YALI RLC: My Experience (Day 19)

The 12th day of October was the 19th of the training. It was a great day. Physical exercise was done, and
breakfast was served.
At some minutes past 8, there was an assembly, where each track gave updates on what was done in their classes the previous day. But the most interesting part of the assembly was during the recap of the separate sessions that held the previous day. Everyone was interested. The lady, Elizabeth, and the guy, Israel, both from Group 21, Sanaga River of the Elephant group who did the recap of the different sessions were asked by Dr. Pascal, towards the end of the assembly, that each of them should look at what he or she sees in the other. The guy said he saw the lady’s physical appearance, while the lady said she saw a gentleman with great ambitions. Dr. Pascal later validated the answers and explained why each of them answered differently, and gave some tangible advice. At about 9, lectures commenced at the different tracks' venues.

The entrepreneurs didn't do so much of lectures this day. In fact, if it hadn't rained, we wouldn't have done the little lecture we eventually did, because we planned a trip to Badagry market and environs to continue with our business model (feasibility analysis). However, the day started out with an exercise tagged 'connecting the dots'. Even though most, if not all, of us had seen how the dots were connected in one of the video presentations we'd had in times past, it was yet difficult to connect the dots by following the rules. We proceeded into
formulating our business models, which got adequately criticized when each group presented theirs. It got discovered by some groups that they really needed to go back to the drawing board. (My group, too, was among those who had to revisit their drawing boards and we immediately were already redrawing.) Dr. Obeng wrapped the day up by introducing to us the 4 steps to epiphany.
The Civic Society Leadership class was given a period of time to draft and present a grant seeking proposal. The
presentation session was an interesting one as each group wanted to appear as the best even though, it was not a competition. The appetite of the class was wetted for advocacy, when Mr. Ahmed Musah gave a “John 11:35” definition of advocacy, to speak for.
The 3 key elements, aims and benefits of advocacy were explicitly discussed. Embarrassment, community attack,
bribery, rape among others are the risks associated with advocacy. Policy making is the process which government translate their political vision into programs and actions to deliver outcomes. And a stakeholder is a person who has something to lose or gain through an advocacy. Public Policy and Policy-Making Cycle are what the wise woman, Miss Ann Iyonu, left the class with.

At some minutes past 4, we were back at the large lecture room for a final assembly. Summary of what was done in each tracks was delivered to all participants by each track’s volunteers. However, Mr. Kappo reminded us of our trip the next day, reiterating that we're leaving ASCON the following day at about half past 5. Snacks-break, lunch and dinner were not left out of the day's activities.

The 19th day ended well.

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