Summertime and semester break for 'our' BBDF students. Which does not mean they have been passing idle time away from the university, but actively engaged with the various internship opportunities that have opened up in the context of our initiative with the local banks.
I am delighted to hear that Centenary Bank accepted 5 students for internships, further opportunities were offered by Bank of Uganda, Crane Bank, Stanbic and Eco Bank. Each position offered great opportunities for the students and the University, and everyone now looks forward to continuing this co-operation.
The new (and for some of the students the last) semester will kick off in the next weeks and they are already eagerly expecting their results from the exams that were taken before they left. Also the student working groups are planned to be followed up, so I look forward to hearing on the progress that is being made.
Stay tuned - the DB Volunteer Award will kick off at the end of August, and we will keep you up to date on the results!
Dienstag, 6. August 2013
Dienstag, 2. Juli 2013
July 2013 - Application for the DB Volunteer Award...
Our employer Deutsche Bank has internally announced the kick-off of its first global Volunteer Award and is calling for entries.
Felix and myself have submitted our application for the award:
The top three nominated initiatives will be honored with a donation for the project. In case we should be the lucky winners, we will certainly use the award for the further support of our engagement at the Mountains of the Moon University!
As of now, we are in the nomination phase, which ends on 8. August 2013.The online voting phase will begin at the end of August, all winners will be announced beginning of September.
In order to support our project, we ask for your kind support and crossed fingers! Any DB employee can vote a favorite project. If you are not a DB employee, you may touchbase with a friend or any other DB employee you know and ask her or him to vote for the project. We appreciate your support and will keep you up to date on the progress!
Felix and myself have submitted our application for the award:
The top three nominated initiatives will be honored with a donation for the project. In case we should be the lucky winners, we will certainly use the award for the further support of our engagement at the Mountains of the Moon University!
As of now, we are in the nomination phase, which ends on 8. August 2013.The online voting phase will begin at the end of August, all winners will be announced beginning of September.
In order to support our project, we ask for your kind support and crossed fingers! Any DB employee can vote a favorite project. If you are not a DB employee, you may touchbase with a friend or any other DB employee you know and ask her or him to vote for the project. We appreciate your support and will keep you up to date on the progress!
Donnerstag, 27. Juni 2013
June 2013 - GIZ Publication on the project
Sonntag, 9. Juni 2013
June 2013 - Harvesting the project
3 months ago we parted from Kampala and left behind a bunch of ideas and initiatives. In the meantime, Felix and myself have had wrap-up discussions and presentations at home, since our colleagues where interested to see us in person and directly hear from our experience during the 4 weeks in Uganda.
The workshop we had with the banks was a great success. We have received written feedback from all students and the participating banks, and - without going into too much detail - the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. As well the students as the banks were excited about the opportunity to directly speak with each other and exchange their views on expectations, hopes and concerns. Given the reaction that was received from all sides, a rerun of the event appears as a matter of course.
A - intended - side-effect of the interaction with the banks was to raise the attraction of the Mountains of the Moon university towards Ugandan banks. This has worked well, and the university is now looking forward to seeing an HR representative from a major international bank for the next Banking and Microfinance Department Day at the university. Also, incremental opportunities for student internships have opened up: There will be 5 additional internships for MMU students across Uganda (2 in Fort Portal, 2 in Mbarara and 1 in Kasese).
The student group I have worked with has taken ownership of new, student-driven initiatives, aiming at increasing the MMU Banking students' qualification profile and personal skills. Outbreak-groups have been established, focusing on specific subjects such as Risk Management, Data analysis and evaluation, Financial Marketing, Treasury Management, as well as Accounting and Finance. Going forward, these groups will regularly meet, do research, conduct presentations, organize debates and seminars, invite banks to come to MMU and coordinate these activities with the university management.
All these initiatives are very encouraging and, going forward, we trust the footprint we have left during our relatively short time in Fort Portal and Kampala will trigger more action of this kind.
After all, our intention was to help, however in a fashion of planting a seed and enabling the university and its students to continue on their own. This is exactly what is happening now, and we see this development with great satisfaction.
For those who have not read the entire blog due to time constraints or because they came across it at a later point in time, I have uploaded a presentation summarizing the key aspects of the project for anyone who is interested.
In case there should be any further questions, you would like to know more about the project in Uganda or about the Corporate Social Responsibility activities of Deutsche Bank, please do not hesitate to contact me - either via this blog or via one of the social networks I am in (Xing / Linkedin).
What happens next? I do not know. I will continue maintaining the relationship with MMU and the students. I have promised to be there for them in case they have questions or should require my help. Depending on the further development of this relationship, there may be more action worthwile being reported.
Stay tuned - I cannot promise a regular frequency of blog posts for the future, however in case there are any relevant news, you will find them here or on the homepage of the Banking and Microfinance Department.
The workshop we had with the banks was a great success. We have received written feedback from all students and the participating banks, and - without going into too much detail - the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. As well the students as the banks were excited about the opportunity to directly speak with each other and exchange their views on expectations, hopes and concerns. Given the reaction that was received from all sides, a rerun of the event appears as a matter of course.
A - intended - side-effect of the interaction with the banks was to raise the attraction of the Mountains of the Moon university towards Ugandan banks. This has worked well, and the university is now looking forward to seeing an HR representative from a major international bank for the next Banking and Microfinance Department Day at the university. Also, incremental opportunities for student internships have opened up: There will be 5 additional internships for MMU students across Uganda (2 in Fort Portal, 2 in Mbarara and 1 in Kasese).
The student group I have worked with has taken ownership of new, student-driven initiatives, aiming at increasing the MMU Banking students' qualification profile and personal skills. Outbreak-groups have been established, focusing on specific subjects such as Risk Management, Data analysis and evaluation, Financial Marketing, Treasury Management, as well as Accounting and Finance. Going forward, these groups will regularly meet, do research, conduct presentations, organize debates and seminars, invite banks to come to MMU and coordinate these activities with the university management.
All these initiatives are very encouraging and, going forward, we trust the footprint we have left during our relatively short time in Fort Portal and Kampala will trigger more action of this kind.
After all, our intention was to help, however in a fashion of planting a seed and enabling the university and its students to continue on their own. This is exactly what is happening now, and we see this development with great satisfaction.
For those who have not read the entire blog due to time constraints or because they came across it at a later point in time, I have uploaded a presentation summarizing the key aspects of the project for anyone who is interested.
In case there should be any further questions, you would like to know more about the project in Uganda or about the Corporate Social Responsibility activities of Deutsche Bank, please do not hesitate to contact me - either via this blog or via one of the social networks I am in (Xing / Linkedin).
What happens next? I do not know. I will continue maintaining the relationship with MMU and the students. I have promised to be there for them in case they have questions or should require my help. Depending on the further development of this relationship, there may be more action worthwile being reported.
Stay tuned - I cannot promise a regular frequency of blog posts for the future, however in case there are any relevant news, you will find them here or on the homepage of the Banking and Microfinance Department.
Samstag, 16. März 2013
Saturday, 16.3 – This is it.
Is it? No, it is not. The past four weeks were absolutely exciting and both Felix and I did not regret at any point in time that we had the opportunity of going here, working on the MMU project and meeting so many great people in Uganda. We will keep in touch with the University and the students, since we both share the same interest of bringing forward MMU and support them wherever we can – whether it is out of Uganda or Germany.
We are parting today, since Felix will stay for another week with his wife who will arrive tonight, and I am going back to Frankfurt this afternoon.
I will now finalise the blog for the time being and thank all readers for coming along and accompanying us on our path during the last four weeks. However – stay tuned or sneak in from time to time, since there may be updates in the future in case any follow-up activities with MMU or students are kicked off.
Thank you and good bye from Kampala!
Friday, 15.3. – The longest Night
Wrap-up of the 4 weeks that are behind us with Christoph, Oliver, Geoffrey and Irene in our hotel in the morning. Right after the meeting and saying good-bye for the last time, I take a Boda-Boda to Dr. Tom to do some fine-tuning on my new dental equipment.
The afternoon is quickly spent with packing my stuff and arranging tomorrow’s logistics to the airport. We decide to spend another evening at the Emin Pasha since we liked the venue so much and have a terrific dinner in the beautiful garden.
For our last night, we close the circle and move over to the Capital Pub in Kabalagala, where time quickly passes by with the Friday night crowds flooding into the club.
Donnerstag, 14. März 2013
Thursday, 14.3. – Day 0: The longest Day
Pickup at the Sheraton at 7:40. We sprint through the remainders of the night’s thunderstorm and pouring rain into Oliver’s pickup and crouch into front and back with 5 other students and our luggage. Luckily, the ride to Hotel Africana is not that long and Oliver knows some tricky shortcuts to circumvent the Kampala morning traffic jam.
It is good that we are there so early, as we still have to do some fine-tuning on the arrangement of tables and chairs in the three rooms we have booked so that it is perfect for the event we have planned. At 9AM, we are more or less done and the first students arrive and register.
Around 9:45 I am getting a little nervous, since only two banks have appeared so far. This does not change at 10, our officially planned kick-off time for the workshop and neither at 10:15. We decide to delay the kick-off by 30min and again by 15min, so finally start with the welcome at 10:45 and three banks being present.
During the presentations, we welcome one more bank and move over into our networking session with four banks in total. In groups, the students move from bank to bank and for the first time have a direct interaction with their potential future employers – a very exciting moment for all participants.
Luckily, we see two more banks appearing later during the workshop, so that we extend our networking event into lunchtime until after 2PM.
Reading from the faces and comments we receive from the students and the banks, the workshop proves to be a full success – everyone is very excited and impressed about the opportunity to meet with each other, and we realise this is the first time ever that such an event is being conducted in Uganda. So we are really pioneers!
After lunch, it is time to say good bye to 'our' students from MMU, since they are leaving to Fort Portal on the same day. So we use the time to have some final memory pictures on the lawn of Hotel Africana.
There is not much time left until our afternoon cocktail reception at the Emin Pasha Hotel begins, so we directly move over and have a coffee there.
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| Opening the session with Geoffrey |
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| Joseph giving insight into Barclays |
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| Doreen and Solomy from Stanbic surrounded by students |
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| Intensive discussions with Rachel from Citi |
After lunch, it is time to say good bye to 'our' students from MMU, since they are leaving to Fort Portal on the same day. So we use the time to have some final memory pictures on the lawn of Hotel Africana.
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| Saying good bye to 'our' students |
Around 5PM, our guests join us for the closing event and we have a beautiful evening with speeches from the German embassy, the Vice chancellor of the Mountains of the Moon University, followed by inspiring discussions among all participants from the university, GIZ, the German embassy and participants from KfW.
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| Welcome reception with MMU, GIZ, KfW and the German embassy |
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| The 'official' part with the German embassy |
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