Change maker Lab was a great learning experience

I have always been passionate about persons living with disabilities even as a little girl especially as my sister was hearing impaired. As I grew up i pondered and visualise what I  could do to make the World a better place for these persons, as I watched in pain how the sign language barrier completely excluded her from society. My sister came from a lovely family who accepted her, empowered her and made her self -reliant.  But what about the many other women with disabilities out there who did not have this opportunity. They ended up as beggars and being violated, their perpetrators being mostly those they relied on. Therefore I became passionate about working with these women, on empowering them with vocational skills so they could be able to take care of their basic needs in the long run and also improve on their livelihood. STRENGTHS ; I gained a skill in sign language interpretation and so was able to communicate with women with hearing impairment which was my primary focus. I also trained on beaded shoes, necklaces earrings production and production of snacks and fast food which I could teach them so it would cut down cost of paying a facilitator to do so. WEAKNESS: I had no funds to start with. Didn't know how to write up a proposal for funding and no money to run a center so I was moving door to door doing the training which was very tiring. Didn't also have digital tools to give to the women so they could download designs and also sell their produce online. OPPORTUNITIES; My family was passionate about my work especially as my sister Agnes in whose honour I created the foundation had passed on and we were determined to carry on her legacy. I was also part of a network of the North West Association of Women with disabilities with lots of training opportunities from collaborators THREATS ; The sociopolitical crisis in the North West Region of Cameroon started. People lost lives and sources of livelihood, homes, a lot of killings and migration. Women and girls with disabilities were most affected. Gender-based violence increased due to dependency. Covid 19 only worsened the situation. More lives were lost, constant lock down impacted lives negatively. Therefore I decided to make a difference in hhe lives of these women. But before the change maker lab training my objectives were not SMART. I just thought I could help every woman with hearing impairment i came across.  This was extremely stressful considering that I had all the weaknesses as mentioned earlier on. But as I learnt how to set out SMART goals that worked out better. Work has became more interesting and am able to measure the impact am creating. On the part of the women and girls am working with, because they are few now there is constant follow up and feed back which is reflected on a marked improvement in their businesses. Although I have in the passed been fundraising through Gofundme it would take such a long period of about two months to get donations.  But after the training on Gofundme on fundraising, I applied some of the techniques like sending to individuals who belief in your work and constantly reminding them and giving updates on your organisational activities just incase they don't access your social media handles. Sending thank-you notes and asking friends to share information in their networks. Within a short period I was able to raise money which have been used to pay rents for the workshop this year. I remain forever grateful for this beautiful change makes lab initiative by World Pulse.Its been such a great learning experience and am grateful.