Slight Change of plan.

This should have been uploaded last week ( 10/03/08)

Well there has been a bit of a change of plan to my assignment with North Star Foundation. I am pleased to say I am still going to SA on Saturday and the main goal is still the same. That is the goal to set up Wellness Centres to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and education still stands.

Originally the plan was to setup Wellness Centres at Bietbridge and Chirundu to target the long haul truck drivers at the boarder posts. Well this has changed slightly with the plan now being to setup 7 centres targeted at the courier industry in the major centres of South Africa. Already some of the major courier companies have joined forces in this initiative along with SAEPA (South African Express Parcel Association) to put together these centres at locations like airports or close to there depots. To me this makes a lot of sense. Although some of the big names in the courier industry have large long haul trucking divisions out side of South Africa there key business in SA is courier both domestic and international. This means that they are all playing a part in something that is mutually beneficial to themselves. They will be helping protect their investment in their own staff.

I am very excited by this new development as I come from a domestic (South African) courier back ground with Dawn Wing Couriers. So I now can play quite an active part in ensuring that staff in this industry that, has and still does play a big part in my life, can have the best possible care and education when it comes to HIV and AIDS.

I have been tasked with two objectives. Project manage the project, and looking at the IT infrastructure to ensure that we can get data back from the centres so we can monitor the performance of them and report back to the stakeholders. I also hope I can add more to this project with my knowledge of the domestic courier industry in South Africa.

I am now really getting excited about getting into SA and getting stuck in. Next week is going to be a week of meeting people and just getting as much info into my head as I can. It’s going to be tough yes but I know there is a team behind me all the way that I can count on. My meeting with Robin and Francesca yesterday has only enforced this support.

Support is important in any thing you do. With it you can do anything!