YIRIWASO Accounting Training

Thanks to all of your help, we were able to fully fund a three-day accounting training for the women at YIRIWASO (a tailoring school here in Segou). I worked with Mama Traoré, a trainer with the Peace Corps, to conduct this training. We bussed him up from Bamako to spend four days with the association.

( Outside of YIRIWASO)

Mama actually should take most of the credit for the training. He conducted the three-day training in Bambara, leaving me to observe and try to help whenever there were questions. It was really great to see a Malian training other Malians. I really think there is a bigger impact on a group when they meet and are trained by a successful person of their own culture rather than being trained by an outsider who doesn't speak the local language. It provides an attainable role model -- the girls can relate to and aspire to be like Mama. As much as I want to directly help them, I will always be different because of where I'm from and what I was born with. But it was perfect to have Mama come in and inspire the girls about what they can become.

(Taking notes)

(Filling out an expense sheet.)

The training was held at YIRIWASO in a small straw hut they had built. Unfortunately, we got off to a rocky start...the first morning, it POURED. It rained straight from 4 a.m. to about 10 a.m. Streets were flooded (I had to bike through knee-deep water -- well, to be honest, it was kinda sewer-water...yuck), and the training got postponed. We were paying Mama by the day, so we prayed for the rain to stop. It finally did, and we began the training four hours late and several people short (many Malians don't travel in the rain at all).

(The girls during the training.)

Mama began the training by asking the girls what an entreprenuer was. They all answered that an entreprenuer is a man that constructs houses. He then went on to explain and convince them that THEY are entreprenuers. Before even getting into bookkeeping methods, he worked with them to change their opinion on what a "businessman" is. They never before had considered themselves entreprenuers -- they were just uneducated teenage girls who were learning how to make and dye clothes. This came as an exciting surprise to many of them.

(We had to move to this undercovered area when it started raining again.)

The training was supposed to be for 15 girls. By the second day, there were 21 attendees! And they were all very enthusiastic to learn. The girls were doing group activities and calculating expenses and revenues. They also had recently finished a three-month literacy course with an NGO, so they got to put their newly aquired reading and writing skills to use.

(Group activities)

By the end of the training, I could visibly see a change in the girls. They were filled with new knowledge about how to manage finances. More importantly, however, they were filled with new confidence in their abilities and their importance in the community. Mama told me that most of these girls never had the chance to go to school (at least to several years of school), and they didn't think that they could learn this type of thing. But now they have made that leap from being artisans to being entreprenuers, and I think they are excited to continue down this new road.

(The group)

Again, this would've never happened without your help. Thanks again to all for your contributions and prayers! It took a lot of work for Massey, Mama and myself to organize and implement this training, but I think it definitely paid off!

(The "official" shot: me, Mama, Mme. Koumare and Adama outside of the CRPA)

(Me, Mama and Mme. Koumare at the CRPA)