Village Accounting

These last 2 weeks I have been working with Chantal and the basket weaving coop on their accounting. They received their money from their last big order and had to ensure proper book keeping in order to distribute the large sum to all of the women who sold baskets for this order. It took a while to figure out that they actually had no idea where to start. I finally asked them at a meeting if they were ready to distribute and there was silence. Finally someone spoke up and told us that they were not comfortable doing it. So we had a look at their books and redesigned their accounting based on each woman and the transactions which she has with the cooperative. Loan - she takes a material loan from the coop of Rwf X. Stock - she puts X number of baskets at X value into the stock room. Sale - her basket is sold by the coop for Rwf X. 10% - 10% of the sale is kept by the coop for management fees. Pay - she is paid the sum of all of the above. After designing the sheet, we had 2 training sessions with the executive committee. The first one was a bit overwhelming. We also introduced a calculator and taught them how to use it. The second one was a bit better. We spent a half day with the committee doing practice records. 4 days later, the Sales Manager, Jeanne, had completed recording all of the books in the new accounting system. It was quite a process and quite humbling for us all. For me to remember that we sometimes need to slow down. For the ladies that they have a lot to learn, but they are still very competant and able to handle it.