The Big Excitement

 I don't know what other way to state it. There are so many things in life that simply don't translate very well into words, things that have to be experienced. Think of trying to convey music in words only. It just isn't the same as the experience of hearing music. It is much the same when I try to convey to people the magnitude of the transformation that has taken place with the women who are part of the Theodora Project. We can sort of relate. But unless you are there, seeing their environment, feeling their emotions, witnessing first hand the joy of their new found confidence and belief in person, it is almost impossible to understand. Thus, having my good friends and Theodora benefactors, the Count and Countess come to visit and see for themselves what this project is all about is a major, major deal. 

I have to give all credit for this to the Count. It was he who stated in no uncertain terms his need to see the program at the source in order to go further in supporting it. And what a visit has been. There as been this palpable energy, heavy duty conversations relating to their backgrounds, expressions of deepest feeling about their transformations. I give the Count and Countess all the credit for completely throwing themselves into experiencing so much of the full environment that the defines this program. 

I am hoping to collect some video and images that the team has taken during the visit to give you a much deeper feel. 

Tomorrow is a special day. On the advice of one of our Board members in Ghana, we are holding a formal graduation. Both our newest group and our original group will be receiving formal certificates for the learning they have attained. Formal certificates of learning are a big deal here in Ghana and meaningful. We've invited a number of Rotarians and others to attend. Whether any do or not, it will be a meaningful event for our women.

The Big Excitement

 The next three days are going to be quite the time at Theodora Africa. 

We will be graduating our first 'official' class of participants that were trained by our existing young women. We will also be honoring the first group of pioneers. We have various Board members, Rotarians, and government officials attending.

PLUS, we are being visited by major donors, good friends, the Count and Countess. They were scheduled to come in March but the trip aborted for a variety of reasons. But even as I write this their plane is within 4 hours of arriving in Accra. 

To have a major donor, spend their own money and time to check us out for purposes of convincing others to give funds, is a very big deal.

Groundhog Day - Yet Again!

 Readers will remember in March the second Ghana apartment incident with the air conditioning repair coming through my apartment. Thank goodness I am in a different apartment in a different part of town. Because surely such an event can't happen a third time this year! 

Wrong

Sunday. Knock, knock. It's the neighbor. 

"Are you going to be around Monday? I need my a/c repaired and they have to go through your apartment to get to it."

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Another Peak Conquered

 How do you tell a person they should expose that which they fear most to expose? 

This is the situation we find ourselves at Theodora Ghana Virtual Assistants. We have verified over and over with those we are test marketing. The fact this is a Social Impact Enterprise helping Women OUT of Sex Work is a major reason why clients consider working with us. It is not the only reason. We still need to do good work. But it is a major competitive advantage in selling our services and it is a major inducement for donors to contribute to our umbrella organization, Theodora Africa.

YET, for our participants, this is the LAST thing they want known. They have spent their young lives hiding what they were doing. This is especially true here in their home country, Ghana. We have been struggling to find the answer.

At a Board Meeting a couple of weeks ago, this challenge came up. This Board has one of my participants on it and one of our largest donors. Our donor made this statement to our participant.

"You are not that person any more. That person is gone. You are the young woman I see who is a professional, who each day is building her future. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You should be proud of what you have accomplished and are accomplishing."

A number of others on the Board related things they had been ashamed of but had learn to over come that shame and the strength they thought they had developed as a result.

 Fast forward to this week. I am working the Accra, Ghana Rotary system hard for support of the project. I went with this participant to an in-person Club meeting as she is a member of our Club to End Human Trafficking. We were meeting with the Club President. As we sat down with him, he began to focus his questions on my colleague. This was a moment of truth. How would she respond?

It was amazing. She looked him in the eye. She talked about the transformation she had undergone and others were going through. She did not shy away. She was courageous.

Another peak overcome.

Traveling To Mars - Building The Next Stage Theodora Vehicle

 Sometimes you are in the midst of a great struggle. You have little time to contemplate. You deal with the issues one-by-one as they come because there are so many of them. You are not sure if you will prevail or if the forces you are struggling against will. Then suddenly you are at a point, maybe have risen to the top of a peak, and realize that you have succeeded. You have achieved what you sought.

Then, very quickly, there is the realization that you haven't really won. What you have done is reached a step along a journey. And you think about what that journey really is. (Recommend you read The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek) In the case of the the Theodora Africa Project, the realization is that there is a real potential, not a dream potential, to build a business that can transform many, many, many lives. The realization is way more solid than it was when we started because this first challenge to succeed was so incredibly steep. 

Now I look toward what the future might be. I am on the one hand daunted, and on the other not intimidated. It is like going to Mars. If you have never gotten beyond off of Earth and into space, the thought of going to another planet seems absurd. But once you have achieved orbit and can go back and forth from the surface to orbit, it no longer seems so farfetched to go to another planet. It is big but it is not as steep a step. 

I will be heading back to Ghana if a couple of days. Our brand new batch of trainees are ready to graduate (after 90 days whereas the first group took 20 months - more about this in upcoming posts). They have already started to do significant client and organizational work. We see a great potential future. We can see it will be a long, hard climb. But nothing as difficult as what we have already overcome.

The Perils of Theodora (A Melodramatic Serial)

 Our post title is a blatant take off of the early 20th century serial melodramas (Perils of Pauline, Hazards of Helen, etc.) where at the end of each installment, the heroine looks like she is going to be done in by some event only to miraculously be saved when the next installment begins.

Things at Theodora Ghana have been a bit like that this year. When we launched phase two (our determination if we could go beyond proof of concept to an actual business) there was a key decision we had to make.

One, Were we going to go after as much business as we could possibly get, and then fill in the business systems behind the growth? Or,

 

Two, were we going to build our business systems (including adding capacity...adding new people) and then pursue more clients?

The first path was the wiser path from a use of cash standpoint. You build your income base and then you make investments out of that income base. The risk of this choice was your current people could easily become overwhelmed. How then would they find the time to work on the necessary systems to support growth? And you risked a drop in service quality, a real risk factor!

The second path was the wiser path if the goal was substantial long-term growth. You make sure you have your business systems in place first before pursuing additional business. This path, however, uses up a lot of cash up front. So you better have a source of that cash, since it is not coming from your sales. 

We chose to go the later route as our goal is not just to create a few jobs but to make a significant social improvement impact. That put our heroine (or hero as it would be me) in the position of having to raise a lot of money. Ergo, the analogy of the melodramatic serial. It seems like each month we have a new major need for cash to keep our business development trajectory on track. And each month, something seems to happen that pulls us through. 

Just this past week it happened again. As we do all our work virtually, the quality of our computers and connectivity are vitally important. We had done the best we could with what we had when we started. But it was not high enough quality to do the type of work we needed to do. As a number of our key people's equipment was deteriorating by the week, we were trying very hard to get new equipment of the quality needed. It was not an unsubstantial amount of money. But just as the fire ravaged building was about to fall on top of us, two of our long-term benefactors came up with some additional funds. (Image of Theodora being carried out of the burning building as it collapses). We have a number of these potential crisis points coming up over the next few months. And, as yours truly is the primary (read ONLY) fundraiser, it promises to be more fun and adventures. 

But I know (thankfully) the heroine always wins out in the end in the melodramas!