“I would have stayed for another six months!”

Thuy and Lisa-Marie with members of the EIG

Enjoying a well-deserved rest on their return to Quebec, the four accountants in KPMG’s three-week Senegal volunteer mission, a dynamic partnership between CPA Without Borders and Mer et Monde, were overjoyed at their mission’s success.

A more detailed review of the work accomplished and future prospects will follow shortly, but one participant has already been quick to describe the mission as a “magnificent adventure”!

As is not unusual with this kind of initiative, not everything went as planned, and creative adjustments and improvised solutions were very much part of the journey. Smoother communications between Montreal and the field office, defining clearer mandates with the host organizations beforehand, an extra day or two to “settle in” before the intercultural immersion with host families, are among the many improvements being considered for future missions. Thankfully, there was nothing that might have hindered the four professionals from fully living the moment or enjoying the Senegalese “teranga” that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

Working in two two-person teams, the KPMG volunteers put their knowledge and experience to work serving two Senegalese community organizations.

The first is the Saint Jean de Dieu Hospital in Thiès, which operates under the auspices of the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of Saint John of God, no, not the Knights Templar! The Hospital is a private non-profit facility, including outpatient clinics and 125 beds, accessible to the entire population, which provides quality health care to the most vulnerable people, without social, ethnic or religious discrimination.

Marc-Antoine and Sophie (wearing pants)

The other being the “Sop Serigne Saliou” EIG (Economic Interest Grouping), which is based in Thiokhol, a half-hour drive from Thiès. The EIG is a typical West African socio-economic structure that facilitates its members’ economic activities to improve their incomes, via commercial, industrial, artisanal, agricultural or professional pursuits.

Established in 2014, the “Sop Serigne Saliou” EIG is staffed by a team of 11 women, as per the choice of its president who wanted women to have greater financial autonomy and improved incomes. These women operate mills and milling machinery that serve the people in surrounding villages, and particularly women who produce maize, couscous and millet, which they need to process into flour to more readily market.

In close cooperation with the staff of the local organizations involved, KPMG’s accountants began by conducting an analysis of management and administrative needs and by identifying priorities. In one case, KPMG’s accountants focused on improving the flow of information to the accounting department and on the integration of various information systems to reduce data loss. In the other case, the accountants designed and implemented a complete accounting structure — and trained their local colleagues on it — to improve income and expense monitoring and to structure month-end financial procedures.

Working with non-profit community organizations, the volunteers directed their efforts not primarily at improving profits, but rather at ensuring greater efficiencies that will translate into better services for the population, as well as greater transparency and improved accountability, enhancing both groups’ credibility with the public and with civil authorities. The end result is a social dynamic built on better collaboration and trust.

When not at work, the volunteers spent time with their host families, participating in daily activities, and discovering a world rich in unfamiliar gestures and unknown meanings. They forged new relationships of camaraderie and friendship. Invitations to family celebrations or religious ceremonies, like a child’s first communion, or the Muslim festival of Tabaski, symbolized and cemented the volunteers’ integration and acceptance.

The Senegal mission was both a professional and a personal experience. As one of the volunteers declared, “I was personally impacted! The immersion in the local reality allowed me to learn a lot about myself, to better appreciate the importance of helping each other and to experience a sense of community.” Another added: “If I could, I would have stayed for another six months!”