Just write a letter

Before I get into my letter frustrations I want to remind you all of the potential USAID funded project that I blogged about a few weeks ago (Refer to link for a reminder!). I am happy to announce that we got the "go ahead" to write the concept paper which is due on June 23rd. I told ZANGOC that I wanted to be fully involved in writing this paper and they agreed so I emailed the coordinator from VSO and told him that I would be the ZANGOC representative in drafting the paper! So now I am in the loop on this great opportunity for Zanzibar and I am really excited that I will writing to USAID, definitely something that is resume worthy!

On another note, I have figured out why it takes so long for things to be accomplished within ZANGOC...because for every idea you have you have to "write a letter" and submit it to the Executive Committee for approval. For example, during the ZACP workshop I met a lady name Frida who works for ICAP in Zanzibar and since they fund ZANGOC I thought perhaps it's a good idea for me to have a chat with them and show them the workings of the strategic plan. Since I have Frida's contact information I sent her an email yesterday and we set up a meeting for Tuesday of next week. However, I also had a meeting with my supervisor yesterday and told him about this meeting and by the expression on his face I thought he was going to tell me I couldn't go, until finally he told me..."well you have to write a formal letter on ZANGOC letter head and submit it to the Executive Committee for approval." I just think this process is a waste of paper (and time) considering they are going to approve the meeting anyway.

I hope you remember ZIFYA - Zanzibar Initiative for Youth? I have blogged about them a few times, the first time was in ZANGOC Member Orgs and the second time was after I facilitated a workshop for ZIFYA on Monitoring and Evaluation and effective group and team work. I am visiting with ZIFYA again this evening to discuss collaboration with them, ZANGOC and YCI in the formulation of youth groups within the area. The idea for these youth groups will be to work with YCI volunteers, similar to the mentorship program with the YMCA in Ghana, as well as to get youth discussing issues that affect their lives and how we can move forward in addressing these issues at the community level. I told my supervisor about this idea and he thought it would be beneficial but again, I was told to "write a letter." I do intend to write this letter, however I didn't tell them that I was meeting with ZIFYA this evening to hear their inputs and ideas about these youth groups. Oh well, at least I will have the ball rolling on this by the time the letter gets "approved"!

One more thing...ZIFYA has constructed a website which is pretty cool, I am hoping maybe they can teach me a few things about website design! Check them out here: Zanzibar Initiative for Youth