YES YOUTH CAN
By Grace Nekesa Waswa.
Nobody knows the spark that fires the change maker in them. It could be experiences, a calling or even the desire to make someone’s life better. Once there is a spark, it is impossible to put out the raging blaze because it literally becomes your guiding light. I remember being elected as youth leader in my church. It was quite an exciting opportunity for me because I had always felt that leadership ran through my blood. I did not however, anticipate the need that this task was bringing in my life. Life was good for the first few months until things started hitting rock bottom for the flock I was leading.
Let me take you a few steps back. You see, when leadership is bestowed upon you, especially in church, it is easy to assume that you are only set as a spiritual guide for individuals. There is no clear job description apart from the fact that you become responsible for the moral and spiritual upbringing of these young people. That was no brainer to me. I was and I still am, very good at the word of God. I could and I still can easily identify and correct anything that stands in between you and your relationship with God. Growing up in a Christian family, such things develop within you by default. In fact, these were the unspoken rules of my entire childhood.
However, I was meeting a group of individuals that needed more from me. It wasn’t going to be about the Word of God alone. They needed more. Most of them were unemployed and others were living in extreme poverty that was as a result of unemployment. How do you solve such as a youth leader? I would often ask myself that. I knew I needed to do something after one of my youth members decided to leave the church and go to his rural home as that was the only way he was going to survive. It got harder when we started experiencing a mass exodus in the church for this same issue of unemployment. My flock was leaving. This flock carried some of my very best friends and the exodus was not sparing them at all.
It started with Steve. Steve was born in a low income family. At some point, he had to drop out of school so that he could look for odd jobs that could sustain him and his brother. When Steve moved to my town, he had anticipated that he would take up a technical skill in engineering then later become an electrician as this was an easily learnt skill. He however, did not manage to complete this course too. I watched Steve move from odd job to another till he could not find any job at all. He explored all sectors from the hotel industry, to construction sites and even when he could get a job, the income was too little to sustain him and his dream of paying bride price for the girl of his dreams.
Through his story and others that came after him, I was moved by how young people were suffering because of unemployment. I had never experienced this before because I was in school, still am, and that felt so unfamiliar with me. I remember wondering whether this fell within my job description as a youth leader because I was not prepared for it. However, even though I tried to run for this, the surge followed me and I knew I had to do something. My friends were leaving because they had lost hope in finding stable jobs. Nothing was working.
Interestingly, the common denominator among all my friends is that they had deficiency in knowledge and skills on different areas. I would see cases such as one having technical skills but does not have financial management skills or entrepreneurial skill to eventually create jobs for him and others. This was the foundation of Vijana Tupo (Swahili for the youth are present)
Essentially, I saw that if there was a way that these skills and these knowledge could be accessed in a very easy and interactive way then maybe, just maybe , this would be the solution we needed. I took it upon myself to invite experts in various fields to engage with these young people. The more I explore this ideas of connecting young people through one platform with experts in different fields, the more I fall in love with it.
Steve is still away. However, through the experience I went through with him and the many young people, I birthed my idea. Through Vijana Tupo, I am able to connect with many young people that need help in issues affecting them. It is a very complex task as I realized that unemployment is tied to so many things and thus making it a wicked problem.
Be that as it may, I still endeavour to find solutions for these young people. I believe we, the young people are the movers and shakers of this world. We all have a purpose and if we only have empathy, we can learn to solve all our problems.