Status right now
All eyes focused on Brazil
Starry eyed with anticipation
Everyone around us green with envy
Eyes yellow and bloodshot from the malaria pills or is it all this work we have to do 🙂
The assignment
Our team of three (Christian Schweizer from USA and Switzerland, Stefani Schmitz from Germany and myself) will be working with Instituto Aliança (IA) www.institutoalianca.org.br.
IA is a non-profit organization that focuses on improving the quality of life for young people and their families through providing education services and social technologies.
We plan to have a first call with our contact persons at IA before we fly to Fortaleza
Nearly ready
Getting closer to lift off and the final stages of our 3 months of fantastic training and mentoring. The 3 months preparation have been essential in understanding IBM Corporate Service Corps as well as Brazil, Fortalesa, our client IA and both my own team of 3 and the larger team of 13 that I very much look forward to meeting soon. I feel empowered, excited and very much wanting to get on site and start our 4 weeks.
A special thank you to all the IBMers and Pyxera’ns that have supported us with guidance and mentoring over the past 3 months!
First interaction with the client
We have now interacted for the first time with the folks at IA via Skype and this has increase the level of excitement and anticipation to get started. We will be working with people that really care for the work IA does and I can only hope we are able to support and help in a small way.
Thank you IBM, Corporate Service Corps and IA for making this happen!
Next post will be from on-site in Fortaleza!
We are all here!!
This is truly Blue Pages irl, all of a sudden everyone has gone from being a photo or a digital image on Skype to being a person.
It is amazing how wide and deep IBM is! There are experts in all kinds of areas here, people with a wealth of knowledge and a true commitment to this month on-site. My confidence has grown now that the team is assembled and I have felt the strength we create together.
Fortaleza is a beautiful city. If I did not enjoy home in Sweden as much as I do I could be tempted to move here! Sun, sea and clean air, it’s all here! The city that smiles is the slogan for Fortaleza and I can testify to this being very true.
The first few days here have been over a weekend so we have plenty of time to get to know each other and I am fascinated to learn about everyone’s lives and work experience.
First work day
All dressed up and ready to go (photo taken at Luzeros hotel)
Our assignments started with a round table discussion with all clients and the Minister for work in Ceará
The full CSC Brazil 19 team ready to get to work.
Front row from left: Christian, Simon, Jeanette, Eva, Kitty and Alex.
Back row from left: Kevin, me, Steffi, Han, Kathy, Rui and Matt
And the full names for everyone and the clients they will be working with
Our client Instituto Alianca turned out in great force to welcome us !!
First days with our client
With a lot of ground to cover we set to work understanding Instituto Alianca’s needs in detail and what the client wants to achieve.
From left: Micajes, Fabio, Eveline, Christian, Steffi, me, Sergio Jr, Renata and Rodrigo
The client team are extremely kind and helpful in answering all our questions the whole of week 1.
Translation using a mix of Portuguese, English, Spanish and some google translate has provided for some good humor and many opportunities to laugh together. A special big thank you to Eveline and Renata for spending most of the first days jumping between two languages
After the work day some time to reflect with the full CSC team and a chance to understand the other clients and how those assignments are coming along
A big thank you to the Pyxera team and IBM Brazil for looking after us and making this such an amazing experience
From left: Juliana, Fabianna and Fernanda
Having understood how Instituto Alianca’s program works it was great to meet current students and graduates. The energy and positive attitude was amazing
Work progresses and our strategy is starting to take shape
Visit to Alda Facanha School, in Aquiraz for the whole team. A fantastic opportunity to meet and talk to 2 classes each. We were treated to amazing hospitality and a lot of smiles, laughs and fun
We met Instituto Alinacas general director Adenil Vieira to discuss progress and her view on our work, we received encouragement and look forward to meet Adenil again for the final presentation
Visits to 2 schools: Escola de Ensino Medio Menezes in Pimentel and CEJA Donaninha Arruda in Baturité. I heard again of the progress these young people have made in their lives thanks to CDD and IA, I am humbled to be a tiny part of this and hope our efforts can support these youngsters in the future
Our proposal is now reaching finalization and documentation is now key
We are pleased with our choice of graphical format as well as content and hope that IA will find this useful. Some of of the presentation material below
Many thanks to Sergio for translating the presentation material so we can present in English and Portuguese!!
Last day at the IA office and time for a selfie including a new way to look at ‘leaning in’
The final presentation for IA including members of the national management team and local government. A fantastic moment toward the end of the presentation when members of the government team started to ask questions and members of the IA team answered so we the IBM’ers could step back! IA has taken our proposal to heart and feel it is their own
The whole group at the final presentation
It has been a huge privilege to have been able to work with the IA team all and I can only hope some of our ideas are of use for the future
The biggest impact for me has been meeting the young people that CDD has helped and to understand the individual journeys they have taken and in many cases still are taking
The Fortaleza IA team can not be praised enough, their patience, hard work and support of us gringos has been fantastic and the final presentation would not have been possible without their dedication and hard work.
I leave Fortaleza with many fond memories, most of them involving smiles and laughter, so I leave with a smile and look forward to some data to work on soon!
A big thank you to my IBM colleagues for all the hard work
The closing ceremony left us all touched by the amount of work completed over the month and the many friendships we have made
Slides from our presentation at the closing ceremony
Finally a big thank you to all my IBM colleagues that have made weekends such fun as we have enjoyed looking around Fortaleza and the local culture
Thank you for reading my blog and please feel free to contact me if you have questions.
A final word: if you have the opportunity to be an IBM CSC delegate, make sure you seize the opportunity with both hands! It is a fantastic gift and a huge privilege
mikerobbinsbrazil 