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SAEON Finance strengthened by new appointment
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“Life is a challenge; to live is a challenge. If you want to learn in life you need to face life’s challenges.”
This is just one of a number of credos that Dolly Wanjau, SAEON’s new Business and Finance Coordinator lives by, and it explains something of her remarkable achievements in her education and her career.
“I believe that when bricks are thrown at you, you should try make building blocks out of them to grow and to excel in life, and the bigger the challenge, the better the reward,” Dolly says.
As a little girl growing up on her father's farm on the slopes of Mt Kenya in Kenya, where her family still lives, Dolly was greatly influenced by her parents. She describes her father as a very wise man who loved people, especially children, but expected the very best of them. Her father always spurred them on, saying that if you get 75%, there is a whole 15% that is wasted. Even 98% was not acceptable to him; he always encouraged them to go for 100%.
“He never wanted us to go in fear, as he believed fear demoralises people,” Dolly remarks. “Everything you’re afraid of suppresses you internally; it encloses you in a cocoon that leaves little space for development and growth.”
The closely-knit family consisted of Dolly’s parents, her siblings (five sisters and three brothers) and several destitute children whom her father took in to raise as his own. Her mother, Dolly says, made them assume they were all special.
Dolly’s father passed away in her Matric year and it fell to her brother, who was only 24 at the time, to take care of the family. After passing Matric Dolly had to find work to assist in supporting the family.
International school in Nairobi
Working as a school administrator for an international school in Nairobi with pupils and teachers from as far afield as India, the UK, Australia and Sri Lanka, the enterprising teenager learnt to deal with many different kinds of people, to multi-task and to live with deadlines. It was a challenge to assist people coming from Europe to adjust to life on the African continent as well as to deal with some of the more difficult teachers, she says.
Dolly got married and in the same year moved to South Africa with her husband. Following in her father’s footsteps, Dolly found herself adopting a son soon after her arrival in South Africa. She also found a position at Standard Bank as Personnel Administrator in their Group Human Resources Division. Despite her active programme she was overjoyed when an opportunity to study presented itself. She started studying towards a National Diploma in Accountancy at the former Pretoria Technikon (now the Tshwane University of Technology).
From an early age Dolly showed an interest in pursuing Accountancy as a career. Detractors warned her that it was a difficult route to follow, but she was adamant, remembering that her father had always strongly encouraged her to pursue her dreams when she was still a learner, saying that nothing in life was really difficult, one just had to go out and do it.
However, Dolly initially found the study tough. For her first test her lecturer, Mrs Fourie gave her 45%. She had never scored such low marks before. She felt completely mortified and demoralised until Mrs Fourie encouraged her by reminding her that, unlike her, her classmates had studied Accountancy as a subject in Matric.
“That changed my life,” Dolly smiles, “and from then on I never had less than 70% in Accounting.” In fact, she finished the course with 13 distinctions and was awarded a Certificate for Outstanding Achievement – Best Student 2003, an honorary award from the South African Institute for Certified Financial Accountants. Even today she gives credit to Mrs Fourie, with whom she still has contact and who follows Dolly’s career with great interest.
From there Dolly studied towards a BCom at Unisa as she wanted to obtain a degree in Accountancy and there was no BTech at the time. She graduated cum laude with 21 overall distinctions, even though she studied part time and was expecting her second baby. She finished her exams on the 27th of November of that year, went straight to hospital and delivered her baby that same evening!
Business management
By that time Dolly had become interested in business management and decided to enrol for an MBA. She registered at the University of Potchefstroom (currently Northwest University). Despite the fact that she was still working and became pregnant with her second child, she finished the course in the allocated time.
She enjoyed her MBA studies especially because it exposed her to a group of mature, diverse people such as engineers, doctors, geologists and lawyers that she had never been exposed to before. She is full of praise for Northwest University and says it is the one university she can really recommend. It is also the only institution she’s aware of in South Africa where the day starts and closes with prayer and where students receive so much personal attention.
“This holistic experience helped me to grow, and I see it even in the way I converse with people,” Dolly explains. It gave her very valuable experience in communicating with people at different levels; discovering and understanding how people perceive things.
ABSA Women of the North award
In the interim Dolly had moved to the ABSA Bank Group to take up a position as Fund Accountant. Within three years she was promoted to Senior Credit Officer. She always had a very good relationship with her colleagues and managers and it comes as no surprise to learn that she was nominated for an ABSA Women of the North award by her colleagues. She received the award in the category Self-Development and came second overall.
When Dolly received a scholarship to study in Australia towards a Chartered Accountant Programme she was in a quandary - on the one hand she had a family to take care of but on the other hand it presented an excellent opportunity to hone her skills and gain additional knowledge as the Australian programme is totally different from ours. Her husband, who has always been very supportive of her studies and whom she describes as a pillar in her life assured her that he would take care of the family.
Australia
Dolly departed for Australia – alone for the first time since her marriage 12 years previously. She found the three-day orientation a wonderfully enriching experience, but after a week she had serious misgivings and told her husband that she was returning home as she missed her family too much and the course seemed very daunting. However, he convinced her to stay on and persevere. Fortunately she found herself in a people-oriented institution and when they realised that she was struggling to cope they arranged counselling for her.
Although it was a difficult time for her without her family, she had time to reassess her life, future goals and the things that really matter in her life. She passed her course at Swinburne University of Technology and returned home.
After Australia, Dolly stayed at home with her children for six months to renew her bonds with them, staying in touch with her career by volunteering at her local Methodist Church to manage their accounts.
Earlier this year, when she felt ready to resume her career and assist in supporting her family financially, she saw SAEON’s advertisement and immediately applied for it. What attracted her to SAEON is that she has always been interested in the natural environment having grown up on farm.
“What also inspired me is that SAEON is ultimately working towards improved quality of life for all and is doing really great work,” she says. “The challenge in this organisation is the output. Only in the long term will you be able to see the results.”
Dolly bemoans the fact that so many organisations don’t set long-term goals; instead they opt for quick results. “It takes special people to look beyond the here and now; to take up the challenge of long-term environmental observation and monitoring, and I’m motivated by people who can take on such a challenge,” she concludes.
