“The most fulfilling thing to do as a human is being kind and giving back”

Linda Salbei is the founder of Linda Msichana Organization a Community Based Organization in Kericho County centered in benefitting girls and women towards attaining quality basic education. She is passionate about empowering girls and women in business. A young upcoming entrepreneur, Linda has been in the field of charity for close to five years now where she has reached out to the youth, women, and community at large.

Her first time engaging with Emerging Leaders Foundation was in 2017 when the organization had a countywide training and mentorship program for community leaders. She was lucky to be among the first people to be trained in Kericho county amongst other young leaders. After the training, she got an opportunity to be part of the 1^st Youth Devolution Conference held in Nairobi where she meet and interacted  with other young leaders who were part of the ELF county networks and were doing amazing things in their communities.

Because of these intense trainings from ELF her way of operation at Linda Msichana have changed drastically in that as an organization they are more aware of the roles of community leaders especially those in elected positions therefore making it easier and more efficient to hold them accountable for their actions. “This has greatly influenced me as a leader in that I am now bold enough to engage them in our activities and approach them when we need assistance from their offices a good example is during allocation of bursaries for needy students we are able to get slots for the young mothers and school going girls who are very needy.”

“My greatest takeaway from ELF is that our leaders are approachable people and it is our duty as change makers to reach out to them if we want to make our community a better place.”

Her biggest interest in life is reaching out to the younger generation and seeing them pursue their dreams especially when it comes to talent and skills. “I am a believer that talent and skills can open doors and change lives. I enjoy making crafts as a way of practicing my talent. ELF has played a major role in mentoring and empowering me to not only be a great leader but also a role model and a voice to many young women girls in my community and therefore I would want to pass down the knowledge I have to those around me,” she adds.

The most difficult part about her journey and work is on resources as they can be scarce making it challenging for programs to run. Owing to this, Linda Msichana has programs that promote and enhance talent and skills that the girls have.

“We have been teaching them how to make Ankara bangles from recycled material that we collect from local tailors. From this we are able to sell the products locally and this small income sustains the day to day operation of the organization. We sometimes face difficulties from community members who do not understand our work in the community and this is where we bring in chiefs and local leaders during our community outreaches to further explain to them what we do.”

Linda has picked many lessons along the way but she has three lessons that she key lessons learnt that she can share with other leaders.

1. It is important to be passionate about the causes we believe in because in this way passion fuels purpose.
2. Being persistent and consistent are essential in achieving results.
3. Leaders should also be resilient no matter the circumstance!

“Our short-term goal as an organization is to have programs for girls running throughout the entire Kericho County as for now we are in three Sub Counties. For our long-term goal, we want to set up a community resource center that will cater for not only school going girls and young mothers but also the whole community.”

“I believe the most fulfilling thing to do as a human is being kind and giving back!”