ILP First Year

Three words would sum up my involvement and first year with ILP (international leaders Project)

Opportunity, Pride and Confidence

Now I have to admit that when I first rocked up to the first gathering I was a bit worried, there was some incredible talent around the cabin along with some very influential people in our movement and I remember thinking ‘what have I let myself into’  The task that stands out from that weekend was to stand up and read a document we had never seen before, and as I watched my ILP colleagues get up and reel off the readings I was honestly in ore and felt well out of my depth. Well that weekend in Ireland just over a year ago seems a long way away, as I sit here now reflecting I’d like to share one or two moments and learning from my journey.

During this journey I have had the opportunity to attend the European general assembly in Prague where I was voted onto the nomination committee for the executive. What an absolute honor and having to stand up and pitch myself to over 200 people from 20 countries is a steep learning curve in public speaking. I was also chosen by the World Alliance to complete a research paper on issues facing young people across Europe, again a huge honor considering I was from a YMCA in the North West of England that didn't really do International work. I was also asked to speak at YMCA Derbyshire’s 100^th year anniversary on behalf of the National movement and to promote the World Challenge, what a huge privilege to be part of such celebrations and the feedback I received afterwards from young and older people was fantastic.  

To say the project had just changed me wouldn't be accurate and I would hope that everything I did transferred down to my local work; it helped me link into networks and have contacts in other countries so much so that my local YMCA partnered up with YMCA France for a live Skype on World Challenge day. I personally have much more confidence; I believe in my own ability now and am proud to be part of such a huge movement. I think the project also renewed my passion for our movement after 8 years working at a local level it gave us another direction and provided the whole organization with excitement. I have been inspired by other like-minded leaders and youth from across the movement and I am very grateful to those who gave me the opportunity and my friends on ILP whom are all destined for great things within this movement. 

Audience Numbers and locations

During this past week 454 people have viewed this blog.

People who viewed the blog were from; the UK, USA, Poland, France, Russia, Canada, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and Kosovo.

YMCA Le Rocheton part 2

New year, new blog post. I am sorry I have not posted sooner but I have been very busy with work and Christmas plus my laptop broke so I have had to invest in a new tablet.

I believe I left off from the YMCA world challenge. Since then the honey moon period where everyone was very nice and understanding of me making mistakes at work due to not understanding is finally over but that is just life! It is fine I just learn the phrase and ensure do it correctly the next time.

Nothing too interesting happened between world challenge and Christmas. A couple of BAFA groups have been, they specialise in training to work with children, which provided some fun meal time antics with mini drama performances for the children. There has also been the veterinary group staying frequently, I love the dogs they bring because they remind me of home but I also hate cleaning the room they use after! As you can imagine it is always left in a state.

Christmas was very strange. I was the only volunteer not to return home for Christmas, mostly because my parents were living the sweet life in Spain, but it still ended up rather enjoyable. There was a big group staying over Christmas and New Year that I had the pleasure to spend Christmas Day with. This was a group of about 30 disabled people, aswell as 3 or 4 carers, having a little holiday at the Rocheton. I have always been told how hard working with the disabled is hard but believe me working with them and they do not even speak your language is definitely one of the hardest things I have done! Still I powered through playing table football and drawing pictures untill Father Christmas, or the Pere Noël, arrived with their presents. It was absolutely wonderful seeing how happy these people were and how much they enjoyed the whole day, it really did make my Christmas memorable.

New year was a different story. My friend had come to visit me and I had taken two days off. I'm not going to go into detail but in a nut shell it involved beer, clubs, bars, Germans and absolutely no fireworks on the Paris skyline. Still a good night though.

Now here we are, the present. Back to picking up rubbish, arranging conference rooms, fixing everything and riding on the back of a tractor. Do I still love it? Of course I do!

Day of Plans and Strategy

First full day of meetings and discussion completed. You could not help but be impressed with what this YMCA is doing. The engagement of young people and their committment and ability is stunning.

At 8.45am today I counted approximately 100 young people sitting in front of computer screens undergoing training in IT. We heard in the presentation this morning that 67% of the population are under 35 and 80% of the active population are unemployed. Staggering. Perhaps that is why the YMCA comes across with such passion to tackle the subsequent issues. It is great to see the Board members, CEO, Branch managers and senior staff including head of finance activitly contributing to the discussions on the new plan.

Also included in the group are the newly elected President and Vice President of the National Youth Council who are both young YMCA Volunteers.

One of the stakeholders present at the meeting, the president of the National Students Union said he was joined by the Federation of Liberian Youth in thanking the YMCA for their work on ensuring that youth issues are kept on the Governments agenda. The key areas of work that the YMCA in Liberia fall under three key themes, 'Youth Leadership', 'Education and Employment' and 'Health & Environment'. Their strap line is 'Empowering Young People for the African Renaissance'. Heading off now for a debrief on today before dinner with Carlos from African Alliance, Steve and Darlene from Totonto Canada, Ricco fromm Y USA and Harriet from Y Care International. I have not forgot about the promissed post on the former young combatants and we are also paying a courtesy visit to the Vice President of the Republic of Liberia. Expect more tomorrow,

Discovering the YMCA Liberia

My second day of fact finding about the YMCA took me on three visits. The first was to the Paynesville YMCA Community school. Offering formal education to some 457 children and young people. Jacob Sandolo, Principle of the school beams with pride we he told me the school was intended to take 350 pupils but due to the quality of the education and levels of attainment,the school population has grown to 457 pupils.

The education attainments are achieved through 16 Teachers working in 12 Classrooms.

We moved on to visit two placements under a EU and Comic Relief funded programme. This programme is entitled the'Supporting youth livihood Project' The first was to visit a 'one student' placement in electronics;

There have been 579 completers on this programme with 55% of completers being in work or self employed when a follow up survey was carried out. Moving on then to a placement in motor mechanics and here two students are on placement.

truely inspirational work. In my next post I hope to share a motor bike project with former young combatants from the Civil war which only ended in 2003.

The YMCA in Liberia is Buzzin

Let me see if I can something of the life in the YMCA in Liberia, West Africa. The YMCA runs a programme of Intersport activities across the country and recently 2000 young people attended an event. The YMCA coordiates a network of Youth Councils in sixteen schools all organisted by young YMCA volunteers. The YMCA provides IT training with 1080 young people participating at any one time. The YMCA runs a series of Holiday programmes across the city of Monrovia attracting 900 children every day. The YMCA struggles to cover their overheads when delivering contracted work and the YMCA wresltes with identifying soft outcomes. The YMCA is alive and buzzin in Liberia.

Orientation in Monrovia

Arrived safe and well in Monrovia as did the bag. So what am I doing in Liberia? Within the Global YMCA, since 2006, we have been engaged in what we call the Global Operating Plan (GOP) and one of the key features is Movement Strengthening. This is where a group of people from across the YMCA Movement come together to carry out a diaognostic visit at the invitation of the National Movement, That group will consider how clear the Mission of that Movement is, are the programmes it delivers solially relevant and how sustainable is that National Movement. We in YMCA England have been considering how we might better engage with our colleagues in Africa, so when the invitation came in for YMCA England to join this group we were delighted to accept. Over the next few days a group made up of people from neigbouring African Movements, Canada, USA, Y are International and ourselves will meet with Board members and Staff of the YMCA In Liberia alongside the Secretary General of the African Alliance to consider the GOP in relation to The YMCA Movement in Liberia. Today I have engaged in some orientation visits and tours to begin to acquent myself with the Movement here. Harriet Knox, Africa Programme Manager with Y Care International and E Tim Kamabockai, Development Secretary for the YMCA in Monrovia have been extreemly helpful and thoughtful towards me.

I really hope I can catpure the work,passions and committment of all who are involved here over the next few days.