International Youth Day Feature

Anselmn Ochieng, an alumnus of our Tunaweza Programme, spearheading G-SETi.org, has been informed by an inherent desire to nurture emerging school children so that they are inspired to tackle challenges with unrivaled confidence.

Getting the opportunity to join the ELF mentorship class was a massive step towards honing and sharpening my personal skills as an accountable and responsible emerging leader of this nation. I went through weeks of learning, relearning and unlearning. Weeks of establishing strong and productive linkages. Weeks of exposure to the best strategies of engagement with any institution with emphasis on our county governance structures. Those are the weeks which greatly transformed my socio-political view.

Those weeks have since compelled me to abide by the leadership creed. A year on post graduation, I have cemented my conviction to rise to the occasion. The need to give back to the community in a special way has become more apparent. Migori is a cosmopolitan county with amazing socio-cultural divergence but with worrying trends politically. One  of the county’s main challenges is reluctance. Many youths are also not involved involved at appropriate stages of running the programs. After a couple of passionate friends, we formed Tunaweza Migori, a youth conscious team that has self-mandated itself to play oversight to the county and national governments implementation of programs.

Despite the hurdles involved with keeping checks, our efforts have been rewarding especially during the budget marketing processes. Public participation was often a disregarded process with most departments of the county government until team Tunaweza Migori started making enquiries and follow-ups with the relevant sectors. Under the guidance of our team leader, plans are underway to put more effort and scale up sensitization across the county so that every youth is empowered to be able to conduct social audit at either individual or group level. Through these activities, some of the connections we established during those training weeks have since become the supportive pillars in this advocacy trip. I joined my fellow alumnus, Hillary Komuono, to spearhead running of G-SETi.org. This was informed by an inherent desire to nurture emerging school boys and girls so that they are inspired to tackle challenges with unrivaled confidence.

With the support of friends’ donations as well as our personal savings, we distribute Mathematical sets to the national examination candidates after the mentorship talks. This too we believe will translate a massive impact in the coming days despite the hitches that we’ve often encountered in the preparation and implementation processes. Our joint mentor, Mr.Mulle Musau, whom we were hooked up with following the end of our fellowship, has been a cog in all that we’ve planned to execute. With his wealth of knowledge and experience in governance and electoral processes, his counsel has always come real time in situations of our need. We can’t be more grateful than we are for having our guide, lead, mentor and a father in him. He has easened our navigation in these spaces. Meanwhile, the journey still continues. Ahsante sana, ELF.

Interact with him on twitter: @anselmn_