The youth in any society are the sustenance of the community either by them being the future leaders or materials for continuity. They are like what cuttings are for a sugarcane farmer. They come from the sugarcane but expect to take over once mother sugarcane has gone. One thing we fail to notice is that youthfulness is a stage. Within no time the youth grow into men and women or better, parents. The youth do not have a lot of time to be youths; rather they have an ultimatum to end their youthfulness, by nature. Some youth realize this and also discover that there are thing done better as youth than as youth alumni, like starting to build their financial bases. That’s why some youth start up (or seek to start up) businesses. This however has been an uphill task for many youth for various reasons.

The greatest challenge the youth face in pursuit of their entrepreneurial ambitions has always and still is the issue of capital.  Other challenges include lack of knowledge of how to transfer the great ideas in their minds into physical running entities, lack of skills to start or run businesses, misconceptions about business and also the predominant employment mentality, to name but a few.

Not very many people have good things to say about the government but the youth can appreciate the Kenya government’s effort of mitigating the effects of this grand challenge. This is by introduction of the kshs.1billion Youth Enterprise Fund some years ago.

However, very few of the targeted youth, who make a majority of the country’s population, are aware of this provision or those who know cannot access the organizations used by the government to distribute these funds. Some also cannot meet the minimum requirements to get these funds due to lack of collaterals.

In some communities the obstacle is the attitudes towards loans. In some areas of Western and Nyanza province very few people would easily seek a loan to start or expand their businesses. Loans have been made to sound like tools used by financial institutions to cash in on the financially ignorant members of the society and so is a stigmatized idea.

In such communities the government needs to first carry out mass civic education to the target beneficiaries of the great youth fund-which the government has increased from Kshs.1-1.5 B.  It is only after this that the government can use the analogy of the goat which you can take to the river but you cannot force to drink water.

The youths problem is also extended to the women- who are their mothers, and who suffered with their children when their fathers took loans without planning, that left them begging for food. It is the mothers who tell their children never to ‘touch’ loans (like their father). The women have also lived their advice by shunning the women fund which is reported to have been left idle in banks and other financial intermediaries.

When governments introduce anything for its citizenry it should go ahead and publicize it in the same way as when political parties advertise themselves to the electorate. The government’s efforts so far are laudable but this step further- to make the target population aware- would be worthwhile.

Apart from the government several other organizations have taken it as their primary role to provide funding to young men and women. A good example of such an organization is the Kenya Women Finance Trust which funds women enterprises through groups. Other organization include Opportunity International, K-rep Development Agencies, community based micro-finance entities and several commercial banks. The idea of funding through groups is the direction taken by many organizations which try to break the barriers to funds by these two interest groups. The members of each group guarantee one another for the loans. The idea is to have the risk spread to several people, reducing the prospect of loss of their money.

Whether this is the best way to reach these disadvantaged groups is debatable. The truth, however, is that women and youth would like to advance their lives through businesses, and that they need somebody to give them the initial capital. Banks and most financial intermediaries could be the best pipelines for channeling this money from the government but they may not be the best to publicize this facility given the masses’ attitudes towards them. The people always think there are hidden charges or just something they are not being told that comes with these loans.

The onus is therefore on the government to think of ways of making sure the target beneficiaries of their policies are aware of them. Politicians, religious leaders and other community leaders could also be handy in spreading this information. And so are you and me.

Somebody made me attentive to the fact that the human eyes can only focus on one object at a time. I had my own arguments but after experimenting with myself, I now agree with him-I don’t remember who it was, I would have acknowledged him in the spirit of literary borrowing. The society (read nation) is much the same as the human in that it has always tried to be fair to all but in the end finds itself looking at one section of society all the time. Naturally, some objects command more attention that others.

I have been actively working with community participants for the last one month and true to the above analogy they are forgotten, or let’s say they are not attractive enough to gain attention of the beholder. During brainstorming sessions with them I discovered that there is much that can be done by the rural folk to accelerate their development as well as the country’s economic growth. The best that some of us do is to sympathize with the left out of our communities and sing the emotional hymns of ‘the poor’ and ‘those living on a dollar a day’ in reference to these people. We sometimes also pray to have enough money so we can donate to these ‘poor of God’. It is either we rarely have the time to think about how we can empower them to fend for themselves or if we ever do we fear their competition.

Listening to some policy makers we hear about how we need to advance our systems to equal other developed countries. They almost always never mention how  they will enlighten those in technology darkness to at least bring them up to the technology we want to upgrade, let alone the new one we want to adopt. In case guilt prompts them to mention something, then theoretical frameworks to address impoverishment are copied and pasted without properly looking at them with keen attention on appropriateness. With the current digital era where just about anything is done with a click, it is inhuman to have a section of us who have never seen a computer. During my work with community participants I have discovered how desperate the otherwise ignored members of society are for knowledge and their desire to keep up with the dynamic global economy.

These people need to be looked at. Not because of their attractiveness to the eye, but because they are part of the society and are parts of the field of view.  Again, what they need is not donation but empowerment. Some organizations have taken this as their role and have put in place programs to empower these communities.

DOT’s reach up program is one of these programs.  The program aims at first making these community participants conscious of themselves by recognizing their strengths and abilities and regain their self esteem, if it was ever there to be lost, and then appreciate the zillion livelihood opportunities within their communities and finally act to take advantage of these opportunities. They are then equipped with ICT skills and business skills to aid their pursuits in sustainable livelihoods considering the current era.

The result of the above initiative is a community with people with a positive attitude towards themselves and high self esteem and self worth who believe they have a control of what they can be. They also believe they have the resources to help them achieve their goals. They are the first beneficiaries of their efforts as have tangible fruits they can take home to feed themselves and their families. Because of their businesses they don’t have both the time and the reason to indulge in criminal activities. They are also not bitter at anybody as they feel part of the society. They also pay taxes and contribute to economic growth. The second biggest beneficiary from their activities is the government in terms of taxes, reduced crime rates, job creation hence lower unemployment levels and higher standards of living.

In conclusion, I insist that the best strategy to fight poverty is empowerment rather than sympathy and tokenism-which we all think of first. The gold is in the ignored green countryside. Let us send the spade and shovel to the goldmines and wait for the rewards.

I arrived at the Sega Silicon Valley on Friday May 2. I was well welcome at the centre by the youthful staff who were eagerly waiting for me. the centre derives its name from the Silicon Valley in the US which is a one-stop ICT centre in the US. The centre aspires to be just that in the region.

We started our sessions on Thursday 8th just a day after my Birthday.

The particiants really like the program. They were really excited to realize their strengths, passions and skills. They were also surprised to realize just how much one can do with his/her passions after we brainstormed one of the participant's passion and came up with 8 different ways she could create a sustainable livelihood.

Some of the participants are staff at the centre and they find the program empowering.

I hope they keep the same spirit.

When I joined High school I always wanted to be a footballer hoping that I would eventually join the national team.Though God created me wonderfully, he did not allow me to be tall enough while in high school. That automatically knocked me out of the School Team. Because I was very active outdoors, I decided to join the handball team-where my height was an asset. I easily fitted in the team and in my final year we emerged runners up nationally.During my undergraduate years I played both games up to the East Africa varsity games.

I have won many trophies in these games and various recognitions.

Maybe one needs to be short to learn two games!

why do companies give to the community?now, this is debatable. some may argue that the do this to have a 'good face' in the society, some may say they do it to be known or to return part of what they take from the community, the list is endless. All these people may be right but one reason why companies engage in CSR is so as to belong to the society as a responsible citizen. if companies want to be responsible citizens then people want to be even the more.

This is the reason i am excited to be a DOT intern. the community has played a big role to make me what I am.It has always been my desire to do something to appreciate this.coaching and mentoring one or more people in this generous community through the internship will satisfy my hunger.

as an intern I am supposed to facilitate learning of relevant ICT ideas, coaching conceiving or guiding conception and implementation of projects that will lead to better life for the participants and the community.

To this mission I am called.anyone who is called has two options: yes or no. I say yes. And you?