"Sharing my skills and knowledge to empower other young people"
March 6th, 2012
Helping to organise a recent training workshop for unskilled youths in Rwanda was a rewarding experience for David Masengesho, 25, a Commonwealth Correspondent and intern-trainer at an NGO based in Kigali.
From 4 to 19 February, 33 young male and female employees and high school and university graduates took part in “Why Essential”, a training organized and implemented by Bright Future Cornerstone.
Conducted in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, the knowledge sharing workshop enabled young employees (the trainers) to share their skills with other young people to improve their employability.
Created in November 2011 by Eric Rukundo Sebasore, Bright Future Cornerstone is an online community of young people who believe that “we are created with different talents and life skills which we can share in our day to day life to give a chance to another person especially those who society consider to be less advantaged.”
Said Eric: “Since when I was at university I have been thinking about the way you can transform the knowledge gained from university in an simple and easy manner to support others in the long run, especially those who did not go to university.”
The first “Why Essential” training was built on three components: leadership, entrepreneurship and ICT. It was delivered by enthusiastic and passionate young people like Dr Lonald from Uganda, Mr Jaures from Canada, Mr Maarifa from Kenya, and Mr Alex Mwesigye, Mr Eric and myself from Rwanda.
The training-workshop covered nine topics: focus to success; internet life changing opportunity; branding your profile; work ethics and professionalism; entrepreneurship essentials; self marketing and e-portfolio; project management essentials; leadership essentials; and monitoring and evaluation essentials.
One of the participants, Gaston Ntahorwamiye, said: “I had a little on monitoring and evaluation at university before. It was quite new, but very interesting to me.
“The ‘Why Essential’ training has been useful. I now am elaborating a project plan to be implemented soon and see that, from the skills gained, it will be successful.”
Eventually it was my turn to stand up as one of the trainers. It was a pleasure for a young person such as me to stand in front of a public audience, sharing my skills and knowledge to empower other young people. It was a great opportunity to transfer skills while building employability.
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About me:
“I work as intern/trainer at Digital Opportunity Trust Rwanda in its Reach Up! program where I deliver a livelihood, ICT and business training course to community participants. I work as research assistant at the Rwanda Development Board’s Tourism and Conservation Department.
“I am passionate about empowering communities and have been involved in different community development activities such as gender equality, women empowerment, youth advocacy, climate change and. I like networking, travelling, meeting different people of diverse backgrounds and exploring different cultures.”
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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response?
To learn more about becoming a Commonwealth Correspondent please visit: http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/submit-articles/commonwealthcorrespondents/
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