The National Youth Summit
was slated for Thursday the 31st of January, perhaps to end the
first month in style and to reflect on the role the youth can play in
developing the nation. Ashoka, East Africa was invited as hosts to tackle the
topic of the role the youth can play in social enterprise and the role of young
people in country branding. I started interning with Ashoka on Monday the same
week, 28th January, and this was a pleasant opportunity for anyone
passionate about leadership and empathy.
The summit brought together
youth leaders from all the 47 counties in the country, and hence, effectively
the most progressive youth leaders and future leaders of the country, and in
their various capacities. The morning sessions comprised mainly of speeches,
from various country leaders amongst them the Permanent Secretary in the
Ministry of Information and Communications, first president of Seychelles,
C.E.O. of Brand Kenya and various other leaders.
The passion for progressive
leadership and for the strong patriotism of the country was summarised by the
speech by Sir James, first president of Seychelles, who gave a History of
Kenya, from the pre-independence days and the hope of envisioning a better
country, to the current position of the country, and the new voice of the youth
in country development. The flags waved by the delegates were a testament of
this.
I could not help but take my
mind back to those days. I was sure that there were progressive people then,
just as there are today. I keep on wondering what then has prevented us from greatness,
as a country. Perhaps as a country we don’t see how everyone has a part to play
in this nation building process, or most importantly, there have not been
sustainable platforms so that we build up on past successes instead of
re-inventing the wheel and downplaying the synergy required for this process to
be successful.
On the other hand, we have a
bunch of Kenyans who have the ‘big’ opportunities, who’ve received quality
education and who have the skills to bring this change but their efforts are
not leveraged to bring this change. As one of the Kenyans in this group, the
summit challenged me to think of what I am doing to spread this change making
spirit to the rest of Kenyans, to my friends and family.
The youth venture of the
office supports a group of ‘younger fellows’ who are effecting change in their
community. Of interest were 2 youth: Tabitha who is a 14 year old girl, was
saddened by the rate of accidents and fatalities affecting small children on
traffic roads in the country, and went ahead with the help of her head teacher
and area chief, to create a traffic signs literacy program for children her
age; Jarvis, a 18 year old budding change maker, realized that the youth in his
area were energetic but spent their energy on other unnecessary activities, and
decided to engage them in using hands and crafts to create artistic products,
and is currently working on expanding his market so that his project can be
self-sustaining, with the help of his mentor.
THESE are the stories which
make my heart skip a bit. THESE stories are the ones that matter, and THESE
stories are the ones we need to keep on telling. If not, then our efforts
should be to create our own stories such as this, ones that make our world a
better place, one that challenges our human resources and mental resources that
we have, ones that can draw the attention of the wider audience on contributing
to development, wherever they are and with the little/much that they have.
Yesterday I was challenged
beyond words, and I realize that we can always do more wherever we are. There
are no excuses, and the possibilities have no limits. The great success stories
presently and in the past, as well as the future, were / are and will continue
to be crafted by people who do things differently. People who strive to defy
odds. People who create change wherever they are. These ‘linchpins’ are very
much individuals who are of value in their organizations, communities and to
the world, and they bring flavour to this otherwise drab world. I am happy that
I am part of a network of such individuals and I hope that we can continue to
collaborate and to co-create solutions that will change this world, for the
better. Let that be our calling, and let us never get tired of spreading this
message.
