Much of the past week focused on GHI's presentation at the Second Annual Nutrition Summit in Rwanda which included participants from Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Nigeria and Malawi at the Serena Hotel, Kigali's finest and fanciest.
The invitation for GHI to do this presentation was issued at the last minute which put us into high gear. For a variety of reasons it was decided Solange, our Rwandan colleague, would be the best person to represent GHI behind the podium. We worked together fine tuning the PowerPoint and then coached Solange for her first big public speaking debut. Kinyarwanda is her mother tongue, but the language choices were only French or English...she chose English. Practicing with her was a treat as it was obvious that she has many natural public speaking abilities, some of which were generated from her time doing radio.
Wednesday AM we had a final rehearsal at home and knew she was ready despite her butterflies. When she left her seat to go to the podium, I gave her hand a last squeeze. As her coaches and friends, we all felt like nervous but proud parents, sitting on the edge of our seats. From the beginning, she was utterly composed and progressed steadily through the slides with remarkable aplomb and a professional demeanor. We all felt like cheering upon her wrap up, as she had done an absolutely superb job.
Afterwards she had many "big wigs" from UNICEF, World Food Programme and FAO (the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization) come and give her their cards with great interest and support for GHI which was exciting and gratifying. It was an interesting opportunity to see where GHI needs to focus, but also wonderful to realise that the hard work and vision of GHI is on the right track. Throughout the two days of talks, it was apparent that GHI's integration of psychosocial/mental health support is unique and something which needs expansion.
There was also much focus this week on Thanksgiving and explaining the holiday to our Rwandan friends....an epilogue to our community celebration on 11/11/11. Images of turkeys and times with family were swirling in our heads. A group of us gathered Thursday night around a bountiful meal which was lovely and full of gratitude...as Brad aptly stated it was a "family without borders" celebration.
Helen
Solange arriving to the conference
Solange at the podium
GHI Thanksgiving table
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