NEWS RELEASE for July 12, 2007
Community Savings welcomes Esther Wanjugu Koi, a participant of the Women's Mentoring Program offered by the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA). Wanjugu Koi is a loans officer from Kenya who will be mentored at Community Savings in Red Deer from July 11 until July 20, 2007. This is the second year that Community Savings has hosted a candidate from this program. After mentoring a participant from the Philippines in 2005, it was clear that Community Savings would continue supporting this successful program. The staff members at Community Savings are looking forward to sharing their knowledge and skills with Wanjugu Koi to help her achieve her objectives while here in Canada.
During her stay in Red Deer, Wanjugu Koi hopes to hone her management skills and learn how to deal with some of the financial challenges faced by women in her country. Some of the difficulties she has to deal with are delinquency control, default loans, and managing staff. Since women in her country are economically disadvantaged they lack collateral which is necessary to secure credit. Wanjugu Koi stated that she is "eager to learn new loan assessment, human resource, marketing and management skills from her mentors at Community Savings to be able to improve the situation in her community."
Esther Wanjugu Koi was accepted into the women's mentoring program along with thirteen other women. The program titled Giving Credit Where Credit is Due, was developed by CCA to provide unique training and exposure to women of financial co-operatives. CCA's project officer Laurie Tennian says, "this mentoring program has influenced credit union policies and practices in countries as far away as Mongolia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Nepal, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda. To date, 87 overseas women have participated in the program." Over the past 25 years, CCA has assisted credit unions and co-operatives in approximately 40 developing countries.
"The Women's Mentoring Program is a terrific opportunity for Community Savings to show international support for the development of female credit union leaders," stated Darcy Mykytyshyn, Vice President of Governance and Strategy. "Credit Unions are built on a number of principles, one of which is cooperation amongst cooperatives. This is a unique opportunity for Community Savings to build a strong financial network for women in different areas of the world, provide valuable skills and provide our employees the opportunity to mentor and learn from someone with such a unique background. While we come from very different worlds, the challenges and business needs are very similar."
While in Canada the thirteen candidates will spend time training in Ottawa and Calgary, as well as visiting various host credit unions in five provinces. The participants will also attend the World Council of Credit Union's Annual General Meeting, taking place in Calgary in late July. During her stay in Red Deer Wanjugu Koi will be available for interviews.
Community Credit Union, operating as Community Savings, has 30 locations in 23 Alberta communities geographically distributed from Ponoka south to the US border. Community Savings provides a complete line of banking services, including registered accounts, financing, investments, insurance and commercial banking. With assets approaching $2.5 billion, it is the second largest credit union in Alberta and the sixth largest in Canada. Its head office is located in Red Deer.
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