Youth Mentorship and Empowerment Workshop Series I – III

Youth Mentorship and Empowerment Workshop Series I – III

SODEI’s Youth Mentorship and Empowerment program (YMEP) aims to encourage personal and professional development of youths. We are aware that one of the major causes of youth unemployment is the huge skills gap, inadequate experience sharing from professionals and inadequate guidance for their economic and social development. Through the YMEP workshop series, a pool of professionals, businesspersons, and experts (mentors) are brought in periodically to speak to participants under chosen themes. These participants are later linked to these mentors for guidance. So far, three editions of this program have been organized with over 60 beneficiaries with a total of 9 mentors drawn from different careers.

The first YMEP workshop held on May 29 was an introductory session facilitated by the program coordinator, Tataw Ayuk Emilie. The beneficiaries were introduced to the idea of mentorship and its importance for youths. They also listened to the mentor of the day, Mme Rudrani Angira (a female software engineer in Microsoft Corporation, U.S.) through a recorded video where she shared her story. The beneficiaries got to learn how she got to her career, the challenges faced, how she overcame them and a word of encouragement. The session served as an encouragement to the female participants thinking of careers in STEM.

The second edition themed “Child/Youth Empowerment Initiative” on June 5, 2021 focused on providing a platform to educate beneficiaries on Youth Mentorship, Career Coaching and Sexual and Reproductive Health Education. With six (6) facilitators and a special guest, the participants had the opportunity to learn about topics relating to their development.

The special guest of the day, Mr. Clement Ngosong shared his journey with the beneficiaries and the importance of Education in attaining dreams. He reiterated on the need to focus, making good choices and the importance of a good character in pursuit of education and a good life. A question-and-answer session followed with a brief bead making activity closing the event at 5pm.

Workshop III held under the theme “Youth and Entrepreneurship” was facilitated by the Programme Coordinator Tataw Ayuk Emilie and featured 2 speakers, Masoma Boris-Karloff and Mokoli Freeman drawn from the fields of Journalism and Agriculture. During this session, participants learnt about concepts of entrepreneurship and the importance of youth involvement. They were taught on the importance of investing in their gifts and passions as a means developing entrepreneurial ventures.

Participants also learned success in career and entrepreneurial pursuits comes with resilience, patience, servitude and hard work. They discovered the importance of leveraging skills and being creative in their passion areas. They were encouraged to consider involving in agriculture, an area often neglected by youths.