By Xiaoping (Nancy) Tian | Deputy Director Leadership and Capacity Building
The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) continues to celebrate its coaching program! With 93 coaches and over 500 clients, CEDPA’s coaching program maintains a South-South focus by pairing coaches and clients from developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. These inspiring women all work in the field of women’s empowerment. The coaches and clients establish connections through face-to-face meetings (if possible), monthly phone calls and/or email exchanges.
In many cases, however, connecting is anything but easy. Imagine the case of coaches Marilyn and Margaret from Papua New Guinea. They each took three clients for a 12-month cycle after a regional Global Women in Management workshop conducted in Indonesia in 2010. Both of them quickly discovered that coaching clients would be a logistical challenge. The women live in the mountains, did not have reliable access to internet or telephone services through their jobs, and a couple of them did not own personal mobile phones. This type of challenge is not uncommon in the CEDPA coaching program, and in the past we have stepped up to help coach/client meet face-to-face.
In Marilyn’s situation, CEDPA quickly responded by providing funds to allow her to travel by bus to meet her clients for face-to-face coaching. Although this plan seemed simple enough, it was not easy to implement. Visiting one client took Marilyn five days, walking to the bus station and waiting for the bus which is not scheduled daily. In spite of all the hardship, she had a very successful coaching session. They mapped out the coaching objectives for the year and explored ways to remain connected.
For Margaret, it was decided that texting and phone coaching would be a possibility. One of her clients needs a mobile phone and pre-paid minutes in order to be voice and/or text coached at least once per month. The cost of a mobile phone and minutes purchased would fall just under $10 per month per client.
Marilyn and Margaret are among our most dedicated and experienced coaches and our alumnae from PNG are some of our most motivated women. For $10 per month, the experienced coach and the motivated coaches can connect.
Thank you for your contribution - your support makes a difference and is helping change the lives of women who, in turn, are making positive changes in their own communities – all over the world.
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