MNLI on Sunday

Today was a short day as it was Sunday in Mozambique. We began the day with a prayer and a song led by one of the ANEMO leaders. The "check in" that Pam, David, and MT do at the beginning of class asked

participants to say what they had done the day before - some rested, some spent the day with family...yet a number of them said they "reflected" on ANEMO and what they'd learned. Everyday here has been so meaningful - just to watch the growth in confidence, commitment, and courage to make the changes in nurses that they want and need to see made.

Pam Thompson presented them with some essential concepts in Strategic Planning, encouraging them to further prioritize their goals for the organization in 3-5 years. Initially they worked in their small groups, and came up with a list of 3 priority areas. Each group reported on those top 3 priorities, and then a smaller list was made that drew out the 7 major concepts: 1) Recruitment of new members, 2) ANEMO visibility, 3) Leadership Training, 4) Generating revenue through sale of products, 5) Build an ANEMO headquarters, 6) Build nursing schools, and 7) Plan for sustainability.

Then, in a purely democratic process, Pam, led the session asking each individual nurse to identify his or her top 3 priorities from the list of 7. Overwelmingly, the group identified the key strategic areas to address and these were recruiting new members, providing leadership training, and planning for sustainability. Though these concepts notably overlap, it was a clear summary of areas ANEMO desires to focus their strengths and move forward into the future.

After lunch, Kerry and I met with Herminia, Jose, Lidia, and Maria, three ANEMO leaders to disuss our ANEMO-St. Luke's partnership. Sandra Guiambe form the AIHA offices translated for us. Our goal was to go over the partnership's last work plan-- in order for newest board members to begin to consider how we will work on it when ANEMO comes to the US. Especially useful will be the strategic planning work that we did with Pam today. Although we do not know who will be coming to Bethlehem from ANEMO, we expect to know that soon.

In the afternoon we shopped a bit. In the evening we had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant near the Hotel Avenida in the evening. It was a sweet end to a beautiful day.