To further enhance program activities of the Christian Association of the Blind (CAB), the association held a three-day intensive training in advocacy and fundraising for branch leaders from at least eight (8) counties where the institution is functional.
The training in advocacy and fundraising for branch leaders from the eight counties was organized by CAB, and convened at its National Resource Center of the Blind, along the Robertsfield Highway, Paynesville, outside Monrovia.
CAB’s advocacy/fundraising training for its branch leaders was somewhat interactive in that the participants kept the trainers engaged on the topics assigned to them. The training was held under the theme, “Building Capacity for Sustainable Development of the Liberia Christian Association of the Blind”.
The three-day event was both facilitated by Duchart T. Alexander, Duke Consultants-Accountants and Business Advisor and Alexander Mulbah of Governance Commission (GC), who drilled the over 20 participants through various techniques in advocacy/fundraising that could enhance CAB’s program activities in Liberia.
Topics brainstormed during the CAB training include fundraising methods and advocacy.
Alexander Mulbah of the Governance Commission, who presented a paper in his private capacity and dwelled on advocacy, urged the participants to indulge into self-advocacy, group advocacy and non-instructed advocacy, to push the mission/vision of CAB forward in the country.
He emphasized that peer, citizen and professional advocacy is important for any non-for-profit organization, or CAB, to step-up and succeed with its advocacy and other program activities in order to improve the livelihood of the blind members by making them a part of decision-making process.
“Every successful advocacy,” Mulbah opined, “requires proper planning, but it takes long time for one or a group to reap their desired dividends.”
Speaking on the topic, “Fundraising Methods”, Duchart T. Alexander of Duke Consultants-accountants and Business Advisor said for CAB, through its branches, to attract grant funding through donor mapping the first obvious step in the search is to locate the grant that fits its needs.
As a means of carrying out a successful fundraising program, Alexander underscored the need for CAB, a non-profit advocacy group championing the cause of the blind and visually impaired in Liberia, to have proper mechanism in place for its fundraising program to achieve its goals, objectives, mission and vision.
Earlier on, Sir Beyan G. Kota, President and CEO of CAB, gave a brief history of the organization, which emerged over twenty (20) years ago to advocate for the blind population and visually impaired citizens who continue to be discriminated against, stigmatize and deprive of being part of the decision-making process in all spheres of the governance of the country.
On the essence of the just-ended training in advocacy/fundraising for branch leaders from eight branches in Liberia, Kota said the training exercise was meant to enable the participants to reach their full potential in advocacy and fundraising for the smooth running of branches in parts of the nation state.
Kota, at the end of the training for CAB branch leaders, entreated the participants to utilize the skills and knowledge learned during the course of the training for the improvement of CAB program activities, and at all times to attract donor funding and support.
For their part, CAB’s branch leaders expressed thanks and appreciation to the national leadership, headed by Sir. Beyan G. Kota, for the opportunity afforded them to be trained intensively in advocacy and fundraising.
The CAB branch leaders then promised to use the skill, techniques and knowledge learned from the training, which was conducted from March 7 to 9, 2021, to improve the workings of various CAB branches, as far as advocacy and fundraising are concerned.