RELUFA meetings in November

(Ann wrote this article for inclusion in the PC-USA's Joining Hands newsletter, out soon.)

ONE WEEK, TWO MEETINGS, by Ann Speyer

The RELUFA offices.

The week of November 5, 2007 was an eventful one for RELUFA. Twice at their offices in Yaoundé, the main gathering room with its neat square of tables was full of people, French and English words mingling and bouncing off the black and white tile floor. Bookending the week on Monday and Friday, both meetings brought people together from diverse places, ready to focus together on RELUFA’s work and vision.

Check presentation: Methodist missionaries Leah & Wes Magruder, Marie Crescence Ngobo (Centre pour l’Environnement et le Developpement) and Valéry Nodem (RELUFA network coordinator)

The Monday meeting started the week with a celebratory tone, and featured a delegation from the Presbyterian Church (USA), a Methodist missionary couple, Credit Against Poverty (CAP) program beneficiaries, and RELUFA staff. The occasion was a happy one indeed: the presentation of two large donations from Methodist churches in the USA, one for RELUFA’s food sovereignty program and the other for the CAP micro-credit program. Introductions went around the table, beneficiaries spoke about what they’ve gained thanks to their CAP program loans, and smiles broke through as Francophones and Anglophones translated for one another, arriving at well-earned moments of understanding. During the proceedings, trays of dried fruits and plantains passed from hand to hand, produced by a women’s cooperative who had purchased their food drying equipment with help from a CAP loan. The afternoon was a beautiful demonstration of how RELUFA as a network does indeed bring people and organizations together.

Moderator Meg Agbor (director of RELUFA member organization CHAMEG) and secretary Guy Nomigue (RELUFA’s CAP coordinator) keep the CAP work-group meeting running smoothly.

The Friday immediately following, the tone in the room was more businesslike, though no less congenial. For the first time since its launching in January 2007, the CAP work group was reuniting to review the program’s first year. Eight different member organizations of RELUFA were represented, as well as a micro-finance consultant and RELUFA staff. Many of these same people and organizations had planned, discussed, and struggled together for three years to form the CAP program, and now that it was up and running nearly a year, it was time to ask: what worked well? What challenges do we face? What changes can make our program better and stronger? There were suggestions on streamlining the application process, acknowledgements of the creativity and resourcefulness of beneficiaries, hard questions about what to do when payments are not made on time. The meeting moderator and secretary kept the group focused and engaged through each step of the agenda. When the day’s business was concluded mid-afternoon, participants shared a delicious lunch and a renewed sense that Credit Against Poverty, still a work-in-progress, is well worth continued investment, as are the people it serves.