Dawa Sherpa

This summer, I worked with Women Advocacy Project (WAP) in Harare, Zimbabwe. In conjunction with WAP leaders, I accomplished many of our goals. Some of the proudest moments for me were: setting up the new facility and having it up and running; organizing and improving WAP financial management system; preparing a preliminary budget for the upcoming three years, training some of the WAP girls in using Excel; obtaining a car donation for WAP; cutting the cost of production in multiple areas; finding a way to recycle and reduce the use of plastic in production; having the whole facility run on solar energy; making various areas of production more time efficient and user-friendly; collecting data and preliminary information for the education fund; and last but not least being able to organize an opening ceremony for all the WAP beneficiaries. While I am proud of my achievements, I also have to acknowledge a series of challenges I faced as well. Some of the challenges were: constant power outages, water shortage, broken vehicles, cultural differences, and a different concept of work ethic and time management. My time in WAP was full of ups and downs. Through it all, I learned and grew personally and professionally. I am pleased about the contribution I made during my ten weeks toward WAP’s goal to become a self-sufficient business. I am confident that WAP will successfully continue serving the girls from vulnerable communities in the future.