I will take you back to this Chinese proverb which says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.
It is better to teach someone how to do something than to do it for them. Giving someone a fish is good for the short term, but it is better to teach them how to do it so that in the long term they can take care of themselves. For example, a mother could cook for her children, but if she never teaches them to cook, they will always be dependent on her for meals. If she teaches them how to cook, they will be able to take care of themselves in the long term.
Is this what TFFT is doing? As you know, TFFT works to provide orphans and vulnerable children access to quality education, but we still believe that if these children do not also have a strong home environment, they will not cope well with their studies. Therefore, TFFT finds it worthy to think about strengthening the livelihood of the scholars’ families, not by providing them with food by showing them how they can get support their family throughout their lifetime. To do so, TFFT plans to provide seed money for these relatives and guardians of our scholarship recipients. To ensure that they can make the most of the seed money, TFFT first offered a training on entrepreneurship.
The training was five days training from August 25th – August 29th, 2014. Ten relatives and guardians participated in the training. We also extended the invite to include some of our older TFFT scholars. Through both theoretical and practical sessions, we challenged the participants to consider opportunities available in their area.
Each participant learned how to write a business plan. Leading up to this, we first coached them on:
- Creativity
- Quality control
- Time management
- Identifying available opportunity
- Marketing
- Working with other competitors in the market
- Responsibility
- Pricing
They were also trained in cooking different dishes using the available resources in their areas, for example cakes using charcoal or firewood. They were even given different recipes for making different things like tomato sauce, chill sauce, peanut butter, etc.
From the mouths of the attendees…
This workshop was quite simply transformative. The consensus was how very useful, in all aspects of life, these skills are and why haven’t we learned them before? Can you imagine if we all had basic knowledge of entrepreneurship how to be creative in whatever business we are doing and think of available business opportunities in our area and act on them creatively. I came to learn that entrepreneurship is an opportunity for making change. I was challenged to think so hard opportunities around my area and creatively think how I could do anything to improve my livelihood with the seed money given by TFFT. The case studies from facilitators where fascinating to tease apart and I learned so much in a week time. I appreciated the skilled instruction and facilitation and the hard work of my peers. It was an intense and rewarding week. As a result of the training I made cakes for our young brothers and sisters in the scholarship program of TFFT during their graduation. I am now making chill source for sell. I collect orders from my college for anyone who wants cake for any occasion. Thank you so much TFFT for this training.
– Violet Pallangyo
This course has transformed me. I’m feeling more empowered. I have gained more skills that make me feel that for any business I will do I can perform better. As a result of the training I made a cake for my aunt’s graduation
– Mary Japhet
The training opened up my mind and created a sense of direction to various entrepreneurship project I am planning to conduct in my area.
– Magdalena Japhet.
I wish I had this training thirty years ago! Thank you so much TFFT. It was terrific. I learned more than I can say. The interactions with other participants were fascinating and the trainer’s ability to guide the group was amazing to see. In fact they call me bibi during the training because I was the oldest among them.
– Zainabu Ramadhani (Bibi Fatuma)
I came in grumbling that the training was a whole five days. I’m leaving wishing it was longer!
– Bernadetha Exavery Orogo.
The workshop was one of the most pertinent workshops I have been privileged to attend…This is a powerful tool to add to any entrepreneur mind toolkit, no doubt.
– Nicemary Felix.