In High School (Third and Fourth form) there is nothing I dreaded like having to stand in front of hundreds of girls (plus the teachers) every Monday morning and give a speech. However being the school Head girl that was the expectation, it was a routine. Every Monday morning I would give a brief of what happened the previous week and advice on expectations for the new week. A statement in my speech could read like; “Good morning school, last week the duties were fairly well done and would want to give special recognition to Form Two(T) who did exceptionally well in keeping the Dining Hall clean. This week we have Provincial Drama festivals being held in our school and in that respect I expect all of us to maintain high level of discipline and keep our school compound clean…” At age 17 I could put this weekly speech together and I could not only give a speech but follow through to ensure that the issued instructions, school rules and regulations are followed. Of course I did this with the help of other school captains. I must admit that I was not the most responsible, obedient or even loyal student in the school. But the moment this huge responsibility was placed on my shoulders my behavior changed, I had first to be responsible before asking others to be responsible. This sense of responsibility has been my value to date.
I love teaching children and teens in my church. In the course of my teaching I occasionally encounter a stubborn child or teen but the moment I give that child/teen a responsibility say to help arrange the seats, gather teaching aids or any other, their behavior changes. I have observed this same behavior with my own children; The most successful way to make them responsible is by giving them responsibilities.
Note I am not ruling out the fact that we can have youth who are out-rightly rebellious, irresponsible and arrogant. Those who will not accept any responsibility just because they don’t want their ‘peace’ disrupted. However, these are few- you only need to look within your circles and realize that they are the minority.
The Bible is not silent when it comes to giving the youth an opportunity. We find some very young leaders in the Bible; Prophet Jeremiah was only around 17 years old when God called him to minister to the people of Judah, Samuel would have been around 12 or 13 when God called him to ministry, David was anointed by Samuel when he was in his teenage years, Mary was just a teen girl when an angel of God announced to her that she would be the mother of the promised Messiah, Timothy was probably in his late teens when he was asked by Paul to join him on his missionary journey while most scholars believe that most of the disciples were under the age of 18.
The Bible has a strong message on how valuable our children (read youth as well) are-Psalm 127:3-4; ‘Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth’.
I invite you to consider our youthful population an asset; Let us nurture and invest in them, Let us make them lead and not wait to see what will happen if we do not invest in them, Let us consider them a blessing and not a curse. They are our children, our heritage![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”620″ label=””][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Mary Kamore is the Lead Consultant M-OliveS Mentors[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Women Liberation may sound modern, ungodly and feminist. But did you know that it is as old as Christianity and it was at the center of Jesus Ministry? When Jesus walked the earth, He did not only confront the culture, heal the sick and raise the dead but also liberated the oppressed and set the captives free. Women were at the top of his list!
I have a set of chairs that is close to 20 years old. It happens to meet the bare minimum on comfort and presentability. It is not modern, though, and subsequently not one that would catch your flavor and especially if you have a taste of attractiveness. I have made attempts to change the chairs but every time I do, my resolve gets hijacked by the assumed time, effort and money it will take to get a new one. It is in this state of ramble that an alternative is born; ‘fix the seat!-do a bit of make-over here and there and the seat will be good to go.
“I chose to do what many girls in my community will not do. You see in my Masaai community girls’ education is not that important that’s why we are married off at a very early age. Those who are lucky to pursue education they don’t take up ‘men’ careers like I have done. So when I decided to become a tour guide and a driver my family considered me an outcast, they almost disowned me and up to today I don’t have a relationship with my father. I understand why he feels disappointed; I brought shame on him and has nothing to show about me according to our culture. I am, however, determined to show my father and my community that girls have rights too” .As Ann Tumpesia, my Tour Guide, said all this she did not take her eyes off the murky terrain that we had to cruise during this wet morning game drive at the Masaai Mara Game Reserve. She also elicited high level of confidence being in control of the four wheel land cruiser that had just the two of us on board. For some reason I felt safer oblivious to the fact that she was a stranger in unfamiliar environment.
The end of the year marks a threshold and invites a pause for reflection. It’s a great time to take stock of the year 2019 and look ahead. It is also a great time to reflect on where you spent your time and attention throughout the year, and see if those time commitments align with your mission and goals. You can apply these three approaches to reflect on the year 2019.
For a small team one would not think that team building is of much significance neither would they be keen to spend money and time on that. But my view on this was challenged this week when the owner of a Business that has less than ten employees asked me to facilitate a staff capacity and team building retreat for the team. I gladly took it up with my focus biased towards capacity rather than team building. At the end of the retreat I asked the team to fill in an evaluation tool that had four questions, two of which were; ‘What stood out for you during this retreat? and, ‘What improvement would you want to see in the next retreat? For the former 80% of the team indicated team building activities is what stood out for them, mind you I was biased so the activities were few. For the latter an almost equal percentage indicated that they would want more team building activities and less of training in the next retreat, I was embarrassed. While I tackled other sessions during this retreat that were quite relevant and interesting, it turned out that these ‘fun’ activities that can pass for ‘time wasters’ is what the team appreciated most.
When I was in high school I went through a very wearisome experience which, ironically, was a lifetime opportunity. The president of the Republic of Kenya then, Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi, had been kind to our school by supporting the construction of a modern Dinning hall and in addition buying goodies for all the girls, as many as we were. To appreciate him for his kind gesture a student was to write to him a thank you letter, a minimum of one and a half foolscap. This student happened to be me, not because I was the best in writing letters but mostly because I was the school head girl (captain if you want) and according to my headmistress, I was the best placed to represent the school. This was definitely a privilege, a lifetime opportunity. But the tedious part was nothing to celebrate. I did not have a good handwriting and so you can only imagine how difficult it was for me to write the letter. When I wrote the letter the first time, the headmistress looked at it and said, “Mary I can’t read this letter and the President can’t read it either, write again”. This happened three times and each time it was getting worse and both of us were getting more frustrated. At the fourth time she walked over to me placed her hand on my shoulder and told me, “Mary I believe you can write better than this, Just try one more time; I will be right here beside you”. That did it and the next piece I wrote was good enough to be handed over to the president! My relationship with my headmistress moved to another level; she was more than just an authority, but a mentor.
This week we were treated to a rude shock when a video went viral showing a supervisor of a certain Kenyan supermarket slapping a lady employee in broad daylight. This is a very unfortunate act, a criminal offence and though the owners of the said supermarket apologized and distanced themselves from the act, the matter needs to be treated with the seriousness it deserves. While this is unacceptable it re-awakened my realization that every day in the Business world Business leaders are faced with circumstances that test their patience and especially when it comes to dealing with employees.
This week I have been reading a book ‘Champion’ by David Ndegwa a former Golden Gloves amateur boxing champion and High School teacher. David uses his experience as a boxing Champion to demonstrate what it takes to fight life’s battles and become a Champion. Though the book was given to our 13 year old son as a gift upon his transition to adolescent I am learning lessons that apply to everyone not just a 13 year old.
This week I experienced two related episodes but in different settings. I was having a chat with a business owner and she made this comment, “I am glad that, after five years, my Business is now past the delicate stage. I was away for the last one week attending to some personal matters and I returned to find my business still on. It did not close down! But I am just not sure I can be away for longer than that. It seems hard to predict what can happen to my Business at any one point in time”