Junior Achievers

Everything in Swaziland is easy going, but I promise you nothing is ever easy. There is no sense of urgency, nor is there any obligation to feel rushed. This sense of attitude [for me] is perfect when I am on a vacation or just chillin on my mom’s sofa, but it drives me crazy when things go slowly in the work world. Much of Africa is like this—here they run on “Swazi time”, and I am sure in other parts of Africa they run on “___ time”. The old saying here goes, “there is no rush while the sun is still up”; all the while I am running around saying “time is money! $$$$$”. It can be extremely frustrating when you are trying to get a group of people to move at a brisk pace; meanwhile they are dragging their feet.  This conditioning happens naturally; think about it, in the states if you are walking in a crowded area, you better keep moving or else you’ll get knocked into. There is a certain pace of life that each culture grows up in—and here the rate is slow. But this post isn’t about culture blah blah blah…. This is merely a preface to the past few months I went through.

In March I was approached by Junior Achievement (JA), which is an NGO from America that works specifically in schools to teach business skills. They do this with many different programs; when I was in 8^th grade I even remember JA coming to my school for 8 weeks to teach my class about the different types of businesses. In Swaziland the main project JA does is an after school club with Form 4 students where they start their own mini company. They also partner with companies around the country to do job shadow programs with Form 5 students, as well as a day-long activity with Form 2 students called Economics for Success. I am happy to say my school has participated in all three of these programs. So anyways, back to March, JA came to the school to start the new season for the mini company with the Form 4 kids. I started recruitment by meeting with the class. No response.  A few weeks later, I met again…. No response. JA called to see why we had not met with the students yet, but I told them don’t worry we’ll get them to join any time now. Still no members. Now it was May and JA came to do a training session for all the facilitators; I got my box of supplies, but still no students. The former facilitator who had no reservations of doing the club this year due to his already demanding schedule stepped in to help me round up the students. Together the teacher and I went to the Form 4 class one more time to recruit them. We gave them this lecture about how we are the defending champions two years in a row and how our school has a reputation of being winners and we need to follow that success. Ideally the club needs 20 students…. after our last recruitment venture, we only had 12.  [Here is where I start to pull my hair out.] 

It is now June and we haven’t even started with the club. I have spent the past 4 months trying to get kids to do this program. If it wasn’t for the fact that my school had won the JA Swaziland Competition, then go on to win the African Competition 2 years in a row, I would have given up and said not worth it. However, I knew the potential at this school and the support from RSSC, that there was NO reason why should not do JA this year. So here is what we did, the facilitator and I paired up with the neighboring school that is also under RSSC and we coached both teams. Each school would come up with their own company and produce their own product, but the training sessions, the support, the facilities, they would all be the same.  So with our schools being now 8 weeks late into the competition, we FINALLY started. [Here is where I started pulling out grey hair.]

From mid-June to the End of September, we met with both schools on Saturday mornings training them on the basics of how to run a business. They chose their own managers, decided on a product to make, and did market research, break-even point, SWOT analysis, drafting business plans, selling shares, manufacturing and selling a product, and finally liquidating their assets. They did a corporate responsibility project where they went to a rural community outside of Simunye and selected 5 child-headed homes. They helped those families plant a garden and helped them learn how to sell their crops to generate revenue. The kids did several trips as well; we went to Manzini and Ezulweni so the kids could do their market research, they went to a CSI awards ceremony where they rubbed elbows with some of the biggest CEO’s in SD, then last week we went on a picnic to Malolojta in Northern SD where we climbed the 2^nd highest mountain in the country. 

Near the end of the program, the students from my school started to lose their motivation and dedication; as a result, we never completed the project. [Here is where I started getting ulcers.] Their mini company’s idea was to create Math Application for cell phones and computers where our targeted consumers could log into app and get access to all kinds of math help. The product was designed in such a way that when the buyer purchased the product, they would be given an access code specifically to them where they would log on and be able to connect with other students who also bought the same app. The idea itself is great, but it was too ambitious for this group of students we had this year. As a result, my school didn’t make it into the top 10 ranks, but we did however win the prize for the MOST INNOVATIVE PRODUCT, which came with the highest cash prize of the whole competition.

While my school didn’t place, the other school we coached did! They made it into the top 10 and went on to win the whole thing!!!!!!!! They also won the prize for the Best Corporate Responsibility (the project where we went to the child-headed homes). The product that this school made was door tags, really nice door tags. Example… when you go into an office you see a door that says “Manager” “Reception” or “Restroom”, that’s the sort of tags the kids made. They sold their tags to the surrounding schools. At the JA Expo where the top 10 teams presented the project, they kids nailed their presentation! At the end, the judges asked questions about the product. One question was why didn’t the kids have more buyers? The CEO of the mini company gave the best answer ever; he said “The reason why we didn’t get as many buyers as we wanted was because the market doubted us. Not because of our product, our product is flawless and reasonably priced. They doubted us because of our age; they never gave us a chance. That is the problem with this country, they underestimate the youth. So if the buyers would actually give us a second look, I know they would buy.” BOOM!!!!!!!! How great was that?!? The audience was roaring!  Like I said earlier, no doubt we won. 

Now the team goes on to represent Swaziland in the African JA Expo; they will compete against 10 other countries. Best of all, we have home field advantage. Just as I said before, my school won the African Expo for the past two years; as a result, Swaziland is hosting the JA African Expo! It’s such a big deal for this little country.  The expo will be December 4-6, and that is where we are hoping to take home the title for the third year in a row!