By Rev. Wasike and Lia

Rev. Wasike attended a Leadership and Communication Skills seminar at the beginning of the month in Nairobi with 14 other Nabuur Village leaders. The Libre Foundation organization offered the training. Eric Boss, their trainer shared all of his enthusiasm and knowledge with the participants throughout the five days of the seminar.

The areas addressed were the following:

    * conflict management
    * mediation
    * delegation
    * effective communication
    * work planning
    * instructions and coaching
    * quality of a leader
    * setting goals in S.M.A.R.T way
    * organization structures among others

The course came at the right time for Rev. Wasike. Our projects in the Community Breakthrough Support Mission are all entering different stages in their development. The material they covered in the seminar and the skills acquired will be of great value to  the furtherment of our projects. Rev. Wasike is making up  a plan for implementation of the projects in manner that the skills can add value and improve service delivery of the organization within the community.

 

By Rev. Wasike and Lia

Twenty women in CBSM community had the excitement of participating in their first business management workshop two weeks ago.

Ericah and Millicent in Nairobi, planned and organised the training session. We will write more about the event in the next days.

 

By Rev. Wasike and Lia

We have thankfully received a second micro-loan from a private lender. With this money another women co-op group will be able to open up their own Village Phone Salon.

Our business team in Nairobi (hats off to Millicent and Ericah) are in the process of making up the training material for our first Village Phone Salon Business Training Workshop. If all goes well, this workshop will take place in the next week or so. After which, the two Village Phone Salons will start their business.

 

By Rev. Wasike and Lia

The Kimilili Village Phone Salon women’s co-op received a private micro-loan from an anonymous donator to start up our first Village Phone Salon. The donor has indicated that if the first VPS is successful and if our business and marketing practices are transparent, he would be willing to make another loan or two. So, we are setting up a business structure and practices that make it transparent to everyone that we are capable of creating future successful business ventures.

This donator’s terms of loan are generous (only 5% interest on the loan compared to the micro-financing agency’s 16-18%), but also follow along the same guidelines as normal micro-financing agency for the women’s co-op.

The Kimilili VPS women’s co-op consist of a team in Kimilili and one in Nairobi.

In Kimilili, the women’s co-op consists of active members who run the business day-to-day and silent members, who act as guarantors on the loan, as well as give moral support, advice and supervise the flow of income and expenditures.

In Nairobi, the supervisory and marketing team consists are responsible for building up and training the women’s co-op in best business practices, planning the opening ceremony for the VPS business, working on marketing concepts, and supervising the bookkeeping responsibilities.

If you would like to read more about our women’s co-ops practices and all the terms and conditions of our loan and how we are going to pay it back, please go to the Kimilili blog post outlining this.