February 23, 2017
What drives The Foundation For Tomorrow? First and foremost, TFFT is driven by the collective desire of its founder, team members, and its supporters to do the right thing for children.
We developed our first strategic plan in 2012 with the participation of our stakeholders and partners. From that time on, we have invited our stakeholders and partners at the beginning of each year to review the year past, celebrate successes, and learn from our challenges and mistakes. It is one of the ways by which we uphold accountability, transparency, and participation—three values we uphold as an organization. While it is certainly easier to just send annual reports to our partners and supporters (which we also do), we value this opportunity to come together with our TFFT Family and also allow them the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and network.
This year’s Annual Review took place on February 3rd and was attended by a good mix of partners from government institutions, other non-profits, private individuals, scholars, and guardians/parents. This year’s celebration was a bit different. We stayed away from the usual PowerPoint and conference-style presentations. Instead, our team walked them through their prepared “galleries” and, with the help of pictures, presented what they have achieved during the year.
Another highlight of the Annual Review was the presentation by two of our partners about their journey with TFFT in 2016, explaining their engagement with us. TFFT Alumni Richard Augustino talked about his quest to go to school in the US this year and how his time with TFFT allowed him to dream big dreams and believe in himself. He also talked about what he is doing to make sure he achieves his dream to study abroad and his way of giving back to the community for now—talking to students in different schools to motivate them to work hard and have a purpose in life. Mama Einoti talked about her and her daughter Einoti’s experiences last year—how Einoti’s studies suffered for a short time to Mama Einoti’s tireless trips to school and our office to make sure her daughter stays in school and working with us to help Einoti. Now Einoti thrives in school and has registered a good performance in the recent Form 2 National Exam. Mama Einoti also talked about how her household has improved through TFFT’s livelihood grant. What showed through this talk, more than our role in their journey, is this mother’s grit and determination to improve her family’s life.
The last part of the program was the Idea Café, when we presented to our partners three challenges that we struggled with in 2016. They went from table to table to write down their ideas on how to resolve these issues as well as discuss with their co-participants their experiences of encountering the same challenges in their organizations. It was a very lively exchange of ideas and generated good pieces of advice that we intend to study and try this year.
