After our time of Praise and Worship we were treated to a message from Social Worker, Samuel Mwiti. His message was based on Eccl 24. Of course he gave his message in Swahili so that is about all I can tell you, except that....
...he was quite energetic and received favorably by our clients!
Our first session was led by Paul with Virginia's assistance. He spoke on Budgeting and Cash Management. First the group discussed the reasons for creating and following a budget, what a budget is as well as some practical suggestions on how to prepare a budget.
Here is Pastor Benson explaining to the group what he learned after listening to the lesson.
Mrs. Gacau then taught about Record Keeping. The group discussed; the objectives of keeping records, qualities of good record keeping, who needs our business records and types of records.
Real men serve tea!
After tea time, Samuel Mwiti returned to talk about Perseverance. The session began with a role play...
...and continued with a definition of perseverance - ability to last/continue/remain, ability to withstand pain and/or fatigue, being persistent, being patient, continuing with an effort. He cited many scripture references as God's Word has much to say about perseverance.
Following Samuel, Virginia led a session on BDS Policies and Operations. Whew! This was a lively discussion, with many questions and excellent information. Afterwards I asked Virginia if our clients were upset, but she assured me that being new to our ministry, they are very interested in how to work well with us...
...she covered many areas including criteria for being accepted into the program, how the loan process works, the makeup of groups, and an emphasis on regular savings.
Here she is answering a pointed question - even though the training was primarily in Swahili, I loved watching the body language and listening to the rapid exchange of words!
Okay - Virginia took this shot...just to prove that I actually did more than just take photos! Actually, I love helping to serve lunch...
One of my favorite 'energizers'...we sing "Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes...
...knees and toes. Head and shoulders, knees and toes...
...eyes, ears, nose and mouth...and we sing faster and faster...
After a few rounds, few of us are moving in unison!
Paul led this session on Customer Care/Service. He stressed the 'personal touch' as being very effective in making our customers want to come back to do business with us. We discussed; who is our customer? how should we handle our customers? are customers important?
Virginia facilitated the session on Business Plans, with Paul's assistance...
We defined a business plan as "predictions on expected income/expenses/profit in the mind of the planner". The group discussed the importance of a business plan and 'walked' through the preparation of a business plan, using a Chapati business as the model. The group was very engaged and seemed to enjoy this session very much.
At the end of the day evaluation forms were given out and Mrs. Gacau led the group through the questions...During the training, I - learned that..., re-learned that..., understood clearly that..., was surprised that..., was glad that..., was disappointed that...
...our clients were quite diligent about completing the forms...
Our clients showed their appreciate for us by gathering a bouquet of 'flowers'...
...and delivering them to us...
It was fun to spend time with our clients and especially to see them soaking up all that we had to share with them...now the challenge will be for them to implement what they have learned to positively impact their businesses.
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