Despite the Covid-19 global pandemic which slowed down many activities, Hope for a Child In Christ (HOCIC) successfully held its Quarterly Review Meeting (QRM) this Monday at Holiday Inn Bulawayo. HOCIC’s management team together with the staff members representing various programmes and departments collectively gathered to unpack, share, present successes and challenges faced in regard to the work done during the 2020 3rd quarter. Recommendations were suggested for the next quarter ending December 31.
A quarterly Review Meeting is a short planning process where an organisation gets to review the previous 3 months, evaluate the goals’ progress to create a concrete plan and possible solutions to achieve the goals. This was revealed by HOCIC’s Monitoring and Evaluation manager in a bid to make every participant knowledgeable about the purpose of the QRM.
“The use of the QRM is to share and for us to know at once the information concerning the organization so that everyone learns, comments and recommends for the next quarter,” said the HOCIC Monitoring and Evaluation Manager Sibonisiwe Mugari.
One of the major highlights of the 3rd quarter was the Director’s review which confirmed that the organization finally purchased the property at 2 Avonmore Road Northend which houses the offices of the constantly mounting institution. Through savings and resource mobilization, purchase of the property assures stakeholders that HOCIC headquarters will forever be No. 2 Avonmore Road Northend, Bulawayo.
The 3rd QRM re-emphasised the primary role of HOCIC in protecting children. It was highlighted that programmes such as the Gold Youth Peer2Peer, Urban Food Assistance and Livelihoods, Securing Rights Program, Start Awareness Support and Action and Self-Help Group Approach have played a crucial role in ensuring improved livelihoods for children in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other successes reported were in the Media and Communications department, Monitoring and Evaluation, Logistics, Security, Finance and Administration departments. These were said to have proven to be support departments that have improved the visibility and documentation of the organization as a whole, increased and well maintained the fleet of vehicles, ensured safety, managed organizational funds to the extent of increasing organization assets, and guaranteed proper flow of projects through learning and accountability respectively.
Arnold Sigwadi reported on the Lean Season Assistance Programme in Umguza where he mentioned the continuous monitoring of the successful assets such as nutrition gardens in wards 11, 12,13,17 and 19. Majorly in the quarter is the WFP Technical team monitoring visit of the assets where they were thrilled by the progress made with limited resources. He also mentioned the ‘look and learn’ visit by Umguza ward 1 leadership who are set to embark on a 20-hectare farm project in partnership with HOCIC. The emergency assistance to the Mthethwa family who lost their grandchildren in a tragic explosion highlighted to humanitarian responsiveness of the LSA Umguza team to beneficiaries beyond the scope of the Lean Season Assistance programme.
The warehouse report was another highlight of the day as the successes and plans of the department point to expansion of the organization. Commodities received and dispatched during this quarter were presented to the participants in brilliant manner by the Warehouse manager which helped staff members to understand and know the type of food HOCIC usually distributes and its quantity and quality. Tonderai Moyo the warehouse manager outlined how the expansion of warehouse and logistics from managing UFAL stocks to adding PPWCC was not so much of a hustle given that in the 2019/20 Lean Season they were in charge of a bigger warehouse in Gokwe South.
“In the 3rd quarter we have been managing stocks for UFAL and PPWCC effectively and accurately. This has not been so much of a hustle to us as we are used to huge tonnage of the LSA Gokwe South. However, we have learnt the dynamics of urban logistics which are vastly different from the rural setup in Gokwe South,” Tonderai Moyo said
However, urban food assistance has emerged to be a unique process coupled with managing two programmes’ logistics. The bigger lesson drawn from Tonderai’s presentation was that personnel with internal HOCIC experience ease programme inception blockages. The warehouse efficiency and efficacy are one such case study.
Future plans were made for the 4th quarter as the participants brought forward innovative ideas which address the social issues in our communities and assert HOCIC’s growth. Amongst these plans were the work on the farm in Hope Fountain, extension of the offices, growing the vehicle fleet, constructing a HOCIC warehouse, more robust coordination of programmes and resuscitating all community assets in Matobo district.
“In the next quarter we will make sure that we create more garden projects as compared to those we have now so that our beneficiaries and community members do not starve. Nutrition gardens will be our entry point to community farms and other livelihoods projects we are aiming,” said HOCIC Programmes Coordinator Hubert Bhebhe.
The 4th QRM will be in December 2020 which will be an oversight of the whole year. Indeed, the whims of 2020 have not been so bad after all, the silver lining is there.
