Conversation with Colletah Chitsike, WOCAN Lead Trainer, South Africa
What is WOCAN’s most significant achievement?
One of the biggest things WOCAN has done is building human capacity of women scientist. Lots of training participants are doing very well in their organizations and bringing about effective change in others. WOCAN has affected people in an individual level in the past 10 years. Training participants will always tell us that WOCAN training had a significant impact in their career. It is more difficult to pin point organizational change due to structures and these changes take a long time, but we can see immediate effect in the trainers. All participants of WOCAN training give rave reviews of the course, this relational training is crucial and effective.
The other commendable achievement is WOCAN’s advocacy work in various issues such as climate change.
It is also impressive that these achievements are managed by small secretariat which shows the efficient use of resources. WOCAN secretariat also works in a relational manner, for example the invitation letter that goes out for training is very different than others. It is warm, friendly and focuses on adult education.
What made be join WOCAN?
The nature of work and the focus on relational training and adult learning really spoke to me. Also being part of the network such as WOCAN is critical for professional growth.
How has working with WOCAN affected you personally or professionally?
Being involved with WOCAN has provided me with both personal and professional growth. Experiences with WOCAN have made me very confident. I have been able to confront lot of areas that I avoided before. I have become a better capacity building trainer and I do not have any reservation. I do not ask can I do this or not? Now I have the direction, I know the way we should be conducting the trainings. The travel and exposure has also been transformational.
What do you think WOCAN should focus on for the next 10 years?
WOCAN needs to introduce more courses such as gender and agricultural value chain, linkages to market, intensive leadership courses, gender and climate change.