"Cash Money" arrives

Six weeks ago I arrived at Kesho Leo to begin my year’s term as Finance Manager. I am from the US, the southern state of Alabama. For the last 13 years I worked for a large US bank in the Risk Management/Information Security area. While I loved my job back home I wanted to do something different with my accounting skill set…enter foodwatershelter! My background is a variety of areas including information security &consumer privacy, fraud & operational loss analysis and financial statement reporting. When I found the posting for the Finance Manager position I knew immediately this was perfect for me!
I arrived in Arusha on March 1st. The first few weeks were a blur – jetlag, adjusting to life in a new country, learning a few words of Swahili and starting a new job? What an experience! Fortunately I had excellent support from fellow volunteers so I caught on quickly. Foodwatershelter uses July to June as their fiscal year so I arrived just in time to start working on the 2011/12 budget! I have prepared many budgets in the past but never ones that included expenses for solar power systems, livestock, manure and sewing supplies. While it has been a challenge, I will say going through the exercise of creating a budget has been a great way for me to learn about the Kesho Leo project. I was able to sit down with each volunteer and learn about their area of responsibility and what their plans were for the next year. Here are a few of the things I learned:
• Education: We are going to start serving porridge in the mornings to the students at Kesho Leo and we are actively working on plans for a library. We are already collecting books and drawing up plans for the trailer that will allow us to be mobile.
• Permaculture: We plan to buy goats, pigs and cows in the next year.
I even learned what a chicken tractor is!
• Kesho Leo: We are in the process of working with the mamas to turn their small business ideas into sustainable business plans. This allows the mamas to put the financial skills they have learned into practice. Not only is this is beneficial from an income perspective but this also gives them the opportunity to be role models for others in the community.
• Health: Our newest volunteer is a nurse. During our budget conversation we discussed her plans to incorporate nutrition into the health program at Kesho Leo. I can also attest to her excellent nursing abilities since I got sick a few days after she arrived!
I know I am a little biased but numbers can be exciting! The beauty of a budget is that we now have a road map for the next year – we know what we want to accomplish and what tools we will have to meet these goals. As a team we have worked together to identify expenditures and funds needed in the upcoming year to meet short term goals as well as the overall fws strategic plan and objectives.