During an Expatriate assignment in South Africa I fell in love with the African continent and, more importantly, the African people . Upon my return to the UK I was determined to try and help, but frankly didn't quite know how and where to start. So imagine my surprise when I met up with Jim Leftwich (my ex boss - twice!) for a 2005 Christmas drink and chat and discovered that he was the Co-ordinator of a charity working in Kenya! I eagerly offered to help in whatever way I could and within a few weeks found that I had become the proud owner of a plane ticket to Kisumu and was going to accompany Jim and Edna on their May 2006 visit to Oyugis…

To cut a long story short, my brief was to use my professional skills and experience as a Chartered Accountant & Finance Director to review, help, and improve the accounting and administration of the three projects, especially in terms of overall governance.

Even after my experiences of the Johannesburg townships, my first exposure to Oyugis came as a bit of a culture shock but this soon disappeared as I met and saw more and more of the staff there and experienced their dedication and professionalism which, coupled with the enthusiasm and hard work of the communities, was truly inspiring.

This was especially true of the finance team - Peter, Sophie & recent recruit Daniel - who all impressed me with the diligence that they applied to managing and accounting for the funds available to the Projects.

Yes, there were areas to improve on, especially with regard to management information and the automation of the bookkeeping and accounts, but all the basics were already in place, up to date, and very sound.

Overall, from what I saw, I feel confident that there is suitable financial stewardship and governance in place at the three projects which together form an ideal foundation to build upon. Having agreed a series of improvement plans with the local teams I spent the latter part of my visit setting up and amending a basic spreadsheet accounting and reporting package for the Projects and started training on its use.

So, would I return? Absolutely! In fact, I fly out again on 17 August 2006 to follow up on the action plans and continue the implementation of the accounting spreadsheet package. I look forward to working again with Peter, Sophie, and Daniel and thank them for all their hard work and dedication.

Gordon Ross

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