“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” – Oprah Winfrey once said. In the history of Elimu, it has always been our President’s desire, Madam Nina Chung, to see her team walk with the Elimu children in their journey of education. Not that this has not been happening, but she wanted a more engaging approach. She dreamt of a mentorship program where each Elimu staff would walk with our children and guide them towards the right path, and at last it came to pass!
“You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself.”
In a year where so much has happened and what majority of people can relate to as the bad effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Elimu has so much to be thankful for, and this is one of those. As the year comes to an end, we officially launched Elimu Mentorship Program for our sponsored students. Each Elimu staff was matched with three students with whom he/she will walk and guide through the journey of education and career guidance. The goal is to ensure that all these students make the right decisions in life, perform well academically and realize their dreams for their future.Mentorship is critical for young people and without a at least one mentor in life one can easily succumb to misguided choices. Something we do not wish for our children. The launch of the mentorship program was beautifully done under the management of our Social Welfare Officer, Wambui (known to the children and all of us, as Auntie Wambui).Each of the Elimu staff shared their personal life stories with the children, especially the hardships they went through growing up – many of which are so similar to what our students are dealing with in their personal lives now, including the hurdles of lacking school fees as they struggled to get education. It was inspiring seeing the reaction of the students as they learned that people whom they see as successful and well off could go through sometimes worse situations than theirs and still make it in life. They saw hope – and that is the outcome we desired!
It was a great way for us to end the year as we wished them the best in the festive season. It was equally a special moment for the kids to bid our President, Nina Chung farewell as she heads back to Canada. We hope that the journey that we have started together will bear good fruit as we guide our children towards a better tomorrow!