Challenges Worldwide facilitates the development of businesses and
social enterprises in low- and middle-income countries. These business enterprises are
the driving force for economic growth and social progress in the areas where they are located. Often there is little
formal business training available in these areas and most businesses and social enterprises
cannot afford professional advice.
Challenges Worldwide recruits professional associates with experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors to work on short placements of one to
six months to help strengthen businesses, social enterprises and organisations.
Each associate undertakes a specific piece of consultancy work, agreed
at the start of the assignment, and is offered support throughout. The associate enjoys a professional and cultural experience that
enhances his or her personal and professional development. Additionally, as
Challenges Worldwide is a CMI approved centre, there is an opportunity to gain
a CMCE or Chartered Manager qualification.
During the period of the assignment the associate will facilitate learning and
strengthen the skills of local entrepreneurs and small- and medium-sized
businesses to stimulate economic growth.
Challenges Worldwide also design and deliver a
range of programmes including local capacity building to help incubate start-up businesses
and support businesses with growth potential. For this work Challenges Worldwide use the knowledge of the
core team to work with local partners and involve expert associates.
Chodort Training Centre in Choma, Zambia is a
Training Centre, which was set up as a result of a partnership between
Choma Consistory in the United Church of Zambia and a Consistory in Dortmund in Germany. The Church Leaders in Choma Consistory saw
that many of the young people in the district were unemployed.
This is largely because there is little formal employment in the
town of Choma
and in the surrounding area. In addition to
this most of the young people do not have any workplace skills or training so even when
opportunities of employment come along they do not have the necessary skills
to take up the employment. Having
looked seriously and critically at the local situation they concluded that there is
a great and immediate need for skills training for the young people in the church and in the community.
These needs can be summed up as
follows:
To cater for the needs of those who do not reach Grade
12 for whatever reason.
To keep college fees to a minimum so as to keep the courses
within the reach of the young people and their guardians.
To provide training which will enable the trainees to
start in business on their own as well as take up formal employment.
To offer courses to both male and female students.
The Church Leaders decided
that they should set up a Training Centre that would take these needs into account. Partners in Dortmund, Germany
agreed to support the project and so Chodort Training Centre came about taking
it’s name from Choma and Dortmund. The first course to be offered was in Carpentry &
Joinery followed by a Tailoring,
Dressmaking and Design Course.
A purpose built workshop for the Carpentry & Joinery Course incorporating a Production Unit is part of the college complex. From the start it was the aim that the Production Unit should be profitable to support the Training Centre. This has two major benefits:
Firstly it generates income for the Centre and secondly it gives students
industrial experience while they are training.
This
purpose-made building was designed and built, incorporating the production unit
at one end, a storeroom, an office, a classroom/workshop and a toilet
block. This building has been built with
the help of the Partners in Germany
and has been equipped with modern tools, equipment and machinery from the
Methodist Container Ministry in Ireland.
The college also offers computer courses and classes in Tailoring and Dressmaking.
My Assignment I will start my work at Chodort by undertaking a review of the carpentry Production Unit to:
Establish the current trading position
Identify areas for development
Advise on management practices
Establish the breakeven point for the unit
Assist with the preparation of a business plan for the medium term
I will endeavour during my time at Chodort to improve the trading performance of the Carpentry Production Unit and to make it a viable business enterprise capable of making a net contribution to the finances of the college.
My second task is to develop training material to be used by college staff to assist students who are considering starting their own business after their graduation.
I expect to start my work at Chodort on 6 January 2014.
My work at Chordort is made possible with the very generous support of the Church of Scotland
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the North West.
On 24 October 1964, the country became independent of the United Kingdom and then-prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from the 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a single party state with the UNIP as the sole-legal political party, with the goal of uniting the nation under the banner of 'One Zambia, One Nation'. Kaunda was succeeded by Fredrick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government. Chiluba selected Levy Mwanawasa as his successor; Mwanawasa presided over the country from January 2002 until his death in August 2008, and is credited with initiating a campaign to reduce corruption and increase the standard of living. After Mwanawasa's death, Rupiah Banda presided as Acting President before being elected president in 2008. He is the shortest serving president, having held office for only three years. Patriotic Front party leader, Michael Chilufya Sata defeated Banda in the 2011 elections.
In 2010, the World Bank named Zambia one of the world's fastest economically reformed countries. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) is headquartered in Lusaka.
Southern Province is one of Zambia's nine provinces, and home to Zambia's premier tourist attraction, Mosi-oa-Tunya (Victoria Falls), shared with Zimbabwe. The centre of the province, the Southern Plateau, has the largest area of commercial farmland of any Zambian province, and produces most of the maize crop.
The Zambezi River is the province's southern border, and Lake Kariba, formed by the Kariba Dam, lies along the province's south-eastern edge. The eastern border is the Kariba Gorge and Zambezi, and the north-east border is the Kafue River and its gorge, dividing it from Lusaka Province. The Kafue Flats lie mostly within the province's northern border with Central Province. In the north west lies part of the famous Kafue National Park, the largest in Zambia, and the lake formed by the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam. The south-western border with Western Province runs through the teak forests around Mulobezi which once supported a commercial timber industry and for which the Mulobezi Railway was built.
The provincial capital is Choma. Until 2011 the provincial capital was Livingstone City. The Batonga are the largest ethnic group in the Province. A rail line and the Lusaka-Livingston road forms the principal transport axis of the province, running through its centre and its farming towns: Kalomo, Choma, Pemba, Monze, and Mazabuka. In addition to maize, other commercially important activities include sugar cane plantations at the edge of the Kafue Flats, and cattle ranching.
Southern Province has the only large source of fossil fuel in Zambia, the Maamba coal mine in the Zambezi valley, served by a branch line of the railway.
Choma is a market town lying on the main road and railway from Lusaka to Livingstone. It is home to a small museum dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Tonga people of southern Zambia. The population of Choma is said to be about 40,000 people and it serves as the commercial hub for the central region of the province. The Nkanga River Conservation Area lies nearby.
Choma is also the headquarters of a district of the same name. Most of the district lies at 1,400 metres above sea level. It has the typical climate of southern Zambia with temperatures between 14°C and 28°C and sunshine ranging between 9 and 12 hours per day. The highest temperatures occur between the beginning of October and the end of December. Once the rains start, temperatures tend to fall, partly because of the rain and partly due to the often heavy cloud cover. The lowest temperatures are usually recorded in June and July.
The rains generally start in the middle of October and continue through up to the beginning of April. Rainfall reaches its peak around January after which it diminishes slightly up to the beginning of April when usually it ceases entirely. Choma has an average rainfall of 800 mm of which 369 mm falls in January and February. There are variations in total rainfall and rainfall patterns from year to year and even in a particular season. These variations can have a major impact on crop yield. Humidity falls to about 33% until the onset of rains in October after which it skyrockets to about 77% in February. Humidity nosedives once the rains cease in April. The wind is predominantly from the east and south-west, and to a lesser degree from the north-east. The strength of the wind from these directions can be comparatively strong.
