During the 2018 Commonwealth meeting held in London, Nigerian President made a statement, and many people inferred that he called the youth in Nigeria ‘lazy’. This sparked a lot of criticism and reaction among the youth in the country, and across Sub-Saharan Africa. But, what motivated the President to make a statement like this? The youth today in East Africa lack the necessary leadership and entrepreneurship skills to create a better future for themselves. It is therefore important to ensure that these skills are instilled in them for their personal growth, development, and community sustainability. This assertion in practical terms, is evidenced by the story of Sadick Mwariko and Samwel Safari from SAME Secondary School. When the skills for success are provided youth like Sadick and Samwel have the chance to shine.
Motivated by the need to volunteer and find solutions to issues affecting youth development in the society, Sadick and Samwel started a Youth Leadership Club at SAME Secondary School, Tanzania. “We started a club because we witnessed that the society lacks important elements like employment, good leadership, patriotism, hard working and better health, which would be a source of development . At the same time there are issues that hinder community development, and a lot of these can be resolved by providing quality education to people. We believe young people are pillars of any nation and the society needs resilient youth who are educated, hard working, responsible, disciplined and Employable. And therefore we decided to start the Youth Leadership Club (YLC), as our way of “Paying it Forward.”
Sadick and Samwel’s vision for the club is to create a generation of youth who are educated, confident and resilient enough to address life’s changes towards success. Through the leadership and entrepreneurship skills provided them by Asante Africa Foundation (AAF), they have been able to open 40 branches of youth leadership clubs in 13 regions,across Tanzania.
“Since 2016, we have been successfully training youth by educating them on different economic and social aspects like entrepreneurship, leadership, environmental conservation, early marriages and health issues. By starting their own businesses, groups are creating a ripple. In our school students make and sell soap from the money earned, the club members are able to contribute to helping children in a local orphanage by giving them washing soap, books, pens and clothes. They have also started to raise money by creating chemistry pamphlets which they sell to new form five students. The funds are used to support different club activities.”
Currently the dynamic duo are involved in a number of projects and hope to open branches of their club in different schools across Tanzania, increasing their youth outreach. They are also hoping to hold an Annual Youth Summit at the end of the year that will deepen practical skills, preparing them to achieve their goals and change their attitudes towards success.
Sadick and Samwel are grateful that through the knowledge gained at the Leadership and Entrepreneurship Incubator (LEI) Program, they have been able to employ the Pay it Forward Model back to the school helping them start businesses and clubs. “Since our connection to Asante Africa, success after success has been our story”. “We believe youth around the world should be proactive because our families, communities and the world expect our accountability. We are the next generation of change makers”
You too can be a part of this change. https://asanteafrica.org/leadership-program/
By Innocent Iroaganachi & Winnie Njeri
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