the finale

Last Thursday was the last class for the pilot course “Valores Empresariales” or “Business Values.” Each week, one of the loan officers in the Income Generation Program took turns teaching one of the 8 lessons. Each one included a devotional, some kind of activity or “dinamica,” and the main lesson, with a variety of teaching, discussion, and group work.

It has been rewarding  for me to see this project finally come to fruition. I have worked on the curriculum for awhile now, so helping my coworkers prepare for class was really good and often gave me even more ideas to add to the lesson.  Personally, it was a good way to connect with my coworkers and be more involved in the day-to-day activities of the office.

Yet the most exciting thing for me was to see the women of the bank program come out of their shells a little bit more every week. They were fully engaged in all of the material and seemed to enjoy a chance to have some fun together. Often consumed with the work of running their business and their household, it was cool to see them doing something for themselves and really soaking it all up.

The topic for the last class was “Boundaries of your Business.” The idea is that one’s business is a separate entity from themselves. The business does not have aunts, uncles and cousins asking for money. The business does not have children, nor does it get sick. Instead, the business owner must be careful to separate personal needs from the business needs; protecting the capital of the business and not diminishing the investment needed to grow.

This was a tough lesson because it directly negates what the women believe about running a business. Culturally, this idea does not make a lot of sense. If you own a business, and you have cash on hand, when your family asks for assistance, it is your duty to help. How could you turn away family in need? This idea created a lot of discussion among the women…I only wish we would have had more than an hour to discuss it with them! They were definitely considering the implications of this idea, and how it would affect them personally and in their business.

Freddy, my coworker did a really good job with the lesson. He was well prepared and did not even seem flustered when some of the women disputed the main idea of boundaries in your business. He also prepared some excellent visual aids for the lesson…complete with a bucket of little paper crabs to illustrate a story. I was so excited about his class!

So after the final lesson, we invited the women to return at 5 pm for a dinner and certificate for successful completion of the course. I was in charge of the certificates and the final verbal evaluation of the class at our closing ceremony. It was not without its glitches, and stress, but I think it turned out pretty well. Each woman was so excited to receive her certificate, and the responses from the discussion I led indicated they learned a lot to help them be better business owners. So…I think it was a success! In fact, I’ll even dare to say it was a great success…much learning and fun was had by all!

One feisty old lady who was never shy about sharing her thoughts stood up at the end and thanked everyone who helped prepare the lesson. It meant so much to her that these young guys (most of the loan officers) would take the time to prepare the lesson and show a real interest in teaching the women such important things. She was grateful for the way everything was rooted in biblical lessons and that it was good information for them personally and in their business life.  My heart was warmed by her kind words :)

 

It hasn’t always been clear what my role is here, but after this class I am feeling good about the small amount I can contribute in my time here at MCM. Maybe we won’t end up developing an official business school with 3 trimesters, offering 2 courses a month and 4 classes per week like my boss initially hoped (ambitious, I know :)…but we are at least starting small, and we were successful in offering 1 course, with a lot of important topics. I can’t even tell you how exciting it is to achieve something that seemed so difficult only 4 short months ago. It is also fun to see several of my coworkers who were afraid of teaching accomplish their task, and with great success. I keep asking if they are ready for the next time around…they claim they aren’t. But the difference now is I have full confidence in their ability to do it.