After some confusion around the audience of the seminar I was scheduled to give, we decided that instead of an ICT awareness training, we would be doing a business development seminar with a focus on social entrepreneurship and ICT instead.
The training was on Friday at the Tibet Hotel in Lazimpat. 30 people from 8 different NGOs were scheduled to attend. In the end, only about 20 from 6 showed up, but I was still pleased with the turnout. I was also happy to see that majority of the audience was fairly young, so most were very receptive to a new way of thinking about NGOs and social entrepreneurship. The NGOs that were present were CECI-Nepal, FECOFUN, FTG, IDS, HBTL, WorldView, MCF (part of NEFSCUN) and NTAG.
Results
I tallied up the feedback form results and the overall rating was 3.46/4, so 87%. Most of the less than positive results were because some of the people felt the training wasn’t relevant to them. Tika (my counterpart) and I knew this would be a challenge because social entrepreneurship is essentially a completely new way of approaching humanitarian work and we figured there would be some resistance to change.
Making History
Once everyone left, Tika said: “I hope you realize we made history in Nepal today; no one has done a social entrepreneurship awareness training with this many NGOs at once!”. Unfortunately, at that moment, I really wished I could have done more or been a little more focused while I was preparing the training. In any case, the objective was to plant the seed and hopefully more organizations will consider social entrepreneurship as a business model.
Thank Yous
Now that my mandate is officially done, there are a few “Thank you”s that need to be said:
Anne-Jennifer
– The person in my office who’s in charge of organizing the Leave for Change program. She seemed happy when I was selected and is always encouraging me to be an ambassador for Deloitte. She also provided some Deloitte paraphernalia that I was able to give as prizes during the training and as gifts to some people in the offices here!CECI Montreal and Nepal
– Specifically; Nathalie, Geetika and Hari. Everyone was incredibly helpful in getting everything organized and everything went much more smoothly than I expected! This was an incredible opportunity to do something I love and I was happy to be selected for it!Magnus Consulting – My counterpart Tika was a really great support throughout the process and I was very happy to work with them. From day 1, I was amazed with how focused and driven this organization is in terms of making a social impact. They’ve only been established since 2004, but I would argue that they have made more progress than some of the organizations that have been around for much, much longer! Now do you see why social entrepreneurship is a better model??
Pascale Leblanc – Pascale was my pre-departure cultural awareness instructor and she has been incredibly helpful long after the initial training was completed. I’m grateful she was very proactive in offering help! She sent me some good information about teaching in a different culture and she really saved me when it came to creating a feedback form for the training!
The Uniterra volunteers
– Craig, Monica, Moose, Paul, Salome, Charles, Courtney, Anne, John, Cathy and anyone I might have forgotten. Being around other Canadians with similar objectives of making a social change was refreshing and I was glad that those who attended the seminar were able to help guide some of the discussions. Thank you!Now…off to Bangkok, Thailand for my real vacation!!
Hey Ian, glad to hear that your venture went well. send me an e-mail or fb message for the inside scoop of thailand. looking forward to hearing about it,
Dan-o
Congrats Ian! Sounds like it went superbly well! Can’t wait to see you when you’re back and hear all your stories. Enjoy Thailand!!!!
Je suis heureuse que tu ais atteint tes objectifs et ceux de ton partenaire, félicitations ! Heureuse aussi d’avoir pu te venir en aide. Profite bien de Bangkok…Wow la Thaïlande et l’Asie du sud-est font vraiment partie de mes destinations coup de coeur. Passe de joyeuses fêtes ! Pascale
DW – Thanks man! I’ll definitely let you know about Thailand! I’ve recruited 2 other volunteers to meet me there for new year’s, so I’m sure it’s going to be a fun time!!
Taryn – Thanks! I’ve got a few good ones for you! ha ha
Pascale – Merci beaucoup! Whenever you make it out to Southeast Asia, make sure you don’t miss Sri Lanka!!