Changemakers lab module 4: Dealing Challenges

The International Day for the girl child is one of the opportunities I took advantage of for my initiative  of Retaining Girls in school.

Since the world is always agog with the issues that affect the girl child, it was a good day to talk about the importance of educating girls and closing the disparity between boys and girls in school. 

So in Life Aid, we planned for the day. We met with stakeholders, invited parents and girls, started a fundraiser all to make the day special. We got approval for a venue that suited what we had in mind.  Made payment  a month before the day and went about with other things like following up on the keynote speaker, ministry Representatives, etc.

I went two days to the program to finalize sitting arrangement and cleaning of the venue when the janitor informed me there was another group who were having a program at the same time.  I thought it was a mix up and so I went to the admin officer who confirmed it was true. I felt a rush of mixed emotions at first. I calmed down and went on to the management ( it was a high educational institution).

I was told an NGO too applied for the venue. The NGO is run by the Deputy Registrar of the institution. I was baffled. How could two organizations be given approval for same venue and at same time? Who had done that? When was it done? And I had made payment for the venue. And it was documented. The documents showed we had applied first  and made payment first.

The Admin officer had called me ten days earlier to confirm the time and duration of the program. He said my application did not state that. I apologized and he said it was okay.  I guess it was then that the other NGO applied to use the venue. They were told another NGO had booked the hall, but they wanted to use their power to influence the usage of the venue.

It became a struggle. A day to the program,  after sending decorators and cleaners to arrange the venue, they were not granted access. The other NGO  were insisting they had right to use the venue since members of the NGO were staff of the institution and we were regarded as outsiders.

My anxiety grew as the other NGO wielded their power. They were bigger and had their founder as the head.  I couldn't think of cancelling the event. I had called to follow up on the invitations sent out.  

A meeting was called to set a stage for resolution of the problem. The two parties and the school Management . I knew I had no business being in the meeting, we were not to blame for the mix-up but we were the under dogs now. The " opponents" were using deception that they had applied first, but not officially bla bla bla..

I insisted on the application to be brought out  for all to see. When it became clear, the opponents now changed tactics, they said they had very important people who were coming from afar and are already in town, so they propose we change our time or venue. After a heated session, I sat down quietly for a moment. I thought of the girls who I was working for. I thought of the opponents and how much power thy had, I thought of the hopes of girls that would be crushed if the program didn't hold. We were going to flag off a tailoring course for girls living with disabilities. I  knew that insisting on using the particular venue would come at a cost, we would lose the opportunity to network with the opponents.

They all waited to hear me as they asked for a way forward. I asked them if there was another venue we could use. The reply was in the affirmative. I said we would not mind another substitute. 

As we all left, the head of the other organization had to commend the way I handled it. I promise to check out life Aid to see if there is a way we could collaborate in the future. I decided to choose my battle. Obviously, they had more influence though we were on the right. The institution apologized and decided to work on better documentation of the booking of the hall.

And immediately set up a committee to handle it to avoid mix-ups such as this.

We celebrated the International Day for the Girl Child as planned, but we learnt how to prevent such by proper follow ups.  If we had continuously followed up, the mix up would have been detected earlier and handled .

My mistake of not putting the time on the application was a loophole. It was preventable. 

I learnt to choose my battle. The other NGO are partners in progress.