We’re delighted to be a part of the team behind Making the Most of Masters, aLearning to Work 2 (LTW2) initiative which allows postgraduate students to undertake work-based projects as part of their studies.

The students, from Universities of Aberdeen and Edinburgh, specialise in a number of different subjects from Carbon Management, Emerging Markets and Law to International Development. We’ve pictured a great word cloud of the students’ motivations for applying (thanks to Diane Gill @ MMM for generating this).

The first group has already arrived in Malawi to begin undertaking research for their dissertations, and there will be more setting off for Uganda, India, Kenya, Egypt, Indonesia over the next few weeks.

For more information on the students and the projects they’ll be involved in, please visit MMM’s designated blog.  We look forward to following the updates on their progress.

There are still some placements available, please visit the Research Assignments link on our Current Assignments page.

A big welcome to Gabby Ansems, a Physiotherapy Trainer, who has just arrived in Sri Lanka to work with the Women’s Development Centre in Kandy.

In a joint project run by Challenges Worldwide and the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council, Gabby will support the Centre’s Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) programme for people living with disabilities.

Gabby will spend 3 months providing expert guidance to staff, helping them to assess disabilities and training them in therapeutic exercises.  She has already begun blogging and you can read about her time in Sri Lanka by selecting her name on the list of current bloggers or clicking here.

Delighted that our international volunteering work received a mention on It’s Never Too Late To, an informative blog which offers advice to those nearing retirement or considering a change in their career.    It’s full of useful tips  to help individuals interested in new challenges, so do have a browse.

 

Challenges Worldwide are pleased to invite you to Sri Lanka Development: Partnerships – the Good, the Bad and the Uncertain.

At the close of our Sri Lanka Enterprise Development Project we want to share our experiences: our achievements and outcomes, as well as the challenges we faced and, the lessons we learnt specifically related to partnership working.  We aim for this to be an interactive session where members can also share their experience on partnerships in projects and develop consensus on best practice. We hope you can join us.

Date: Wednesday 17^th April 2013

Time: 10 am – 1pm (includes a light lunch with an opportunity to network)

Venue:  The Vine Trust Barge, Prince of Wales Dock, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 7DXhttp://tinyurl.com/cmhvosl

Please sign-up by emailing amy.bodel@challengesworldwide.com before 8^thApril 2013.

Challenges Worldwide is dedicated to alleviating poverty by helping to strengthen the skills and abilities of entrepreneurs and enterprises, to grow businesses that generate income, employment and sustainable economic growth.  We work in low and middle income countries.  We are a pioneering not-for-profit organisation with over fifteen years experience delivering expert support to micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Challenges Worldwide provides a range of services including designing, managing and delivering capacity building projects. We also provide other services for clients including sourcing skilled and experienced mentors, as volunteers, to undertake a range of professional assignments.

The Sri Lanka Enterprise Development project was funded by the Scottish Government. The aim is to train and build the capacity of local business development management consultants to support the growth of SMEs.

The latest issue of NIDOS News is now out and it’s jam packed with upcoming events and training opportunities, so well worth a read.  Look out for Challenges Worldwide’s Member Profile whilst you’re browsing:

http://www.nidos.org.uk/downloads/NIDOSNewsJanuary2013_1.pdf

Our Christmas newsletter is now live and will be dropping into mailboxes shortly.  If you are not already signed up to our mailing list, you can read the latest version here.

Interested in receiving future newsletters?  You can join our mailing list by clicking the plus sign in the top left-hand corner of your screen and entering your email address.

Pineapple chutney anyone?

Great to have Just Trading Scotland’s new bulletin drop through our letterbox this month.

JTS arrange for fairly-traded products to be imported and distributed in the UK. You can read more about what they dohere.

Their bulletin is a nice read full of stories, upcoming events, even special offers on pineapple chutney and a recipe for rice pudding with marmalade.

It also mentions our volunteer, Gill Lowy, who spent six weeks working with Eswatini Swazi Kitchen, a jam and chutney producer in Swaziland.  Gill helped them to improve their finances and started a quest for new supporters.  JTS received three containers  of goods from the Eswatini Swazi Kitchen this year, which is a new record, so well done to all involved.

We look forward to reading the next instalment in January!

Those in our network are warmly invited to the Voices of Entrepreneurs Publication Launch, to be held in Washington DC on November 14th.

 

 

Innovators. Risk-takers. Dreamers. Doers. Entrepreneurs.
Join the World Resources Institute (WRI) and New Ventures to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week and launch of “Voices of the Entrepreneurs,” a publication that gives voice to a group of extraordinary people who are dedicated to creating environmental benefits through successful commercial enterprises. Learn about their challenges. Be inspired by the solutions. Join the effort to scale environmental entrepreneurship across the world. Hear firsthand one entrepreneur’s story and engage in a discussion led by experts from the international development, capacity building, impact investing, and philanthropic communities about how different stakeholder groups can enable greater success of environmental entrepreneurs.

You can find out more about the event and register here.

Here at Challenges, we help the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council to fulfil requests for highly-skilled and experienced volunteers from their partner churches across the world.

We’d like to introduce you to a couple of new volunteers who have recently arrived in Sri Lanka as part of this project.  We’ve arranged for  Nicola Yeeles, an English teacher, and Robbie Granozio, a Clean Energy Consultant to join the Theological College of Lanka.  You can follow Nicola’s and Robbie’s stories as they adjust to life in Sri Lanka here:

Nicola: http://thiswritingbusiness.wordpress.com/my-thinking/

Robbie: http://robbiegranozio.wordpress.com/

Clare Armstrong, a speech therapist, has been in Sri Lanka as part of this project since July.  Clare has done some great work with the staff and children at the Women’s Development Centre in Kandy and we hope she enjoys her last couple of weeks there.

You can catch up with Clare’s blog here:   http://speechieinsrilanka.wordpress.com/

If you’d be interested in volunteering with us, you can view our current assignments and apply today.

 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve enjoyed reading the Scotland Malawi Partnership‘s (SMP) quotes on why ‘Gender Matters’ to its partners and their work.

These tweets and Facebook posts have been helping to raise awareness of their Gender Equality Forum’s Gender Matters project.   Through this project, the SMP will be hosting a programme of meetings to support the integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment in school partnerships, development initiatives and various community links.

Last night, we were delighted to attend the launch of this year-long programme.  Fiona Hyslop – Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs – was also in attendance and the photography competition attracted some wonderful submissions.

With grant assistance from the Scottish Government, we’ve been proud to support several women-led organisations in Malawi.  One of our recent success stories comes from our work with Horizon Health Limited.  This registered health insurance company was established in 2010 by Gertrude Sambakunsi and a partner.  Umodzi, an indigenous business management consultancy we’ve developed, worked with Horizon Health Ltd. to develop a business plan that would help raise investment of MK10 million and grow the business.  This work resulted in the company increasing its number of employees from 3 to 21 and increasing its membership to 4,000.  They now have branches in all three of Malawi’s regions.

Thanks to the Scotland Malawi Partnership for an informative evening and we look forward to following the Gender Matters project progress as the year goes on.