Forward Foundation

Deirdre Tidy is an executive coach who’s worked with our founder, Forward in the past. In January she went out to share her wisdom with our partners, Livelyhoods in Kenya. She’s written a little follow up…

(Pictured: the iSmart team and Dierdre)

During my recent trip to Africa, I had the pleasure of working with two organisations that the Forward  Foundation supports and this is my story.

(Pictured: Livelyhood’s iSmart team and their products)

Based in Nairobi, Kenya Livelyhoods is run by two energetic and enthusiastic individuals – Maria Springer and Tania layden. Their newly formed organisation creates sales jobs for unemployed youths in the urban slum areas , as well as giving families in those areas the opportunity to buy eco products such as their best selling charcoal stove which is cheaper, safer and quicker than normal stoves – so winners all round.

I spent time reviewing their organisation structure and future strategies, as well as attending a team meeting where I did a short session on coping with change and where a tasty and substantial lunch is always served –  evidence of which you can see in the photo.

I am continuing to have coaching calls with Tania and Maria.

Executive coach, Deirdre spent time with partners Educate in Kampala, Uganda, and provided some support and advice around the development of their organisation. Here’s what she got up to…

Educate’s aim is to develop young entrepreneurs and leaders in Africa through a mix of courses, long term mentoring and giving individuals practical experience. Since it started 4 years ago they have been very successful in this aim and now work with 3600 young people across Uganda and recently had their ideas incorporated into Uganda’s education system so hope to now reach up to 25,00 students annually.

(Pictured: Deirdre running a Myers Briggs session) 

This rapid growth, means that the organisation already employs over 50 people and so I spent three days with them at the end of January to assist them with organisation development. Part of my time there was spent running a Myers Briggs session (see photos below), which caused much laughter as well as learning. In the training I use an exercise asking the delegates to write the instructions for making a cup of tea – only in Africa could one group start by telling me to go to the bush and pick a few leaves! Again I am continuing to support them with telephone coaching.

Following 12 months of challenges and continued instability, War Child have been reassessing the whether they will be able to effectively deliver the CAR project initially planned. They won’t, is the answer. The country is not stable enough.

The money raised by Forward through Charity of the Year will be supporting a project in CAR, but the project will look a little different.  Elisabeth has written a little more on why and how the project has evolved… 

Background

As a result of the recent increase in violence many children and youth in CAR have been victims or witnessed traumatic events including looting of their homes, killings, brutalities, sexual abuse. It is hard to measure the psychological, emotional and mental damage on the population. The consequences are both immediate, medium and long term if appropriate support is not provided.

The crisis has not only traumatized children, women, youth and adults but it has also disrupted their livelihoods, including their capital and other productive assets and has aggravated the level of poverty and vulnerability.The consequences of the psychological trauma are particularly due to limited knowledge and understandin of it by the general population in CAR.

The psychological trauma negatively interferes in all aspects of life, including general protection, education health and development. CAR lacks qualified resources to properly address this issue and limits itself to the support of a few specialized international humanitarian organizations.

War Child’s aim

To mitigate the psychological and emotional effects of the recent crisis on children, youth and families through training and awareness raising as well as support to build resilience and reduce future risks and vulnerability. 

The project will use and support existing community protections and support mechanisms and relevant and culturally sensitive approaches aimed at encouraging families and friends of the victims to adopt supportive measures and attitudes.

How the project will work

This project will aim to put in place mechanisms for interventions to early address psychological traumas and their consequences, and establish strong support systems for victims, especially for the most vulnerable who are children, youth and women.

This project will be led War Child UK, who will provide technical expertise not only in the direct implementation but also in building the capacity of our main local partner to ensure sustainability of the project. The active participation of local partners, Association Femme Action Plus (AFAP) will strengthen the project in terms of its outreach to cover children and youth out of school as well as women.

The project will work directly with the 5 largest public and private secondary schools in Bangui, with students, school authorities, PTAs, teachers who will be directly involved in project activities. In partnership with AFAP, selected women’s groups in different neighbourhoods of Bangui will participate in training and awareness raising activities to help assess and then enhance their resilience and rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

War Child work in difficult, volatile and unstable countries. Central African Republic (CAR) is one of these places. Staff at our founder, Forward have been fundraising for a project here, through Charity of the Year. War Child have faced several problems in CAR over the last 12 months, which are meaning changes to proposed livelihoods project. Elisabeth from War Child writes more about some of those challenges..

Recruitment challenges

Operating in unstable environments can cause additional issues and in 2012 we faced the challenge of building our team in CAR.

Recruiting field teams can be a difficult process as the job requires individuals (and often their families as well) to move to, live and work in extremely impoverished environments and face the daily risks presented by conflict affected areas; something that the team in CAR have recently experienced the reality of.

Recruiting staff in CAR took us longer than we anticipated but the team we have in place now are doing an incredible job of keeping the programme running and ready to deliver projects that are of vital need.

Our current team Eric, Country Director and Silas, Child Protection Programme Manager in CAR both joined War Child in December 2012. Eric and Silas are currently living in Cameroon where they are planning their re entry into Bangui once the situation is secure enough for them to return with their families.

(Pictured: County Director Eric and Child Protection Programme Manager, Silas)

Increasing instability in CAR

CAR has been facing recurrent political and military crises over the past few decades since CAR gained independence in the late 50’s and for nearly one year now various armed groups have plunged the populations in a traumatic, emotional and psychological situation.  

 In November 2012 rebel coalition group SELEKA swept across the country causing violence towards civilians, recruiting child soldiers and building up their forces which would eventually, on 24^th March 2013, take control of the capital city, Bangui.

The population of CAR, who already face daily struggles ranking 180 out of 187 countries on the UNDP Human Development Index, have been suffering the subsequent traumatic period which has followed the rebel takeover including lootings, killings, brutalities, rapes, and other physical and moral abuses.

Young girls and women are the most affected as they are exposed to physical and sexual abuse. Youth have been enrolled by force in the armed groups before and after the takeover of Bangui.

 The rapid increase in violence during this period meant that the War Child team, along with many other NGO’s in CAR had to leave the South East of the country and more recently evacuate Bangui itself after being held there by rebels for a number of days despite support from the UN security system.

So what does this mean for the project Forward are supporting in CAR? It means the design of it has changed. Read more about changes to the project in CAR.