IDEA program coordinators provide small business training to youth in Burma

Recently, IDEA program coordinators of Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, Lin Lu and Alisa Keetanitinun, traveled to Yangon, Burma to help out with a small business training series for the interfaith youth group of the Shalom Foundation. Their trainings took place November 6th-10th, 2009, and were part of the Shalom Foundation’s ongoing Interfaith Youth Small Business project, which encourages youth from different faith backgrounds to work together to write, propose, and implement small business plans. The IDEA training sessions taught participants presentation and public speaking skills, as well as financial management advice.

Having already visited the project in Burma in September, Lin and Alisa had already identified the challenges that needed to be met in the November trainings. The IDEA sessions had set specific goals for the participants both prior to and during the trainings. Lin led the first training segment which taught participants how to organize and deliver a presentation in a persuasive and compelling manner. Alisa led the second training in which participants were introduced to financial statements, and then taught how to produce their own income statements and use them to make managerial decisions based on efficiency and profitability. Each training segment was spread out over two days, giving participants the opportunity to meet the goals set for them by IDEA trainers.