I am a Franciscan Missionary Sister of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM) living in Kasanka in the peripheral of Luapula Province of Zambia. Before starting the SLDI workshop I had a lot of fear and reservations. But, I know that in order to have a productive and innovative community, quality education is a necessity in society today. It doesn’t matter what stage or age a person is.
Facing my Fears
When we started, I regretted to have come and wanted to withdraw telling myself that I will not cope with vocabularies that sounded like Greek. I had no clue of what I was putting myself into. I felt uneasy by the finance terminologies.
Two weeks later, I was fully engaged I was fully engaged in the program. I seized the opportunity given to me and took up the challenge. In my community, I am now able to prepare a payroll and payslip for our domestic staff. I am able to use Excel to record financial transactions and petty cash. I can understand balance sheets, income and expenditures, cash flow and bank reconciliation! I feel so empowered and confident that I am mobilizing resources and writing a grant proposal for an income-generating project for the community.
Sustainable Development Goal Progress
We are running a nursery and primary school to help alleviate illiteracy and poverty which is contributing to the 4th sustainable development goal (SDG) of Quality Education.
The chicken project that we have provides us with eggs to feed children at break time. We also give them maize mixed with groundnuts to improve their nutrition, which contributes to the 3rd SDG (Good Health and Well-Being).
There are 31 women and 3 men in our adult literacy class. We teach them how to read and write, as well as sewing, knitting and baking skills to sustain their families. We are also focusing on farming skills to improve the food security. This could alleviate hunger in families, thus contributing to the 2nd SDG (Zero Hunger).
Mentorship
One of the topics I learned during the SLDI Finance Workshop was mentorship. Each sister is expected to mentor at least three people. I feel so good and happy to have already mentored two of our postulants on stewardship, accountability and integrity. The outcome was energizing and inspiring.
I have gained a lot from the program. Many thanks to ASEC and Mr. Mwangi Daniel, the facilitator, for his total commitment to the program. God bless you all.
