Creating Positive Community Leadership!

My decision to study at COADY Institute and the impact it will have on my leadership in the community:

COADY International Institute is one of the world's most renowned learning centers that focuses on leadership, and takes in leaders from various countries around the world, and at various levels including government, community, NGOs etc.

A friend shared with me their link and I checked out the courses they offered and they resonated clearly with what I do, and what I aspire to be. I did due diligence by following up with Kenyan alumni of the institution, whom I found to be men and women of integrity and high standing in society. I work in the community, mainly in the area of child protection, and as a leader, its very key for me to pass on messages to the people I am working with and for, as clearly as possible to elicit the required response and development required.

In my Communication for Development (C4D) Learning Lab trainings, I got an opportunity to learn the best way to identify my message, prepare my message, get the right audience and pass it on, well as well as elicit the right response from my stakeholder group. This has enhanced my work and how I work with people now. Learning about human rights-based C4D has taught me to be humane, considerate and listen to different opinions, while at the same time evaluating myself, my program and my progress.

At the COADY Institute, I will be studying a diploma in Development Leadership, which ties very well with what I learned in my C4D Learning Labs: looking at things from a 360 degree lens, using the 3Hs (Head + Heart = Hands) in my leadership, the power of letting others tell their own stories and using their stories to bring about development and change. These are topics that changed the way I work with the community and reinforced the fact that ‘change begins with me’.

I am excited about studying at the COADY Institute because some of the topics like accountable democracies, community resilience, citizen driven development, gender and power and globalization will open my eyes further on how better to work with the community. Also, they will not be completely new topics to me because of the learning that I have had in C4D. I will also get to meet new people, and experience new cultures and ways of leadership that are different from mine in a practical way that I can then adapt and bring home to Kenya and to the communities with which I work.

I believe that during my time at COADY, I will also have ample opportunities to share my C4D prowess with my fellow students and teachers!

I am trusting God that come July 15th 2017, I will be seated in class at the COADY institute in Canada.

[Footnote: Peggy has indeed arrived at COADY Institute and is settling into her new role as Learner, and we are so proud of her! We hope she will update us during her time at COADY, so stay tuned!]