Thursday 11 August 2011

The "Bad" Girl of Eastern Province of Kenya

A Revenger: This lady is a firm believer of winning and for sure nothing can stand between her and her goals. Every challenge is a "staircase" to the achievement of the set targets. And Yes, she will not let go until its done. She led a family of 20 people to winning the 1st ever family competition in Kenya for a social development project. The project is a Community Library located in the remotest areas of Eastern Kenya which is targeted to benefit at least 10 secondary schools and 15-20 primary schools, and 1,500 community members in the Makueni County. Her target is to assist 5,000 people in the next 2 years have a better life. And its FREE TO ACCESS.

Through her passion for helping the vulnerable, there is a possibility of getting water closer to the people of her community and yes, she does not stop at the rural areas only. In the Urban Slums, through her trans-versing and interacting with young people, she designed a project  to have girls go to school through out the month through providing access to the most needed sanitary towels/pads. She believes in the power of  others (teamwork) and hence formed a team called Mashujaa to compete globally for support of this project. The competition entitled "Challenge Future" is geared at using fun to address a social challenge. And yes, sports is her hobby! So the team hopes to use sports for mobilization of these girls and distribute the much needed sanitary towels. She has made it to top 30 finalists globally!

In another competition lasting 1.5 hours she coordinated a team of 20 (the biggest of all) for treasure hunt and guess what? They emerged 2nd Runners up! The next largest number in a team was 7! majority being 3-5 people.
She is energized to help people especially youth and women. Her mentor-ship is seeing a youth participate in the Canadian World Youth Exchange Program in September and another one for the East Africa Regional training camp in August. These are 2 individuals who had given up in life but now have a reason to smile. She only requests one favor from them (as a sign of appreciation).... that is to help her improve the rest of the community. She summarizes it in 2 Words "Lighting candles".
She has created employment for many young people through the small initiatives she does. Some of these volunteer initiatives come at a cost but at the end of the day, the fruits of her efforts make her smile. She has a full sponsorship to the Young Women Leadership Institute (YWLI) for their Annual Feminist Leadership training program (August 2011).

She was awarded The International Women's Day Top service Award in March 2011 for her efforts in promoting women empowerment. Her community awarded her a community Service Award as well. 

With assistance from Women Global Summit participants, 2 Primary classrooms shall be roofed and the pupils will have a better concentration rate under a roof.  She was awarded Youth Volunteer of the Year 2010 in Kenya and that does not stop yet because in January 2011, she was in Singapore (in the 21st IAVE World Conference) as among the top 5 Finalists internationally for a project proposal for Youth and Social entrepreneurship. She was once an Acting Director of an organization, a position she declined due to her personal reasons and in consultation with her Career coach. She recently organized for an African Regional meeting on Volunteerism and hosted over 20 delegates from various African Nations and some from the developed world. 

Currently, she is a national correspondent for the 2nd World Summit for Youth Volunteering, a responsibility she was given because of her engagement in youth volunteer initiatives. 

Many people ask her how she manages all these initiatives while having a full-time job. Her response is "Believe in others and empower them to deliver (there are employees in those organizations so she does not need to be there), Be honest with yourself and to others, Be yourself (because others are taken), have integrity, respect time, be consistent, and critically stick to your Principles."

All these is a payback to the people who have contributed, and those who continue to contribute to her living and her quote is ....

"Individual Social Responsibility is a sure and sustainable way to positively transform the World" ~~Agnetta Mumo Nyalita -Joseph