The news came from far… loud and clear… accompanied with an echo of applauses… JCI Mauritius has won one, two, three awards at the JCI Area A Conference in Bamako, Mali in May 2011. The excitement in JCI Curepipe was great, and became wild when further news confirmed that JCI Curepipe had won two of these awards, one for its Community Development project and the second one for its Individual Development Programme over the whole year of 2010.

Many have asked the secret behind this Individual Development Programme (IDP), and how did it also win the JCI Mauritius award in its category in December 2010, as well as the overall Best Local Organisation Project for 2010. The answer, and that’s no secret, is simple, JCI Curepipe endeavoured through its IDP to put its members ahead. One of the aims of our organisation is to prepare young active citizens to be the leaders of tomorrow, and what better way to empower them than to nurture them and make them grow in a healthy manner? The 2010 JCI Curepipe IDP contained events like Project management, Presentation Skills, Stock Market and Stock Purchase, Photography training, Grooming, Aromatherapy and Relaxation massage. A full exposé of the 2010 JCI Curepipe IDP is promised in the forthcoming newsletter.

Individual Development in 2010 at JCI Curepipe has been a great adventure. I found it to be time well spent, and the many smiles and satisfied participants to the various events a wonderful reward to the hard work put in. Winning an award at National level is great, winning an award at International level is thrilling, but we should realise that the reason we are in JCI is not to win awards… they come as a by-product. The reason we are here is to create positive change and the pleasure comes in knowing that our endeavour is being appreciated and somehow we are succeeding in bringing our small contribution towards creating better skilled leaders of tomorrow.

Winning an award at the Area A is however always a moment of pleasure and pride. And this pleasure would be incomplete without mentioning the names of the many members and aspiring members from JCI Curepipe who worked on all those projects…. So, thank you Arvind, Kamal, Clarel, Karuna, Yudish, Pravish, Prashant, Pricilla, Nisheel, Kevin, Deepika, Sabrina, Renuka, Hashama, Karen, Nirvana, Michaella, Vidushi, Lenita and Zubin. You made my life as the 2010 Individual Development Vice President a real pleasure.

Kiran Bhujun (2010 JCI Curepipe Individual Development Vice-President)