Ethiopia and Kenya
Africa is spreading its wings with coaching. Recently Chris and Linda Harding were privileged to teach at two of the workshops in the eastern region and to be there as another workshop was planned for the southern region. The African trainers were amazing and the stories coming from those who had coached for the six months were very encouraging.
One of the Ethiopian trainee coaches said he had discovered his vocation ‘ to help others through coaching ‘ and it was evident that the Ethiopian attendees, who included board members and staff, had all seen the great potential that coaching had to transform lives and programmes in Ethiopia. We were struck by the determination of the team with their coaching and their desire to pass it on. Alemtshay Yemane, the national director, has done a fantastic job of coach mentoring around a dozen coach trainees at the same time. There are now a good number of coach mentors for the next round of training in this nation. We are hoping to see coaching in Ethiopia become like Injera – the pancake they have with every meal – turning up everywhere !
In Kenya the staff were up to their third wave of passing on the skills of coaching as they worked with staff from Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. They are all doing a great job of producing more coaches to be used in all sorts of ways in their work with YFC. They have so appreciated the chance to learn new skills and watch the changes happening in their coachees. Grace Ojiambo who is their current leader hopes to make coaching her focus in the years to come as she sees the need to develop young leaders and pioneer new work in the area.
The Southern Area
The southern area of Africa is planning a new push for coaching in their area. They are seeking some funding from a European nation to begin a process of developing more coaches throughout their 10 nations. They are hoping for a start date in November where 30 participants will have an introduction to coaching and 10 of these will coach the other twenty for six months.
This will mean that by the middle of next year there will be 10 accredited coaches and twenty people who will have experienced coaching in these nations (some of who will take up the challenge to become coaches in the next round).
With this model the region hopes to produce a coaching culture which will use these skills to great effect and fast track the region in its development of leadership and pioneering programmes.
It is an exciting time and they would value our prayers. If you are from this region, contact E.J. or Gert van den Bos from Lesotho for details.
