Okuhepa: Technical Training: Results

One of the primary responsibilities many Community Economic Development (CED) Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) in Peace Corps Namibia (PCN) have is working with small- and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs, also sometimes interpreted as small- and micro-entrepreneurs). We provide counseling, advice and training. To prepare us to offer those services, PCN provides us with technical training in the form of both classes and practical application.

The classes consisted of 75 to 120 minutes of highly interactive slides, role plays, conversation, exercises and case studies on business-related topics like budgeting, costing and pricing, and bookkeeping. The practical application consisted of two primary exercises. For one, we 13 CED trainees planned and delivered a four-day Business Skills Workshop for local entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. For the other, each of us worked with a local entrepreneur in starting or improving a small business, and then planned and executed a Market Day where those businesses could sell their products and services to the community.

A tuck shop operator, gone mobile.

The workshop was, I think, a smashing success. We marketed it around town through various means – mostly just signs posted at all the public gathering spots, plus word of mouth – and got about 40 sign-ups, which included our 13-or-so Start-Up Partners (SUPs). Probably there were several learners who did not understand English well enough to benefit fully from the training, but many of them were fluent and very engaged. I know some, too, were not numerate (numbers literate), so they got less from the training than others. Namibia has an excellent public education system compared to many countries, especially in the developing world (shouldn’t be easier, though, with only two million people in the country?), but plenty still don’t get the level of attention they need to learn fully.

I don’t have any photos. I co-taught the Business Management and Networking sections, and aired my Afrikaans a bit for each. Perhaps the highlight was our rugby-playing recent college grad and former banker teaching everyone the Electric Slide. To a Michael Jackson song. Now, that was an icebreaker.

Market Day didn't require icebreakers; the kids made their own.

So, on to the Market Day. We scheduled it for the last Saturday in May, as people in Namibia typically get paid once a month, at the end of the month, so that’s when they’re in a spending mood. We had a couple of seamstresses, several tuck shops (informal convenience stores, usually run from someone’s home), a pair of braii operators (caterers specializing in regional barbecue), and a few others, including a bathtub-massage-machine operator. She brings her device to your house and you get 30 minutes or whatever of auto-massage in the tub. It’s supposed to be very helpful for the elderly.

Not old enough to be getting the demo aqua-massage!

In order to attract the crowds, we also offered a bouncy palace, face painting and other activities for kids. With massagers and other machines plus the bouncy castle pulling on the electric supply, it kept failing and the castle would deflate. The kids still had fun with it. We didn’t actually get much of a crowd – we advise the PCN 43 group to do aggressive marketing! However, most of our SMEs were pleased with the exposure. And all of our Community Health and HIV AIDS Program (CHHAP) PCVs showed up, and as per the weather was gorgeous so as the event wore down all us PCVs and our Language and Cross-Culture Facilitators (LCFs) lazed about in the sunshine in great contentment.