People sometimes ask us why we, as a development organization seeking sustainability, hired three full-time Peruvian employees last year. Sometimes they ask us this to lead into a follow-up question: Does CUDA intend to hire more full-time national workers? The short answer is yes.
Our Peruvian directors (Alfredo, Abraham, and Paty) have begun the search for our next full-time worker who will be trained and then placed in charge of the library program. We are quite excited at the potential candidate for this position, and for the sustainability and growth it will mean for our program.
As an organization we have had to make many decisions that not only affect our current situations but also will help direct the course of CUDA and its projects for many years. One primary decision we made was to not take on high cost, short-term projects. We believe that development requires time, dedication to goals, and expertise. Instead of deciding to make our yearly budget project-heavy we decide to invest in experts. To that end we hired our three Peruvian directors - Alfredo, Abraham, Paty - who have years of experience in their fields and a desire to promote the projects and goals of our organization. By hiring them, we made an investment in the future of CUDA. Instead of those high cost programs our goal is to create long-term yet low cost projects. We want them to be easily reproduced in any Peruvian context so keeping costs low is important. Our full-time employees ensure we have the manpower to reproduce our programs in multiple areas of our city without the need to seek non-experienced volunteer help.
In order to ensure the future of the library program our Peruvian directors determined that hiring a full-time director of the the program was the way to go. The selected individual will be trained by Megan and eventually take over the planning and execution of the program. The library director will be hired by and will answer to CUDA’s Executive Director, Alfredo. At the moment we have a presence in two schools but with dedicated employees promoting the program that number can and will grow. We see many opportunities for growth with a full-time, empowered, passionate, Peruvian employee heading up the program.
So here’s where I ask you to pray for this process. Alfredo, Paty and Abraham are beginning the process this week of refining our criteria and seeking out candidates. As they work together to prepare and then interview the candidates pray that God would provide the right employee who will not only share our passion for literacy promotion but would also share our passion for the Kingdom of God. We’ve seen Him provide us with the right people so far and we trust He will do so again.