October 28 , 2020/0 Comments/in Featured Story, Impact Stories /

It has been with so much greatness to be a part of ABLI as there was always a take away every Tuesday. I am Jane Mutheu Musembi passionate about Tech may it be in the morning, evening, or noontime. The one thing that got my attention with ABLI was the leadership journey which was coupled up with so many things.

I have interacted with a former ELF alumnus (Steven Muasya) and the leadership skill he portrays in different situations are always outstanding. We always know that when we need someone to talk to the youth he was the one because he would do decode heavy messages using a simple language understandable to his audience.

My journey started when Stella Cheboi called one afternoon as I was buying a movie with the question, “If you were a bicycle, which part would you want to be?” My eyes started to look for a bicycle nearby so that I could relate well, given that it’s not the one thing I interact with daily. You can be sure after that I was ready to start the sessions.

We started with introductions of who we are, what we do, and what we like. This was the perfect pace-setter for the sessions. I was challenged by some of the profiles my fellow ABLI mentees had and this made me more eager to know what made the difference.  The two things that I was expecting from the sessions were, “What does ABLI have for us and what can I learn from the others.”

Personality-types was the first session we had with the facilitators and it was a very interactive session. Getting to know who I am in terms of my personality gave a lot of meaning as to why I do things in a certain way. Emotional Intelligence came after, which was so deep that we ended up having the discussion at our Youth Ministry at AIC Kasarani. We spent 3 weeks just trying to understand the mind-blowing topic. I still carry the discussion in both sessions with me every day. It is so amazing walking and interacting with people and you just get to understand where they stand. For sure it does away with unnecessary conflicts and misunderstandings thanks to ABLI.

Storytelling and life mapping came in with Jim India as our facilitator and it took us back in the days and it gave us a view of how life stands out both negative and positive. As I thought of what stood out for me I realized that life will always be empty and it’s up to you to fill it with beautiful memories and experiences. Letters to self, a session we also had, still holds the record of the longest assignment given to me by me. Those who were in the session can easily relate to that as I am still counting months to when I get to open my letter.

Every other session that we have had has always come with its weight and awesomeness. Let’s take public speaking, for instance, the facilitator made sure that we all had something to say before the session ended. I had my fingers crossed throughout the session so that am not given a hard question to speak about and luckily enough the charm worked but you can be sure I answered a question before the end of it all.

The things I have learnt from the sessions  are so many that every day, I plan to share lessons around. I am grateful for the opportunity. To ELF and BSK, thank you for getting this training out here.