Vital community education for a 'lost generation'

Thank you so much for your support of this project.  Irish volunteer, Fiona Twomey, as part of a team of volunteers in Kenya this month, has been helping facilitate business training courses.  We are grateful to her for sharing her thoughts on the experience for this report.

“I have been working with Brighter Communities Worldwide staff members Salim Kiprotich and Bob Collins Kipngeno, two savvy business minded men with a brilliant understanding and empathy with the participants of the business training course.

The course is run over 3 days and covers topics such as pricing, marketing, competition, book keeping and accounts and impressively climate change - something that business courses worldwide should be incorporating. It finishes with participants developing a business plan using the knowledge and skills they have gained over the 3 days. 

As part of my volunteer role, I was delighted to join Salim and Bob Collins on two courses - one at Kipsinende coffee factory with a group of excellent coffee farmers and the other in Lemotit with a group of predominantly maize farmers who formed their group in 2021 so that they could buy maize locally and sell it on together as a group with the aim of better prices.

The experience was brilliant! Through part English and part Swahili, we managed to cover all content and have some great laughs along the way. One lady, Monica even chastened me for suggesting she treat herself if her business is profitable this year - profits are for reinvesting in the business and her wages will go towards personal expenses!  A lesson well learned and communicated by Monica.

Importantly the class recognise the importance of record keeping now. How will they know if they make profit if they don’t write it down? They assure us that from now on they will all keep records! Something that really struck me over the two courses was the respect that the class showed each other and the good and honest conversations they were able to have as a result. Men, women, youths and older people all worked excellently in smaller groups together. Helping each other and of course having good fun too.

Now it wasn’t all work and no play of course! Over the 3 days, we were treated to chai (African tea) twice daily, Song, dance and even some hurling and camogie at the end of class on day 2 and 3. Once the class realised that the hurleys were not in fact for cooking but sport, they took to it brilliantly and we had great fun - needed after a day of book keeping! 

 We said our goodbyes at the end of the course, but Salim and Bob will return in 3 months to complete follow up, facilitate a networking session and present certificates – something that is very important for the older generation in Kenya as they can show their children and grandchildren their achievement”.