Three weeks ago, half of our team was holed up for an international affair. John, Debra, Cara and Tina all put their heads together to provide strategy and facilitation solutions for ChildFund International.
Over the course of a week, they worked with dozens of ChildFund representatives from all around the globe. Sponsorship managers from Germany, Zambia, East Timor and India – 23 countries in all – all touched down in Richmond for a week of strateg ic facilitation.
In 1938, Dr. J. Calvitt Clark originally founded ChildFund as China’s Children’s Fund right here in Richmond. Fast forward to 2012, and the organization has expanded to providing a voice for impoverished children around the world.
Esther James from ChildFund India said the week helped her learn more about the importance of meshing together with representatives from other ChildFund teams in different countries.
“[ChildFund] is truly a unified global sponsorship team. Cross-learning from the various methods each country functions though keeping the vision/goal as the focus,” she said.
Although ChildFund is an international organization, Floricane's Debra Saneda found that many of the core problems were similar to organizations that Floricane previously worked with.
However, one of the unique challenges for ChildFund International lies in the global make-up of their organization.
“One key takeaway was that the Sponsorship Division is now a global team, with their own vision and their own leader for the first time. This is a big departure from seeing themselves as a group of dedicated individuals in separate countries doing their own thing,” said Debra.
Davies Chisunka from Zambia noticed the extra planning effort made by the Floricane team, and remarked on the detail and care that our team put into working with ChildFund and how smoothly the entire operation ran as a result of that.
Both our team and ChildFund walked away with new lessons on bettering organizations and working with people from different cultures. More importantly, eyes were opened! Minds were refreshed! And a global perspective was born!
“I've traveled all over Europe, and parts of North Africa and the Middle East, so it was just wonderful spending time with this diverse group. Being able to spend time learning with professionals from such a mix of cultural backgrounds was eye-opening,” said John.
It was evident at the end of the week where we at Floricane really clicked with the ChildFund folks: we both just want to change the world.