Project Management

The past week I feel like a project manager, trying to make plans to implement a project, with the plans changing every hour.  It is my responsibility to make sure the donated items get distributed while I am here. I spent the first week and a half working with the specific program managers to figure out the best criteria to decide who has the greatest need.   Unfortunately, the need exceeds the amount of supplies we have.

By last Thursday the 3rd, I had most of the next two weeks scheduled out.  I had several towns/villages to go to, health clinics, women centers, schools to visit, and it had to be carefully lanned out becuase of staff schedules and travel time.   My original plan was to leave Ganta Friday the 4^th to go to Sanniquellie, the capital of Nimba County.  And on Monday I would start distributing items and visiting health clinics, schools and women centers. But Friday came and I took a look at the items and realized that the checker boards we were going to distribute to the kids were not sanded properly ( the kids could easily get splinters). I also had to work with the program manager of education to figure out some criteria and realized it was easier to do it face to face than on the phone.  So I decided to leave Sunday.

Sunday came and went and I could not go because the President of Liberia was in Sanniquellie , so the drive would take too long because of all the check points along the way.  So I decided to leave Monday. (Ever since I got here, I have learned to be flexible and open to anything and not be too attached to any plans). On Monday the plan was to do the first distribution,of mosquito nets to the Liberian Swedish Vocational Training Center in Yekepea.

Students at LSVTC

This is a dorm like center where many students learn electricity, electronics, agriculture, auto mechanics, etc.   The plan was to head up to the center on Monday and help put up some of the mosquito nets.

Monday morning came and I discovered that the nails and string to put up the mosquito nets had been ordered weeks ago but had not arrived at the IRC warehouse.  There is a process at IRC where a PO needs to be filled out for every order, logistcs figures out pricing and gets approval from a  manager, the item is bought and placed in the wharehouse.  Elizabeth   turned in the PO weeks before I arrived in Liberia but it was never entered into the system because of some internal confusion.  The frustration was that Elizabeth was never told there was any delay in the process so we assumed that the items were in the warehouse and we only discovered they were not the day we  needed it.  Without nails and string, there was no point for me to go to Yekepea, so my trip out of Ganta was delayed again.

I also realized that in order to get the checker boards sanded, I needed to put a PO for sandpaper (I wasn’t told this before), so I did that on Monday as well.  We also had backpacks with many items, notebooks, pens, pencils, markers, calculators.. etc but those had to packaged together.  So I wrote up a store release for that, and worked with the warehouse staff to put the bags together.

Recreation Equipment to students at Youth Resource Center

I had to learn the process really fast, and I think I got a handle on it. I work at an organization where we have many processes and procedures, so that is not new to me.  What was new was working with a warehouse and the rules of tracking every single item (from sandpaper to nails to backpacks).

I did end up having a very productive week – In 4 days, I was in 5 towns/villages (Ganta, Sanniquellie, Karnplay, Yekepea, New Yekepea).   I visited 3 health clinics, 1 health center, 1 hospital.  I participated in another GBV event, had meetings with the Superintendent of Nimba County,  Ministry of Gender and Ministry of Youth and Sports, superintendent of Gbehlageh district and visited a Radio Station.  I also went to a school, youth resource center, and vocational training center and spoke to 4 students.

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