What do I do for work?

I've been asked what kind of work I'm doing here in Zambia - and thought I'd share a bit of what I've been doing lately.

Half of my time (I use the phrase "half" loosely) is spent working for RAPIDS (Reaching HIV/AIDS Affected People with Integrated Development and Support) - the largest PEPFAR (President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief) funded project here in Zambia.

The other 50% of my time is spent managing the Communications and Marketing (local fundraising) departments for World Vision Zambia.

The heart and soul of the RAPIDS program are the 18,516 volunteer Caregivers. These are men and women who care for children and families afffected by HIV and AIDS who live in their communities. RAPIDS trains and equips these Caregivers and comes alongside a natural social movement that will be sustainable long after our program is gone.

This last week, I organized a Zambia-wide Caregiver appreciation day where we honored all 18,516 RAPIDS Caregivers around the country with a certificate and a chitenge (a 2 meter piece of fabric that women use to wrap around their waist - think "sarong").

Our two Caregiver speakers (who were fantastic!) - Esther and John decked out in their RAPIDs outfits they had made!

In Lusaka, we had an event for about 350 of the local Lusaka Caregivers (there were too many to honor ALL of them at this event, but they held satellite events for all Caregivers) - and we had Dr. Kaunda (Zambia's first elected President) and the new US Ambassador attend our event. This was the first public event for the new Ambassador - so ALL kinds of nervousness by the USG staff to make sure everything was ship-shape, tip-top! They drove me nuts!! :-)

At the World Vision table: L to R: Charles Owubah, National Director of WV, USAID mission director, the new US Ambassador and KK, the first Zambian president, WV staff

It was fun to see so many Caregivers ride in on their bicycles (see John's entry about the bikes) and it was great to be able to honor and encourage them in the work they do.

At the Caregivers Day event in Lusaka

In addition to this, I've also helped write proposals to raise cash gifts from private corporations and other potential donors.

For my World Vision Zambia job, I am currently working on an event to launch the Zambia Water, Sanitiation and Hygiene (ZWASH) program. A major donor from the U.S. gave World Vision a $5 million gift that will be matched by other donors totalling $10 million over 5 years.

Next week, this major donor is coming to Zambia to launch the program - so I'm in event planner mode again with a large "launch event" that will take place over 3 days. I'll also be involved with finding additional gifts and reporting back to the donors who fund this project - and because water is so crucial for the well-being of communities, this will be a great addition to the other work World Vision Zambia is doing.

I leave on Monday for the trip to the field with the donor, the World Vision U.S. reps handling the account and our WV water specialists. Should be fun!

There are so many protocol issues that I am totally ignorant about. Did you know that if you have a Government Minister attend your event, you have to wait until he/she arrives until you start the event EVEN THOUGH that Minister can be up to/or over and hour late!!

So, we've had to make provisions to fill time in case the Minister is late! Also, our M.C. for the event cannot introduce the Minister directly - that has to be done by one of the Directors in the department the Minister works in (in this case, it's the Local Government and Housing department).

And, if it rains and the roads are so muddy that we can't drive to the site where we're drilling the well (which is part of our launch program)? Well, our Regional Manager said, "they have to walk!" - so picture this: men in suits with fancy shoes walking down a muddy path to get to the village where we're drilling the well!! Thank goodness the ladies from the village will be singing and dancing and taking their minds off of the mud! :-)

I'll report more next week....

Location of one of World Vision's water wells in the Southern Province... you can see why they need water - it is so dry!