Dragonflies Everywhere“Having a mentor was an advantage because as a start-up project with financial constraints, I could not afford these services. To me, it also served as capacity enhancement on website building because now I am able to work on my website while my project grows to maturity, saving on those costs.”
Marlyse Ashu Egbu, founder, Wokome
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Wokome, working with Marlyse Egbu
Mentoring program for an alternate learning project in Cameroon
With Cameroon in the grip of a violent civil war, our challenge was not in setting up an effective mentoring program but in ensuring its sustainability.
"My role was to listen to her tactical problems and suggest solutions for her to try out herself or with help from others in her ecosystem. It was a one of a kind experience for me, which made me realize it is not easy being a patient teacher!”
Jeffin Jacob Mathew,
Web Techie
Our mentoring program for Wokome, an alternate learning project in Cameroon, was our first foray into focused volunteering. When Marlyse Ashu Egbu, the founder of Wokome, reached out to us for support in building her project website, www.wokome.org, we were both excited and perplexed. With Cameroon in the grip of a violent civil war, our challenge was not in setting up an effective mentoring program but in ensuring its sustainability.
We set up online sessions for Marlyse with Bangalore based techie, Jeffin Jacob Mathew, who later told us “From the get go, it was a comfortable, friendly exchange. We talked about our cultural differences and similarities and I got to understand the different challenges she faced. My focus was not to spoon feed, but to allow her to learn and acquire skills that she and her community could benefit from. Initially it was a bit difficult to hold back from solving the problem, but I learnt the value of letting her play around and learn the technology. My role was to listen to her tactical problems and suggest solutions for her to try out herself or with help from others in her ecosystem. It was a one of a kind experience for me, which made me realize it is not easy being a patient teacher!”
After the Wokome website went live, Marylse talked to us about how great the experience was. “Having a mentor was an advantage” she said “because as a start-up project with financial constraints, I could not afford these services. To me, it also served as capacity enhancement on website building because now I am able to work on my website while my project grows to maturity, saving on those costs.”
