You see in this picture Serjmaa Bavuudorj, The Executive Director of DS (Development Solutions), a new Mongolian non-profit that has come into existence under the guidance of CHF and her right hand person Altanbagana Bayarsaikhan (Bagana),the Program Director of DS. They are both well educated and have worked there way up the ranks here in the CHF program during the past five years. They know the program of providing Business Services to micro, small and medium sized businesses from the inside out. Currently, they supervise eight branch offices with a total of about 45 members of the DS staff. It has been planned for years that DS would be a spin off non-profit from CHF and continue to have a primary contract with CHF for the next two years. This plan is finally becoming a reality.
My primary task is to mentor or be the CEO coach of Serjmaa here in the beginning of this process and to work with her on a Business Plan and other start up tasks for this new non-profit.
In this picture you see BatOrshikh Erdenebat, the fellow on the left side of the picture, who is the Branch Manager of the Sukhbaataar Branch office. He is leading a listening and planning session with a group of small restaurant owners in the area of the Branch office and staff of the Branch office as they talk and plan for the transition into a new phase of work for CHF and DS. In the right hand corner of the picture is Chloe, a grad student on a Fulbright Scholarship, who is volunteering part time with DS on marketing issues.
During the past five years, CHF has been working under a Grant by USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). It is now in a transition stage as its USAID grant winds down and a new Grant for the next two years with USAG (The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)gets going.
Here we have another group of clients at a different Branch office holding another listening and planning meeting. This one is being led by Batbaatar Burbazer, the Agribusiness Program Coordinator for CHF in Mongolia. Batbaatar is the father of Buka, the three year old snow angel shown in the last Blog.
Listening to the clients and planning new programs with them is always a critically important task for CHF to manage change and transition with staff and clients. Batbaatar says he is amazed at the differences he finds in interest and concerns in different Branch Offices of CHF in different parts of Mongolia. Sometimes it would really be nice if everyone were the same but then it seems the uniqueness of each person and each community of people is part of the overall creative process that makes life so interesting and at times so challenging.
