Hard Yards in Leadership

26. Janepher Nansunga: From school teacher to Poverty Elimination Crusader

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Episode notes

In previous episodes we had Annabelle Chauncy, the founder of School For Life on to talk about her journey and challenges with the foundation.

This time we are going a step further and talking to Janepher Nansunga, one of the other founding team members of School For life.

Jan’s story is not just hard yards in leadership but also hard yards in life.

Jan is the feet on the ground person in Uganda who was literally the first teacher and first leader of this extraordinary organisation.

In this episode Janepher shares:

  • Her path to becoming a teacher and joining School For Life
  • The challenge of having her parents die when she was young
  • Some of the early challenges working at an international school
  • Some of the big challenges that came in starting the school
  • The roadblocks that existed that made it hard to get teachers
  • Her worst experience in the first few months of starting the school
  • How they had to make the school a rescue centre to protect mothers and children from abusive fathers
  • The times she realised she personally had to take a different approach
  • The challenge of having to manage people who had some qualifications higher than hers
  • How she managed herself first before changing how she managed her disruptive team members
  • Some of the next big opportunities and challenges for school to life

 

Key Quotes

“I felt like my ideas were no longer welcome."

“I think becoming a community and owning what we are doing bonded us together and helped us work through the challenges.”

“If the dream does not scare you then it's not big enough.”

 

If you want to find out more about Janepher and school for life

If you want to support school for life you can find their website here: https://www.schoolforlife.org.au/

If you want to find out more about what Wayne does, check out his business via the website:

https://www.curiousleaderscircle.com/

Or you can follow him on socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-reuben-engage4performance/

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