Women and Awesomeness Part II

Chairman Benjamin Okalo addressing the women's group

The following is part of the weekly update I wrote, to keep everyone involved about the progress of the group.  We also had a VERY successful Customer Care workshop yesterday!  The women learned from the banda manager Solomon and a KEEP Nature Walk guide Enosh, I provided the role playing scenarios.  Tomorrow we have a Tour Guide workshop, and on Friday we're doing a jiko installation practical! (see below)  Very awesome and exciting things going on at KEEP this week :-)

Last week started off really positively.  There was another meeting with the womens’ group on Monday, and this time Chairman sat in and gave his input about the group and the community tours.  He is REALLY excited about this initiative and had a lot of ideas!! I was so happy to have such positive support and participation from the executive board for this new program.  Chairman thought it would also be a great opportunity to involve the women in more of KEEP’s outreaches, like the jiko stoves and running workshops.  Enosh is going to run a workshop next week on how to install the jikos, and the women are going to be going around the village advocating for the jikos.  Every installation they complete will get them 400 shillings!!  So it would be a great opportunity for some income generation for them, and it will help get rid of the three-stone hearth that uses a lot of firewood and also produces a lot of unhealthy smoke.

Enosh leading a workshop on Customer Care

                                           

So next week we have a Customer Care workshop planned for Monday, and I’m also having Adult English class sign up.  I’m expecting a lot of women to sign up, I want to have a class on Wednesdays and Fridays for anyone interested, and I will hopefully be able to split up the group into two skill levels.  We are also doing a guacamole making class on Tuesday!  The women requested it, because they want to know how to make it for visitors who maybe don’t like traditional food (this kind of forward-planning shows how excited the women are for the village tours – I really hope we can do some runs in the next few weeks!