My Project is on the Web!

I've been checking Peace Corps' Web site every day, and I FINALLY saw my accounting project on it! I'm trying to raise $258 to hold a three-day accounting training for Association YIRIWASO, a women's tailoring school here in Segou.

YIRIWASO was founded in 1998 by Massey Cissoko, a woman tailor. Massey is an inspiration: she is a middle-aged single mother who is handicapped from polio. She can barely walk, but she has gone to school and trained herself in business and fashion, and now she runs this tailoring association. She is very smart, very dynamic, and very motivated. YIRIWASO takes in teenage girls and provides them with three years of "schooling." They learn how to dye fabric, make clothes, crochet, and embroider. She also works with local NGOs to give them three months of literacy training (most of the girls in this association didn't have much schooling, and therefore can't read or speak French).

I'm hoping to help Massey take her association to the next step, and provide these girls with the financial knowledge needed to become businesswomen (rather than just tailors). I've been working with Massey and Mama Traore (a trainer with Peace Corps) to plan this training. As Mama told me yesterday, these women are all entrepreneurs, but they do not yet think of themselves as such. He will try to convince them in three days that they are business entrepreneurs -- not just tailors -- and that learning and practicing good business/financial management is key to being successful. We hope to fill these girls with confidence that will help them become self-sufficient in the future.

(Mama meeting with Massey to discuss the training)

If you are interested in contributing to this project, please click on this link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=688-208& After the training, I plan to visit YIRIWASO weekly to help them practice accounting and make sure they fully understand it. I feel that this will help the project become more sustainable. We want to do this training ASAP, so I can maximise my follow-up time with the association. My goal is to work with the women every week for the next year, so that by the time I leave, Massey will be able to teach the new students accounting herself, as well as practice bookkeeping and savings for her association.