solving problems/improving leadership

Although I have only been at Pippi House for two full weeks, I have noticed quite a few problems with the leadership and identified many areas that could be improved. First and foremost, I think the way the leadership is structured is problematic to achieving the goals that Pippi House has set. The organization claims that the goal is for each of the girls to come out the other end independent and self-sufficient. They also want them to be employed so they can support Pippi House and have a constant stream of income to support incoming girls. However, the leadership is centralized and nearly all of the administrative and organizational work is done by Aristides. I see this as problematic because he does not live at Pippi House nor is he there all the time. In addition, he doesn’t seem to have enough time or money to keep the place stable and be on top of everyone’s schedule. For example, I went into his office and asked him about what the most pressing issues that Pippi House faces are. He told me that there is not enough money, and there are girls that want to go to school but can’t because they can’t afford the school fees. I have been fundraising for Pippi House for the last two months or so, and I have come up with about 1,100 USD to donate to whatever I see fit. I told him I could afford to pay for the school fees of these two women so that they can get degrees and make a better life for themselves and their families. I was supposed to go to the college with one of the girls today to pay for her fees and get her education all sorted to start on Monday. However, this process quickly fell apart in many different ways that were easily avoidable. Upon arrival to the university, I was informed that the school fees were 200,000 TSH (about $90 USD) more than I was told by Aristides and that the girl had not been accepted into the program yet. Furthermore, she had yet to send in her application and needed to have her index number and application fee receipt present in order to do so. It was impossible for me to guide the process along any further without that documentation, so the entire afternoon was a waste. All of these issues could have been easily prevented had Aristides looked on the school website. Not to say that he is incapable of a simple task, but his attention is spread thin elsewhere. In addition, I was heavily warned against dumping my large sum donation to Aristides to sort what they need the most because of the possibility that he would keep some or most of it for himself. I think it would be more effective if there was a leadership team in charge of different aspects of Pippi House. There have been efforts to keep a steady stream of income through various projects, but none of them have been very successful. Pippi House has opened a hair salon, a “restaurant,” and a recording studio in hopes of creating revenue to support the women there. However, none of these ventures have been able to profit, and they are causing more stress than anything else. I think it would be extremely valuable to teach the women the management positions that Aristides holds because he could focus his attention better, and the women would gain valuable, marketable skills. I want to try to teach them the basics of using the computer and technology within my time left here. I think it’s important for them to know how to keep track of expenses, advertise on the internet, and do computations.