We are launching our first Global Entrepreneur Academy in Nairobi, and the new director is Josephine Chavaseki, a leader in community development, with years of knowledge and training. With her husband, Reverend Brown Chavaseki, she founded Fair Oaks Academy, one of our partners, to meet the educational needs of impoverished children in the Quarry slum in Nairobi. Josephine tells us about her inspiration and aspirations for being an agent of transformation in development and for equipping entrepreneurs to break the cycle of poverty.

Background

My name is Josephine Chavaseki. I was born and brought up in Machakos district, which is in the Eastern part of Kenya. I was brought up in a family of seven siblings. As a young child I experienced the pinch of poverty, I understand what it means to sleep hungry, to stay out of school due to lack of school fees, to fend for my self and my young siblings, till land and pick coffee for pay and much more. As I grew up, my parent’s financial constraints were so high and it was very difficult for them to cater for our educational needs. My parents did every thing they could to support me and my siblings to get education. The challenging background formed a strong character in me of hope and determination.

Through the Redeemed Integrated Development Program, where I have worked as a manager in several development programs, I have been exposed to work with international organizations like Compassion International, Tearfund, MAP International, USAID, and Pathfinder International. My interactions with these organizations have given me a global perception and proficient knowledge on development.

My experience of working in Mathare slums among the poor people has transformed my life and attitude. I have learned never to take anything or anybody for granted. While at the program, I have gained wide knowledge on project management and leadership, transformational development, and organizational development. I am an all-around development consultant with competence in grant management, research and policy analysis, program design and management. I am self-motivated and possess initiative toward achievement of goals, application of good interpersonal skills, negotiation skills, organization and analytical skills. I have learned to be a strong team player who can comfortably work in a multicultural environment.

With this background I feel best placed to offer The 1010 Project support to development actors in programming, transformational development, entrepreneurship, planning monitoring and evaluation, logistics and administration as a lead facilitator in the GEANairobi.

Dream

My dream is to bring positive change in the community amongst poor and deserving people including those who are living with HIV and AIDS. I desire to be a model and effective leader.

Objectives

• To be an effective agent of transformation in development.
• To provide quality entrepreneurial training that empowers development actors to manage positive and sustainable growth process.

My involvement with 1010

I first knew The 1010 Project through Andew Syed (Paquin) in the year 2006 when he visited Kenya and he was already involved in The 1010 Project work. Andrew himself was deeply moved to see the needs surrounding the Fair Oak School ranging from lack of food, lack of learning materials and insufficient learning facilities, and to mention the abject poverty around the slum dwellers of the quarry slums where the Redeemed Gospel Church is located.

The Redeemed Gospel Church (Quarry) and the Fair Oak centre have greatly benefited from The 1010 Project: especially the growing relationship over the years, the sharing of experiences with The 1010 Project network, monetary support which helped us to buy the first 5 training computers and two sewing machines, a power generator and cooking pots for the Fair Oak School children.

The church has benefited from a loving relationship with the Northside Christian Church which was initiated by The 1010 Project in 2006.

The Fair Oak School has grown and currently it has 240 children with 13 teachers. The computer training has grown to about 40 students per intake, which means 160 students per year, and about 15 students in dress making per year. The vocational training has expanded, and this year we introduced interior and exterior design training that is attracting more students monthly. The Fair Oak Centre is growing and in the future we expect to introduce more empowerment training for the community such as making hot baskets, detergent production, waste paper charcoal making, printing, quilt and curtains making, and marketing strategies.

My contribution to the GEA Nairobi

As Director of GEA Nairobi, I aspire to do the following:

• Facilitate the implementation of The Global Entrepreneur Academy Nairobi.
• Facilitate a positive change process in the Community-Based Organizations (CBOs).
• To offer support to the CBOs managers to become change agents through participation initiative community development approach.
• To offer technical support to the team in programming, project designing, planning implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• To build the capacity of the 1010 partners in proposal writing, community resource mobilization, budgeting, and grants management.