The artisans catch some rays while developing their own mission statement

The G.R.O. Team (our staff, members and board) traveled to the mountains on July 17 for their annual team retreat.  Its the middle of winter here, so it was cold!  The artisans came prepared wearing their Basotho blankets, as the rest of us huddled under the heater.

The purpose of our retreat this year was to focus on a mission and vision for the organization, inclusive of our different projects.  Each project wrote their own mission and vision statement after a tutorial from Programs Manager, Rethabile.  Afterward, we joined together and created the mission for G.R.O. Lesotho.  It was a great team experience and way to build a collective vision as we move forward.

The mission of G.R.O. Lesotho is:  “to bring positive change to vulnerable local communities by providing hope, empowerment and support.  We do this through involving inspired people, hand in hand, to provide tools, resources, and training at the grassroots level, ultimately leading to long-term growth and sustainability of our locally-inspired projects”.

James speaks to the team about social change

The artisans... warm in their Basotho blankets

Rethabile, Katiso and Matumelo discuss the grannies poultry project and social mission

Our senior G.R.O. board members jot down important points for the organization

Jason first volunteered with G.R.O. in Lesotho from April-June 2009 as a business advisor, where he helped the artisans with their business, advised the Grannies on improving chicken production, and worked with the students.

In November 2009, Jason returned again to Lesotho, this time for eight months. During these past eight months, Jason has been part of monumental change.  He has helped move offices (twice) as we grew, traveled with the artisans to numerous a bazaar, dug trenches around the chicken coop, and conducted lifeskills sessions with the students.  He mentored our local staff in planning a career fair for 2400 students, assisted in writing a 64 page Career Resource Manual, and spent countless hours helping to strengthen and build the organization.

We would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to Jason - we could not have done it without you!

From everyone here with G.R.O. Lesotho.

After only a few short months you recently received a promotion - can you tell us about your new position?

The new position I have just accepted is the LEAP Program Coordinator. This position means taking over the general role and direction of LEAP and being responsible in developing the work plan and ensure that it is being implemented. The new job still contains my work with the Family Scholarship Fund (FSF) as they are interconnected and both deal with students. We still have the FSF Leadership Club that we use as a model for the LEAP workshops. So I have more of a chance to expand my working activities to more students throughout the whole district.

You and and I have worked closely since you first started with G.R.O. Lesotho - as you continue to manage the Family Scholarship Fund and take on the LEAP initiative what are some of the trainings you have been engaged in and what are you hoping to learn from them?

I have been engaging with a number of professional skills training sessions. These include how to effectively lead and properly attend a meeting - overall professional meeting skills. I have also been invovled in learning how to respond to important messages, e-mails, and letters.

Those are the trainings I have been working with and I am hoping to learn better ways of communicating and conducting myself in professional situations. This has become especially important as I am the face of the programs so it is important to ensure we appear professional and am able to work well with all the attendees.  Also, I am looking to expand my abilities to respond professionally to different situations with our project associates and colleagues. Now that the LEAP program deals specifically with a number of government departments and larger players throughout the Lesotho education sector these things are important.

What successes are you working towards and where do you hope to see the FSF and LEAP programs in the next few months?

Right now, I am working on a comprehensive work plan which will assist in implementing these programs. In the next few months, I want to see LEAP as the most well known and successful G.R.O. Lesotho program in terms of its coverage and impact on educational stakeholders throughout the country. With the FSF I would like to see it increase its benefit for the students. This mean fine tuning the FSF Leadership Club and being able to provide interactive sessions to teach the students more skills giving the students a chance to become better leaders. I want to see students leaving the program and their high school time with the chance for brighter futures. They can pass and go to tertiary.  So, that’s what I can say about the two programs in the months to come.

Lumela ‘Me! We are really happy that you are joining us, kea leboha (thank you)!

You are the original member of the G.R.O. Artisans - what does it mean to be the Project Leader?

It means that we have achieved so much in making the G.R.O. Artisans. Moving towards bigger achievements and growing day by day. Every day is a step forward. To be a project leader is exciting and we are making more products. Before we didn’t have many orders, then we grew to where we never had enough time to make the orders we had come to us, and now we have grown to include more members and we can finally complete orders on time. I think it is exciting because we have always talked and had these plans but now we are achieving these things. Becoming the Project Leader proves that we are now growing and seeing many successes.

Over the past year you have experienced some big changes and growth with Bo ‘Me - what events have you been most excited about?

There are so many! The first one is that we have now the bead shop - this is really exciting. So it makes us sell the supplies and beads inside the same space with our products. We have a Coordinator now and have started to distribute our products throughout Lesotho to the country’s best hotels and in South Africa at the boutiques and craft shops. The Artisans are going to the flea markets monthly.

We have started making products for the Queen of Lesotho and even for the US Ambassador. We have a good relationship with G.R.O. supporters and they always give us orders when they are in Lesotho so we are grateful for everyone supporting us in North America. We had new designs for 2010 also. Coming shortly we will have our new office that will be the biggest we have had so far so that we can make enough room for our new members and we will be free to make better products.

Finally, the members have babies in the office which makes it hard to keep producing quickly. Soon we will be having a baby-sitter in the office which will make our work easier and increase our production. There are so many exciting things!

What do you hope that the G.R.O. Artisans Collective will be able to achieve over the next few months?

We hope to have more markets and larger international orders. Our business is beginning to be known because we have started advertising and we hope that our local customers will grow. Bo ‘me want to get bigger internationally and locally. We want to keep growing but I know it happens that we need to keep finding new markets to expand.

‘Me Majoyce we are so thankful that you could take the time to have a Q&A today. The G.R.O. Artisans have experienced so many successes and you really have only had a small amount of time to mention just a few.  We will look for new designs and the launch of your products in Canada and throughout the world!

Already a month has passed since the LEAP Career Fair - What are some of the things you have been working on since that time?

I think mostly I have been working on the EU LGNSP grant which is one of the largest funders for the LEAP education initiative. This means I have been very busy! Some of what I’ve been working on include attending a workshop where I had to present our complete work plan at a 2-day workshop. There we presented the budget, time line, and activity schedule for the program.

What big changes are coming up for the organization?

There really is so much - I can begin with our new LEAP coordinator, ‘Ntate Katiso ‘Mota has stepped in with a promotion, we are getting closer to publishing the LEAP Career guidebook, and we hope to shortly open the LEAP Resource Centre for district stufents. Bo ‘Nkhono (the Grannies) have also joined ESAF which is a buying program that should give increased access to the retail market for selling their chickens. Also, the Artisans were able to send a gift to the Queen for her birthday which just happened. There really are so many exciting things with all of the programs so I’m sure I’m leaving a few out!

Finally, how do you feel with the World Cup starting next door in South Africa?

Wow - This is one of the days in Africa where everyone is so excited and we are all in the mood for football!  Still, work goes on but we’re in the mood for it to start - only a few hours now until Bafana takes the field. In Africa, rain means a blessing and it has been raining all day and night - this is special because it is winter so we are all feeling the good mood.

Who do you think will win in the opening game tonight between Bafana Bafana (South Africa) and Mexico?

South Africa, of course! 2-1 is what I think so I’m absolutely excited!

Well, that about wraps it up for today - Kea leboha (thank you) ‘Me and GO Bafana GO!

The past few weeks have seen some really exciting developments for the G.R.O. Artisans Collective. We have managed to sit down with ‘Me Mots’eoa, the Artisans Collective Coordinator, for a brief chat to update us all on what has been going on.

Lumela ‘Me! Welcome to your second G.R.O. Q&A – thanks for taking the time out of your day working on financials to hang out for a few minutes. Ok, here are your 3 questions….

Both the G.R.O. Lesotho Programs Team and the G.R.O. Artisans are about to move into a much larger office, still in the BEDCO Leribe complex. What does the new office space mean for the Artisans?

Well, the new office is very exciting for the Artisans particularly because we will centralize our space to include the retail space, the workshop, and my office with the Programs Team. There will also be a larger space that we are hoping, in future, can be dedicated to a space that Bo ‘Me can bring their children to work. As mentioned, we will be able to divide the retail shop and provide a more private workshop space. The new office and retail space gives the Artisans a greater chance to improve on their customer service and retail experience skills. The whole thing is a lot more convenient with a lot more space.

The Artisans recently had a pretty high ranking visitor to the retail shop – who stopped by and how did they hear about the Collective?

The Ambassador to the United States recently visited with his family. Ambassador Nolan had heard about the Collective from one of his daughters who had met us at the most recent Maseru Bazaar where we were selling jewelry. She took a flyer and ended up telling her mom. They were both impressed and visited our website to do a bit of research on the Artisans. From there the family decided to drop in to see the women and the workshop. The Artisans were ecstatic that they took the time to visit and purchase a few pieces of jewelry – I want to make sure we thank Ambassador Nolan and his family for the support!

That’s amazing! Congrats on the expanding customer base! In other big news the Artisans seem to have established a Royal connection – can you please update us all on what exactly I’m talking about?

Queen Masenate Mohato Bereng Seeiso recently received a birthday gift from the artisans - a jewelry set specially made by the Artisans in a custom bag made of local fabrics which was hand delivered by her mom. The Queen happens to be from Hlotse so we wanted to surprise her with a small gift. She gave us some really positive feedback that was sent to us through her brother. In fact, she was really impressed and she wants to purchase a few additional pieces. She has just ordered a customer set of 3 pieces that will match her seshoshoe in blue – the seshoshoe is the national traditional fabric and is worn at special events by Basotho women. This is of course big news for Bo ‘Me as it was really quite unexpected and we are hoping that this relationship that has been established with the Royal family will continue and that our queen will be a strong advocate for the Artisans showcasing their work at a number of events. I think we are all hoping she will eventually make a visit but we’ll have to wait and see!

We were really excited to have you visit once again and the whole team misses you already! Having been to Lesotho numerous times what was your impression of the programs on your most recent trip? Is there anything that really stood out to you?

Well, I have to say that it was incredible to be back in Lesotho to see the work that GRO has done in the last 12 months. We have gone from having volunteers only to now having full-time employees - what a change. And we seem to be exponentially growing - an office, a beading store, a truck!! It is great to see what tangible change is happening on the ground - and in such a good way. The GRO Lesotho team seems to be energetic, motivated and passionate about what GRO stands for.

You were honoured as one of the dignitaries at the Career Fair - could you explain what that experience is like for everyone?
Yes, I was a “dignitary” as the Chair of the Board of GRO Canada. How exciting!
During the Career Fair we hosted over a dozen other dignitaries from the Ministry of Education and from the District Administrator. It was a key moment for GRO to get this kind of exposure to those in the government - Jamie White, the Director of GRO Canada and I spent quite a bit of time talking about what GRO is, what we do and how we do it. At the end of the day we had the attention and understanding and support of the dignitaries that were invited - a success I believe!

We have talked about this on numerous occasions but for everyone taking the time to read your Q&A could you say a few words about what you miss most about Lesotho when you head home?
It is always the people. It has been such a special thing to be involved with the Artisans and Grannies and students over the past few years. It is remarkable to be able to come back to Lesotho to see them grow, and prosper and succeed…and I wish them all well and hope to see them soon again.

Typically in a Q&A you only have to answer 3 questions but because we don’t get the chance to sit down often we are going to hit you with a 4th one. There have been big developments brewing for G.R.O. in Canada over the past few months - without giving anything away what can you tell everyone about what the summer has in store for G.R.O. Canada?
Yes, GRO Canada has been undergoing its own remarkable developments. We have applied for CRA registration status, have updated the website, strengthened our board, executive and community of volunteers on this end…and we will be holding a big GRO Canada Launch party come late summer/early fall…GRO Canada is growing along with our GRO Lesotho project partners!

Thank you for taking the time to answer your first G.R.O. Q&A. We were so happy to have you visit us and always look forward to your return to Lesotho!