LIFOA (Life is Full of Acronyms)

Two days in to work and I already get my first holiday? I hope everyone had a joyous Martyrs Day on Friday.

Leading up to this luxurious three day weekend I began a needs assessment at ORUDE, burying myself in reading material in order to understand the organisation's mission and prior projects. ORUDE has recognized that they would like me to help with some needs in Mafubira. Mafubira is a community which is home to ORUDE's (are you ready for this) MARUSACCO, their most developed SUSALECO. MARUSACCO consists of five VSLG, further divided into FABAs. The SACCOS ORUDE starts and supports work to empower women in rural areas who don't have access to loans from MFI's because of their high risk potential. ORUDE's current Strategic Plan of ERUSCA lays the guidelines of where they want MARUSACCO to be in three years, entering independence from ORUDE, and upon my visit to the community tomorrow I will continue developing a SWOT to see where I can contribute!

My training feels scattered, from stats classes to folkloric studies of what creates a community, to three long days of community development training. I am straining to compound my knowledge in able to create a sustainable impact. My work plan should be set by Wednesday, and I am feeling the immensity of what profound changes can result if I work hard and smart.

I have found the limits and bounds of my project, in my eleven (now ten) week departure and a $200 grant. I want to push those limits, and I just feel tomorrow can't arrive soon enough so I can meet these groups so I can start thinking big (and realistically) for a SMART goal.

To avoid a total muzungu move, I have not taken as many pictures as I would have liked to be able to share, but I do hope to describe in great detail what I have seen and experienced with my host family and throughout this lovely little town, but all these acronyms have worn me out. So that is a blog for another day.

Acronym Key:

MARUSACCO - Mafubira Rural Saving and Credit Co-operative (Limited)

SUSALECO - Sub-county Savings and Lending Co-operative

SACCO - Savings and Credit Cooperative

VSLG - Villiage Saving and Lending Groups

FABA - Farming as a Business Advocates

MFI - Micro finance Institute

ERUSCA - Enhancing Rural Women's Savings and Credit Access

SWOT - Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats

SMART - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely