As I entered data into an Excel spreadsheet in the small office in Nizhin, Ukraine, the quiet laughter of a little girl caught my attention. The girl nibbled on a snack near the back of the room while her mother filled out a survey as part of HOPE’s Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) project. HOPE, with assistance from Metrix Research Group, began testing a new M&E client survey in Ukraine in October. Despite their busy schedules and the cold rain outside, 36 men and women flowed through HOPE’s small office in the village of Nizhin on that Friday afternoon to participate in the survey.
Archives For Staff / Travels
HOPE Intl
Oct 5 2012
HOPE Intl
Staff / Travels
Each month, HOPE’s human resources team puts together learning updates for staff members’ professional development. This month’s update focused on development and fundraising. We hope you find these resources useful too!
Development
- Donors = Checkbooks with Mouths, by Chris Horst, HOPE’s director of development
In this blog post, Chris shares the importance of building relationships in fundraising. - Creating Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki
In this 62-minute Stanford talk, Guy shares secrets to enchanting others and developing influence.
Leadership
- Flawless Execution, by Mark Miller
In this blog post, Mark offers seven methodical ways for leaders to help their team pursue flawless execution. - 10 Ways I Want to Lead, by Mark Meyer
Pick one or two items to add to your leadership toolkit.
HOPE Intl
Aug 30 2012
HOPE Intl
Staff / Travels Working with the poor
HOPE Congo had its annual spiritual retreat June 27-29 at Vuela, a Catholic retreat center just outside of Brazzaville. It was a great place to get away from the city noise and see trees, flowers, and grass. All 37 of us piled into a bus and the HOPE truck and arrived at Vuela Friday morning. The office was split into three teams: the green, red, and yellow teams. Each morning we had a time of praise and worship led by one of the teams, and three office staff spoke throughout the weekend. This weekend was a great time for me and Nate to spend quality time with the staff.
HOPE Intl
Aug 10 2012
By HOPE Intl
Staff / Travels Working with the poorSome languages have honorifics reserved for elders. Others have local slang dialects tossed around and worn with pride in certain neighborhoods. While they may be spoken by people of totally different ages, locales, and cultures, each string of words shares solidarity in what it represents. The individual phrases may have very different meanings, but underlying each of these thoughts is a unique history and heritage. The words may project values of reciprocity & respect dating back to Confucius. Others can evoke eras and events long forgotten, only preserved in speech not stone.
HOPE Intl
Aug 9 2012
HOPE Intl
Staff / Travels Working with the poor
I stand outside the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre looking out over the beautiful city of Kigali, Rwanda, where a progressing, strikingly beautiful city is growing. People are warm and friendly. There is a strong ethic to move forward together for positive growth. Compared to many places, things seem put together, peaceful, hopeful, happy.
Standing there outside the memorial, I am reminded that people carry stories within them that are not expressly apparent on the outside. Every person’s story is different. Some have found forgiveness, some still cannot move past the pain, some have found incredible healing.
Muraho! It’s a lovely sunny day in Rwanda. I invite you to journey with me to a savings group meeting in the hills of Byumba, Rwanda.
First, we hop in a truck with Verene, the field coordinator for the Byumba diocese (each region has a Savings and Credit Association field coordinator chosen by the Anglican Church); Musoni, the driver; Garrett, the HOPE microenterprise technical advisor who is experiencing the second week of his two-year stay in Rwanda; and Matthew Rohrs, the HOPE director of spiritual integration. As we make the two-hour drive from Kigali to Byumba, you may be as awed as I am at the beauty of this country known as the land of a thousand hills. The pictures that we bring home just don’t do the scenery justice!
