make the training even more meaningful. In addition, the women are always cheerful and always smiling and after a break in the training, Annette, the Loan Coordinator for the Lwaboba group, would reconvene the training sessions with some kind of fun exercise to energize the group. One that Carolyn and I participated in yesterday, was their version of singing and spelling out YMCA. We were all led in writing out the numbers one through five with our bodies. This primarily involved using arms, shoulders and hips. There was a lot of misspelling and a lot of laughter! More evidence of how we are more alike than different — a little exercise and a little laughter are always welcome!
