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#GOALS

There is a generation among us whose life motto is YOLO. (You Only Live Once). They live for the moment. And more often than not, couldn’t care less about tomorrow, next week or the future. It is this predisposition that the program CPR© ( Creating Positive Relationships ) tries to correct. Using a floor mop to demonstrate, the young people are helped to see that our lives very much resemble the mop-three prong. The bottom, the long handle and fluffy end. In this exercise, they are tasked to balance it vertically for as long as they can. Many who think it is easy, quickly step up to the challenge and soon realize that to balance it requires skill and focus. I would like to use this simple illustration share the lessons that we all can learn.        Set a goal- It is important to set a goal. Be it a life goal, work, relationship or personal, short-term or long-term. A goal must exist, in order to be achieved.  It should be a goal that causes you to jump out of bed in
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Recent posts
Has it been a cold season for you? Hearts were getting warmed...   If only we could hear their voices...                                                                                                                                          Tug of War – who wins?                                                                                                                Spending time with the boys and girls of Open Learning School with approximately 50 students in July has been quite heart warming. These amazing teenagers like other teenagers, all desire to live lives that are godly. Our passion is to share with the young on building healthy relationships. The students live in the slum and much of what they know is knowledge they receive from their one-roomed family houses and from what they watch on TV for those who have. At first, they seem like young people who have lost hope but with time, we see them open up expressing themselves and what they are going thro
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August to October Journey

Its been a long three months since we had time to write on what we have been doing through impacting lives and also changing lives.So let us tell you the stories as they unfolded during the journey of these three months. Once upon a in August ......... During this month we had Holiday camps and Ni Sisi Camp  In the holiday camps were were privileged to have 16 young boys and girls from Mamlaka hill chapel who had a great time at our Camp i.e "Camp Malta". the teens were taught on servant leadership and as usual had optimum fun and also many lessons they would take home. Club J you rock!!!! Later on in the month we also partnered with Inuka Kenya in their Ni SiSi campaign which was also done at our camp site. The boot camp brought many youth from different slum areas in Nairobi where the word "ni sisi" means "its us" this was to bring cohesion following the post election violence which occurred in the 2007 general elections youth
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Accounts Come Alive

As Kawangware and Mathare Cohorts 1 finalized preparations for the upcoming BPC, Cohorts 2 took on their greatest challenge yet—understanding and maintaining business records! In order to ease the girls’ fears, the YE alumni—who assist in various capacities every class—opened the lesson with an icebreaker. The girls divided into two teams and were challenged to spell out random words by picking up the letter squares laid on the ground in front of them. They finally began to relax as they raced as a team to spell “woman” and “leggings” but were a bit alarmed when the tiebreaker word they were asked to spell was “entrepreneurship.” They all got it right eventually. Next, the girls moved inside for the “Accounts Come Alive” simulation. For Accounts Come Alive, the girls read through the entrepreneurial endeavors of Neema—a fictional teenage girl who opens her own hotel. Over the course of the first few months, Neema does a good job keeping track of her assets, liabilities, equity, sal
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Preparing for Competition!

Both Kawangware and Mathare Cohorts 1 are nearing the end of the YE program. Within the next 2 weeks, they will finalize their business plans and present them before the judges. Each girl will have 30 minutes to present. Everyone is understandably feeling a bit nervous, but the YE facilitators are doing their best to help the girls get ready for the Business Plan Competition (BPC)! In addition to preparing for the BPC, the girls are finishing up their Employability lessons. This week Kawangware covered the topic, “How to Look & Apply for a Job.” The girls acted out a skit of three friends who were looking for jobs. The drama illustrated the most common ways to discover employment opportunities—word of mouth, employment agencies, newspapers, notice boards, the internet and networking. The girls then took some time to write out their own personal networks comprised of parents, siblings, friends, classmates, teachers, etc. who they can resource for job leads. The lesson concluded
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Branding & Business Plans

Mathare Cohort 1 is beginning the final stages of the YE program. The focus of this week's lesson was "Branding Yourself." The girls spent some time sharing their favorite commercials and why they liked them. They then compared advertising to branding and discussed how they wanted to represent themselves personally and professionally. After break, the girls learned how to create a Curriculum Vitae (CV). They were taught what information they should include about themselves —such as their objectives, skills, experiences and references —as well as how to keep the document neat and focused. The importance of making a good first impression was stressed. The class utilized drama to role play how to find a job followed by a lecture on networking. Lastly, the girls reviewed the due dates and requirements for their business plans. They need to turn everything in to be judged within the next 2 weeks! After class, a social mentor from Microsave stopped by to talk to the girls
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From Entrepreneurship to Employability

This week, the girls of Mathare Cohort 1 received their Employability Training Manuals. This is the last workbook of the three-part YE curriculum. They began right away on Lesson 1: Understanding Employment & Employability. Their first assignment of the morning was to define employment—both formal and informal. The girls then discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each type. The "essentials" of employability were taught at the end of the lesson. These include, but are not limited to, core academics, communication—both verbal & writing, listening, presentation, suitability, flexibility, persuasion, teamwork, leadership, planning & organizing, investigating & problem solving and numeracy. Lesson 2 was also completed. While working through this lesson, the girls identified their career interests. In addition, they had the opportunity to assess their own level of employability through making use of the "Employability Skills Chart" found in t
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