It was a beautiful crisp morning when George Ombado, President of the African Confederation of Co-operatives Savings and Credit Associations (ACCOSCA), Bert Hash, retired President of MECU Baltimore, and I boarded a plane in Nairobi for Kisumu, Kenya.  We were headed to the third largest city in Kenya to visit our Development Education (DE) Friend George Ototo, who was working on a DE project that was supported in part by the Winter 2016 DE class.  George Ototo is an important man to African credit unions.  He is the President of the Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (KUSCCO) and provides guidance to credit unions throughout Kenya and across Africa.  George is a very busy man, yet he chose to attend the 2015 African DE program in Johannesburg, South Africa and the 2016 US DE Program in Dallas, Texas.

The DE Training provides participants with valuable lessons designed to help them understand the importance and relevance of credit unions in the lives of each individual member.  The structure of the program leverages the knowledge and skills of each participant, regardless of their years of service, so each can participate can contribute to the success of the whole training.  Each of the six days of DE training builds upon itself.  The culmination of the six day immersion program is the DE project that is completed by Credit Union Development Educators (CUDEs) after they leave DE Training.  This is the story of one such project.

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