15 days from departure...

I am 15 days away from my CSC assignment to Abeokuta, Nigeria. It's getting so close, and I am really excited about it.

Overall, there are 11 IBMers that will be in Nigeria working on 4 different projects. We all come from countries all over the world including Ireland, India, China, Australia, Hungary, Mexico, Brazil, and US.

I met the rest of the team through weekly calls and group activities, we got to learn more about one another, about the CSC program, and about the culture in Africa. The Pre-work started back in February, I can say it was deep and intense with weekly activities, presentations and "homework" (It made me go back to the college days lol). We had a great moderator, Catherine Jacobs, that helped us keeping our calls organized, work completed, and targets met. We had few  special speakers talking to us about logistics, health, security, visa steps, and the Consulting process - all of these topics were covered taking into consideration the cultural, economical and business aspects of Nigeria.

We finally received our SOWs (Statement of Works) this week, and I will be sharing more information about the projects in a later post.

#ibmcsc nigeria #aleinafrica

"The beginning of a lifetime experience..."

I will be soon heading to Africa on an amazing assignment in Nigeria, and I wanted to use this blog over the six weeks to share my experience with my family, friends, co-workers, and anyone else that would be interested or curious about my journey in Africa. I will try to write in English for most of the time, and add few comments in Portuguese so my family, and friends in Brazil can also enjoy reading this blog :)

I always thought the CSC program was really interesting and exciting, and wanted to be part of it. This program provides us with a global leadership experience while providing a service to a local community in an emerging market. I always had the dream that I could do more for the world so here I go!!

I wanted to start sharing the overview about this great IBM program called Corporate Services Corps:

"The Corporate Service Corps was launched in 2008 to help provide IBMers with high quality leadership development while delivering high quality problem solving for communities and organizations in emerging markets. The program empowers IBM employees as global citizens by sending groups of 10 - 15 individuals from different countries with a range of skills to an emerging market for four week community-based assignments. During the assignment, participants perform community-driven economic development projects working at the intersection of business, technology, and society. This program increases IBM's understanding and appreciation of growth markets while creating global leaders who are culturally aware and possess advanced teaching skills. The Corporate Service Corps offers a triple benefit: leadership development for the IBMers, leadership training and development for the communities, and greater knowledge and enhanced reputation in the growth markets for IBM. Since its launch in 2008, the Corporate Service Corps has had a positive impact of the lives of more the 140,000 people through skills transfer and capacity building. Many thousands more have been positively impacted through the services of the organizations the Corporate Service Corps has supported. The Corporate Service Corps program has sent over 2400 participants on over 200 teams to more than 30 countries around the world. The participants come from over 50 countries and have served communities in Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan , Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam, UAE and Ukraine . The program continues to expand to new locations each year."

(For more information: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/)

I hope you all find it worth reading, and can get some excitement from my posts... #ibmcsc nigeria