Gail  Hollander has a long history in management and organization consulting,  first in the corporate world and later with non-profits. Her work is  focused on helping organizations to balance excellent client service,  high efficiencies, and a good quality of employee work life.  Mostly  retired from consulting, she now focuses more on art, playing in her  garden, and hiking/snow shoeing with Mookie (her canine love),in the  magnificent Colorado Rockies she calls home.

A  few years ago she heard about Kybele through Becky, a friend from  Ghana, who was one of the three nurse-midwives that Kybele first brought  to the U.S. While making travel arrangements for Becky’s Colorado  visit, Gail had occasion to speak with Medge. She seemed so nice that  she decided to look up the Kybele website. She was hooked!

Offering her consulting services, pro bono, she went to North Carolina to meet Dr. Emmanuel Srofenyoh and the board members and the relationship was launched.  Since  then she’s been on three Ghana trips, with the fourth coming up in  September, all of which have been frustrating, fascinating, and  rewarding.  

Given  her Western mind set, she thought she’d easily talk to the right  people, get meetings arranged, and move things forward in ways that  would be instantly transformative.  Needless to say, that has not been the case.  She’s learned about Ghana speed, which is difficult for Westerners, although she’s getting accustomed to it.

Travelling from Colorado to Accra, as you can imagine, is quite a schlepp, and not a trip one necessarily looks forward to.  At  the end of the May trip, Medge asked if she was still feeling committed  to the work there. She thought about her 24 hour trip home and said,  “Unfortunately, yes!”

(Gail will be leading the November Leadership Training Summit for Kybele Team Leaders)