Women Empowering Women in Africa and Asia

Emily’s trip to Canada for the Women's Mentorship Program (WMP) came at the right time when she was at a crossroads in her career. After working 10 years at Safaricom SACCO in Kenya, she was on the verge of leaving.  The WMP experience changed her and her attitude and she continues on with her SACCO today.

Through the program's classroom training, networking with colleagues from other SACCOs and working at a Canadian credit union, she realized that there were other, better ways of doing things. She learned that she was putting across ideas that were not well thought out or with the right research in place. She learned from her placement at Vancity, in British Columbia, about rolling out products in phases in order not to overwhelm the team.

Building on her learning back home in Kenya, Emily has made excellent progress with the short term goals that she identified, including the implementation of the 'Each One, Teach One' model of teaching personal financial management she learned while working at Vancity. She was very strategic about how she rolled out the teachings that she learned at the WMP to the various teams to help them in their roles. She had weekly training sessions with staff at 7:00am which were very well attended by majority of staff showing a willingness to listen and be engaged in the learning. 

Thanks to you and your support of the program, more women like Emily are benefitting from the program's teachings, networking and impact.