Inspire and change the world.

About three months ago, a close friend shared a page (inspirationalfriday.com) that was calling for women to nominate other women who have/had inspired them. With unexplained enthusiasm, I wrote to the team and nominated two inspirational women. Women who had drawn me to myself. Who, in the first 10 minutes of meeting, I felt like I had known them for a lifetime. I nominated Aya Chebbi and Delphine Konda. I have been inspired by many great women, my mother being the greatest one. But I wanted the world to meet Dell and Aya. They exuded an energy that I wanted others to draw from. Their stories have been featured and many have been inspired.

On days I feel like abandoning the things that matter to me, I think of these two women, draw from their inspiration and remind myself that service runs not on easy wheels and that inspiration lubricates the wheels of service. These two remind me, just as Leymah Gbowee in “Mighty Be Our Powers” that you can tell people of the need to struggle, but when the powerless start to see that they really can make a difference, nothing can quench the fire. The powerless being the uninspired and the fire being inspiration.

Inspiration comes to us, takes a grip of our entire beings and runs the show. Perfectly and in direction. The greatest misconception is that inspiration is only drawn from casts in our television sets or acclaimed influential persons. Inspiration comes from ourselves, our surroundings, our employees, our situations. It comes when sought. It comes when needed. It works when let to work. It is effortless. Yet it is the one thing common in everybody who has made a difference. Its use synonymous with change and after, the world...

I am inspired by my continent. Its vastness and diversity. Its creativity and impossibilities. I am inspired by nature, it calm self healing powers. Its power to sustain. I am inspired by mothers who in their situations of poverty set their children to school and ensure that they are fed. I am inspired by my grandmother. Who even in her old age has the time to care for my invalid aunt and bed ridden grandfather. Ensures they are bathed, clothed and fed everyday before she goes to sleep. I am inspired by her relentless energy, characterised by her  dozing spells by the fireplace as she waits for their food to cook. Her sheer love...

I have met a new breed of people. Who refuse to make excuses in fulfilling their ambitions. Who refuse to sit and watch their communities waste away. People who look to the front and see the pasted mountings of their future and those of their countries. Work out the solutions in their heads and get to work. In most cases, those I have met look back and wonder how they did it. They always run to "inspired" as their source of energy. Whatever inspires them...makes them better people and changes the world. Inspire, it is the easiest way to change the world.

Giving water where the earth cracks.

Mentoring: Creating a better me, for a better you.

Nine years ago, I was a lot younger and impressionable. I had a clear mind of what I wanted to do and the path I wanted to take.  All I wanted to do was pass my O levels. The path I wanted to take is that of making my parents proud of me. That was it. I assumed I would figure out the rest later. In the meantime, my goal was to master chemistry and add it to my A-subject list and my course would be accomplished. With the passion of young love, I accomplished my course. Then happily went home to await the results. For two years after High School, I stayed home, farming for a year and doing an accounting course I hated for the other year before joining the University to study Law.

For eight years I thought about the High School students who, like me, would leave High School and stay home with nothing to do. Not because there would be nothing to do but because they would not know how to do it. I identified the need to mentor them. Teach them the values of volunteerism. Build their confidence and open up their minds to a world of possibilities. Change their attitude from competition to cooperation.

I started doing it.

Why Mentorship?
Young adults are impressionable. They make decisions not because they have conceptualised the future but because their decision is in with the times. We cannot blame them. We have been there. So we cannot afford to sit and watch while we can actually influence some of these decisions positively. Sometimes even influencing them to be made, out with the times.

Investing in young people is a commitment that is receiving attention from all quarters. Even by the highest institutions such as the United Nations and national governments. Indeed as they say, there can be no future without young people.

But how do we ensure that young people across the board continue to take part in crucial decision making processes? by scrambling for the minimum travel slots granted by conference organisers? by locking in the information we hold so nobody else benefits from it? by regarding ourselves as too important a people to do community service? by living in the deception of mind that we shall hold our youth forever?

We need to have some facts in mind; youthfulness like age is for but a limited time. We should therefore strive to be the best in our time,  make the best of our time, have the best in our time and leave the best for other's time. This means sharing, mentoring, progressing and impacting.

I believe that we are quickly moving to the age of intellect. An age when investing in people's intellectual capability will yield the most benefits. This mean tapping and nurturing talent. Entertaining even the most crazy of ideas. In other words; giving water where the earth cracks. Creating a better me, for a better you.

Mentorship; defining her face
Opportunities abound that need to be shared with others. Life lessons and experiences only manufactured by time. By living a certain age. Visualised by looking back at our own experiences. Actualised by looking forward, to another's future.

Mentorship is a two faced beauty. Feeding the nostalgia of a past leading to successes and failures. Resting on the ease of a shared vision for another's less troubled future. There is no justification to allow a person trend a path, explored by ourselves and found to lead to a bitter end. Yet, we can redirect that person, save them time and precious energy and lead them to a path that brings worthy experiences.

The only face never aging, moulting of phases and diversified in breadth is that of mentorship. It cuts across generations. Adds value and is kept young by the unending acts of generations mentoring others and mentoring their own. It knows age but surprises by reciprocating the wisdom of old with young experience.

In my mentoring younger people, I find myself learning more than I teach. Its a beautiful thing. One whose face we must always seek to cup.