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Training for Transformation

Since 2011, Doulos has worked with a number of international partners to develop and promote several powerful training courses which address critical needs of families and communities in Mauritania.  We have produced detailed curriculum materials in Arabic and French and trained nearly two-dozen local trainers who are now certified to present these courses locally.

Doulos Community’s “Training for Transformation” program encompasses several different training courses and activities:

  1. Business start-up training – the Dynamic Business Start-up Project (DBSP): DBSP is a four-week practical business training course, designed to equip entrepreneurs and promote self-sufficiency.  Each four-week class is followed by 12 months of structured one-on-one follow-up and coaching of each trainee.  One key distinctive of DBSP is that it teaches people to start businesses with $7 of their own money.  To learn more about the DBSP program, click here.
  2. Worldview training:  The worldview training courses offered by Doulos have the goal of breaking attitudes of fatalism, passivity and dependency.  The courses are designed to stir up people’s hope and their confidence that they can take initiative to change their lives and circumstances, focusing on the themes of stewardship and fruitfulness.   Some of the specific training courses which we use as part of our Worldview training include:  “Crossroads;”  “Seeds for Sustainable Change” (SSC); and “Holistic Transformation” (HT).  To learn more about the Crossroads course, which is one of our featured activities in 2015, click here.
  3. Asset-based community development: Training designed to help community leaders identify resources and opportunities, not just focus on needs and problems.  It emphasizes building on what the individuals and communities can already do, helping them strengthen and develop existing resources.   We do not currently run any specific courses on Asset-based Community Development, but this methodology undergirds our ongoing mentoring of local NGOs and leaders.

Project Location:  Currently we are offering the training courses for this program in Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital and largest city.  Nouakchott is home to nearly

one-third of the country’s population.  As the program grows, and we develop a larger corps of local trainers and partners, we expect to offer these training courses in other regions of the country.

How Many People Served:  In 2014, Doulos provided business training or worldview training to nearly 200 individuals.  We estimate the program indirectly benefitted at least 800 family members and friends of the training participants as they shared what they learned with others, and/or were better able to provide for their family through the business skills gained on the DBSP course.   However, there are also many other indirect beneficiaries, since a number of the recent worldview trainees are active in running local NGOs.  Following the training, their NGOs have organized various community events.  So we are extremely confident that these training programs have a much greater “multiplication effect” than what we can directly measure!

Scholarship Support: Providing support for children’s education for certain needy families, as well as skills training (computer skills, etc.) for adults, particularly those who serve as community volunteers in various of our programs.

Project Timeframe:  This is an ongoing project, needing long-term partners.

Funding Need:  The annual budget for 2015 is approximately $60,000.

Approximately $600 will train each student participating in the business-training program.  This includes:  a 1 month-long course & 12 months of ongoing coaching and follow-up.  Business training students participate by paying a small fee to cover a portion of the training costs, but most of the families we serve would never be able to afford the full $600, which represents 3 months of household expenses for a typical poor family in Nouakchott.  We are planning to offer business training for 60 individuals in 2015 – a cost of $36,000.

Costs for the other training courses, including Crossroads and SSC are somewhat more variable, depending on the venue and size of the training.  An average cost for a small group training (approx 20 individuals) lasting 10 – 12 days is $3500, about $175 per participant.  We are aiming to run 5 – 6 such trainings in 2015