Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche

Two Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche Employees in West Africa

A life-changing experience was in store for Stéphanie Boucher and Christine Bertrand when they signed up for a Leave for Change assignment in West Africa.
 
The Human Resources Consultant and the Chief Consultant, Commercial Risks were sponsored by Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche of Montreal, an employer committed to employee development and the Leave for Change program.
 
Stéphanie left for Bamako, Mali for a two-week assignment. Her mandate was to conduct human resources training courses for the elected directors of community health centres. This was no small challenge, given the short time period spent there!

Upon her arrival, Stéphanie visited community health centres to assess the daily challenges faced by employees and to identify opportunities for human resources development and management. Next, she prepared training courses and conducted three days of training. On the last day of the assignment, Stephanie and the volunteer managers reviewed the results of their work and came up with action plans for the managers. Stéphanie also brought human resources reference tools, which she left with the national federation of community health centres so that health centre managers could use them in the future.

 “This was an unforgettable experience that I would do again in a heartbeat", said Stephanie. "The people I trained were very pleased with the new knowledge I shared and told me that my training sessions had built their capacity in human resource management. I hope they’ll be able to put to use what they learned. Also, I met very interesting people who helped me discover Malian culture. I came home with many wonderful memories and new friends I intend to keep in touch with, in spite of the distance that separates us.”

As for her co-worker, Christine left Quebec for Kougoudou, the third largest city in Burkina Faso. During her two weeks in the field, her mission was to support ADIP/S staff (Association pour le développement des initiatives de prévention en santé et solidarité), an organization that fights poverty and HIV/AIDS, in the production of financial reports for various funders. “Much more than just volunteer work, this international cooperation experience is, first and foremost, a complete cultural immersion,” indicated Christine. “A person needs to remain realistic and understand  that, unfortunately, it’s impossible to “save” the world-- not only in such a short period of time, but also in trying to import the ways we do things and trying to reproduce them in a society so different from our own.”

Christine noted that the assignment was a life-changing experience. “This assignment in Burkina Faso was a real eye-opener and helped me to become more open-minded. Being there, living there, gave me a better understanding of certain things we often try to explain from our Western perspective. For example, I’m thinking of the importance of family, the role of women, the reality of people living with HIV, the pace of African life, and so on. I had the chance to live with a family and that was a complete change of scenery – in terms of living conditions, food, traditions… I met amazing people who have definitely marked me for life. I recommend this kind of experience without the slightest hesitation.”