06 Sep Business management session to our Beneficiaries
Already thrilled with having such a wonderful offer from SAATH to conduct business management class sessions for calamity survivor girls, we were mentally and emotionally ready to conduct the sessions. Owing to our academic activities and extracurricular events, we had to start later than expected. However, now that we’re finally free, we gained pace in developing the course module. Having learned about the academic backgrounds of the beneficiaries, the challenge to make things simple and basic had us plodding during the module development period itself. Also, the course delivery technique, which was supposed to involve a lot of ‘Nepalifying’ of words and sentences had started to get under our skins. Nonetheless, the preconceived enthusiasm hadn’t waned. We gathered one hour prior to starting the session to finalize our strategies and to clarify the lesson plan.
We casually started the session with our introduction, the objectives of the course and what the beneficiaries could expect from this program. We then shifted our focus to the beneficiaries by asking their introductions and expectations. Surprisingly, our perception took a jolt after hearing them. They were actually more literate and aware than we had expected. The content for this session was generally ice breaking and unfreezing so as to make beneficiaries more familiar and acquainted with what’s coming next. We formally began the course with self-assessment and explaining how knowing oneself first is vital before jumping into any endeavors. We took note of their assessments and finally summarized them later on through two-way interaction. To make the learning more interesting and to give a general overview of how businesses operate, we conducted boat making exercise. Beneficiaries were divided into four groups. Their job was to buy papers from us and create as many boats as they can within a specified time and later sell it back to us. This exercise was intended to introduce the basics of a typical business/entrepreneurship and provide them with a relatable scenario to compare to their future aspirations.
All in all, the feedback from the beneficiaries was very positive. We asked them if they would like to continue with this program. The general consensus was in our favor. However, we immediately realized that the course plan for the second session would be below the standard for their level. Hence, we decided to prepone the third session and rework on the module for the second session.
Words by Mr. Pradeep Poudel, KUSOM.