Last week, we concluded our virtual strengths workshop, which occurred over four days via zoom. In the weeks and days preceding the virtual workshop, a lot was happening virtually. The Building a Strengths Mindset is Schools officially started on February 16, 2022. The project was jointly awarded to Emmanuel Angoda, and Lorraine McCamley in 2021, and is funded by the Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange component.
The project consisted of three major components or activities. The first activity involved having participants apply to join the program, who would then proceed to undertake the CliftonStrengths assessment. I must say that, of all projects I have implemented, this project has been difficult and challenging for participants to understand, and appreciate.
It was hard convincing them to undertake the CliftonStrengths assessment, and also harder explaining to them the outcome of the assessment.
The second activity was one-on-one sessions. This was between Sènou, and the participants, via WhatsApp. For people who successfully did this, this was fun, and the feedback I received from participants was amazing. Sènou is a certified strengths coach, and it was easy for him to make participants understand their strengths reports than me. However, due to reasons beyond our control, some eight participants did not attend the one-on-one sessions, despite reminders, and the rescheduling we did.
The third and last activity was the virtual strengths workshop, which would bring all 30 participants to dialogue, and learn more about the strengths philosophy. The virtual workshops were spearheaded by coach Lorraine McCamley, who I first met in 2019 at the University of Delaware (UD), where she was also teaching the Common Leadership Curriculum (CLC). It was in those inspiring, early morning lectures that motivated me to think of us organizing something similar for people back home in Lira, Uganda.
Overall, the project grant was enough covering all costs of the project, from procuring t-shirts, posters, to paying data refund for participants. The project committee was very instrumental in providing the much-needed support, and advise. For example, the committee, by consensus selected the t-shirt fabric quality, and colour, and also got a graphics expert to do the posters. They also mobilized participants to attend the virtual workshop.
For the most part, all aspects of the project went on well, and we tried our best to adhere to approved project workplan.
However, I regret that we didn’t set aside a commensurate amount of money for data refund. When we started paying data refund, there were many complains, and the general view was that the figure should have been higher. The figure we had in the budget was $9, approximately Uganda Shillings 3,2813, which we rounded to 30,000. Considering the high internet costs, I concede that that amount wasn’t sufficient enough to cover all 3 key activities of the project. I will take it as a lesson, which shouldn’t overlook in the next virtual project like this.
In sum, I am grateful that this project has come to an end. And I would like to sincerely thank coach Lorraine, first, for accepting this collaboration, and most importantly for conducting four 4 days of virtual strengths workshop, which was a core component of the project.
As I have stated earlier, this virtual project was good, but I believe it would have been much better if it was an in-person project. Therefore, I look forward to the day we shall host you in Lira city, Uganda, when another opportunity avails.
I would also like to thank the project team, Denis, Winnifred, Erick, Sharon, and Denis for your honest advice, support you extended to the project. And I will not forget the participants, who sacrificed a lot in order to be part of the project, and in the end benefited the most from the project. I hope that this project has enriched your life and career more, developed your positivity, resilience and ambition.
Finally, I will forget to thank our funders, the Mandela Washington Fellowship, and the implementing agency, IREX, and of course the U.S. Government. Without the funding, this project would have remained on paper. You believed in our desire to “use the CliftonStrengths to improve the resilience of secondary schools and other professional during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Thank you very much, and as we say in Leb Lango, Apwoyo Matek.
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