A very important part of the Nuru model is to exit the project and leave it in the hands of the local staff to continue to scale out throughout the country and help lift communities out of extreme poverty. As the Education Program Manager, a big part of my job is to equip the education team so that it can function and thrive now and when we exit the project. In particular I am tasked to work with Francis the CDC Education Manager and mentor him to become a capable leader and manager of the education program. Francis is pictured in the middle and his bio can be found on our international staff page. He has been with Nuru since Meghan has joined Nuru and is the face of the education program with local schools, the Ministry and the community. He is also managing our four Education Coordinators.
As I continue to work here on the new education strategy, I am leaning on these five individuals to successfully implement what we had devised on paper. Francis, who has spent his career in education, has respect from the community as well as our coordinators as a person with a lot of experience and knowledge of the education system. He and I have worked together to fine-tune our education strategy. He has special insights into the local education system that has been helpful to make our strategy more realistic and relevant. He is also a strong believer in Nuru’s organizational practice of not giving out handouts and partnering with communities to deliver a sustainable solution. He has his weaknesses, which I am finding out more and more each day, but that is one of the reasons I am here, to build him up as a leader, to help turn his weaknesses into strengths and to use his skills to develop and implement our education program.
We also have four Education Coordinators, pictured above. From the upper-left corner clockwise, we have Sabora, Vicky, Munsi and Musa. All of the coordinators are highly qualified and have contributed to our education program through their hard work, special knowledge and relationships with the community. They have done training in education and have teaching experience. Sabora and Munsi are on staff full-time, having joined us last August. Musa and Vicky are on their trial periods until July but have so far performed very well. I am very fortunate that I have such a good staff to work with. As mentioned in previous posts, our new approach is being implemented now and a competent education team will play a critical role in how fast and how well the programs come to fruition. I am confident in the four coordinators plus our CDC manager to successfully implement our programs and contribute to Nuru’s work in Kuria. I am also excited about the professional growth of the team and their ability to scale up our programs and sustain them as is the goal of this seed project.