AFrica Europe Platform (AEP) Training at Vienna- Austria

 March 2013 saw another assembly of AEP delegates from all the 27 EU Countries including Norway and Switzerland for an exclusive training cheered and facilitated by a charismatic Cameroonian born Mr Alain Kenfack.

Alain Kenfack

Meeting this time around without the 5 pilot countries the African Diaspora delegates who met last October 2012 in Paris - France assembled in Vienna- Austria not for the their usual expert conference but this time potential trainees to be formed for the great and challenging task awaiting them in the 5 piloting countries by mid of year in Africa. This was the first training of the two scheduled before the said trip to Africa, thanks to

Alexis N. Neuberg

Mag. Alexis Nshimyimana Neuberg and Co for their acceptance to host and coordinate the process.

Although the attendance was scanty at the beginning due to the bad weather that delayed the arrival of some of the delegates, the facilitator and formator of the training Mr Alain Kenfack exploited that opportunity to have pre-evaluation of the training and a detailed self introduction of delegates which could help him understand the calibre of candidates present at the training. The introduction was carried out in two parts, one taking close to half an hour,(for details, see video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFYAlxxvsKc

and the second part that lasted for about 5minutes for the later arrivals. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTwzlkp7MdI

It should be noted that the training which started with lots of question marks on the participants suddenly became dialogical as the speaker Kenfack gave opening ears to members to err their views. This situation came up when he brought up a model that requested the various steps the different individuals had arrived. This was of course for a purpose, how to clearly understand the nature of the debate and how to place the various groups and individuals on a common platform

Steps arrived.

The diagram above came up with various views and this could easily be expressed by the nature of the associations. These views are all shared in the links below. The first intervention by Alexis from Austria pulled Oumar from Italy to rush for the microphone and as he spoke Rahime Diallo was seriously itching to chip in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eYSEF-IKaQ

This made for an interesting input as Sammy from Holland took us also out of Europe and Africa to another continent Asia since his organsization also includes that part of the globe. He immediately Grasped the Microphone after Rahim's shared observations and experiences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNk-SEzWGnA  

In the meantime the speaker expantiated with other models supporting and adding to the opinions of the participants. One of those models he used often was the Oignon Model.

With these models, the Speaker Alain kenfack elaborated on the various strategies and the benefits in the organisation. One of the key issues he emphasized at the introduction which he re-iterated throughout the training was the call to start at the individual level before being a group and maybe a larger and bigger organisation. A plus to the saying "Charity begins at home."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JmBTbkz-Bo

He went further to explain that we fail because we always want to start at the top, what i will refer to in theology as the high descending christology that gives a difficult understanding of the objectives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rInURfrpGME
Further in the video he (Kenfack) went ahead to advise on those issues that make us waste a lot of time sharing the experience on the present financial/economic crisis, regretting that despite the warnings time was being wasted on other issues than how to avert the crisis.

The particpants again took over the flow from Mr kenfack to seek more advice on some of the issues plaguing their associations at the same time sharing and seeing eye to eye with his views. Abdi representing Finland made a powerful point on the lack of vision and mission which are never made clear at the beginning. He lamented on the fact most people fail to understand the role of an NGO but see it as a private company stating that trust becomes the watch word and not management, yet he gave room for the way forward on how to do better. This brought Koffi from Czech Republic coming on with his own sense on humor while taking us back to the theme of the Paris Conference last October which had to do with "Good Practice". These topics came as a capital point on the issue of transparancy a vice that seems to eat deep amongst our African Unions. He stressed the use of Clear and clean communication taking a close look at what they do in Czech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcF5gxGPO-E

The last part and day of the training took place in another hall where participants responded positively with their African regalias/attires which would later transit them to the migration conference in the same hall. This last day was more of a conversational and free view sharing and erring of grivances and evaluation of the training. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pJr9bDqmEE

Note Should be taken that present at the training were also the project officers and researchers.  The was team Led by Sarah Schlaeger and Marion, and assisted by Drs. Yera & Arthur, Rahime & Suh Albert, Brice & Franck

Written and complied by
Shey Tatah Sevidzem (Wo Scandy)