Elevation Zimbabwe – education for empowerment

My passion for serving young people was thrust upon me at first, being a typical teenager who found issues surrounding HIV/AIDs boring and overrated. This was until I got a chance to participate in the Family Life AIDS Action Group in 1998 and was cemented in 2003 when I volunteered for 10 months in Gutu district with Students Partnership Worldwide Zimbabwe (now Restless Development Zimbabwe). Living and interacting with young people from disadvantaged communities opened my eyes to the realities of the imbalances faced by the youths. I witnessed how inadequate information led to the loss of life, as young girls and boys indulged in risky sexual practices. How girls the ages of 14 years voluntarily mentioned that the first person they had sexual intercourse with was either someone they did not know or a boy/young man raring cattle at their homestead.  It was through such experiences that I grew a true understanding of the need for youth empowerment through involvement and information dissemination.

 

I did not know how, especially without an education that I would qualify for a job. Seeing as I did not come up with the pre-requisite score to get a place at university to fulfill my mission/calling.  My passion became my credentials for my first job and directed my need to serve.  I believe that young people are the solution to their own development through meaningful participation. I have lived and facilitated for young people to realise their capacity and make positive contributions to the society. I believe I gained a skill that allows me to form meaningful relationships with people of all ages, through the voluntary work and paid jobs.

 

My personal objective has been facilitating for young people’s voices to be heard; bridging their sentiments with those in the community addressing the social inequities. We (my friends & I) founded an in school club at St. Mary Magdalene’s High School; Family Life AIDS Action Group (FLAG) – whose thrust was to allow young people (in school pupils) to take responsibility of their own surroundings. We fundraised (old clothes, magazines) for the benefit of the children staying at the children’s home. In recognition of the commitment the school board saw it worth to award me a School and Community spirit merit award.

We co-founded a youth oriented group, Hamundinzwi (you do not hear me) which is a voice of the voiceless youth. The organisation gave young people around Mutare urban an opportunity to express themselves through song, drama, art, sport, worship. The organisation championed the purpose of the youth, within Mutare.

 

I was invited and sponsored into the Mutare Mountain Dew Lions Club (2005), where I have served the community of Mutare. This was an honor as 11 years ago I was a pupil participating in a Lions club organized/sponsored event but to serve my community under their membership was motivating.

 

Some say experience is the best teacher; we intend to share that saying with our peers through the youth association. We intend to shape their vision into reality; usually vision is long term but we are saying let’s take the future into the present and let it be their light i.e. self-awareness, self- esteem, self-efficacy.

 

I have gained so much wealth from my colleagues professionally and socially. My background cannot be said to have been fortunate nor can it be termed unfortunate but I feel there are some instances in my childhood or youth that I could have gone well with a ‘friend’. Today I want to be that friend to other young people, I will not reach out to all but by impacting on a group, one will emulate and cascade.

From that point it was evident that Elevation Zimbabwe was to be a life skills centered entity, delivering age appropriate training; with a focus on empowering the individual and build from that so the individual had to realize their potential. Elevation Zimbabwe was also meant to encourage learning by sharing and doing through a personalised programme. We wanted to impart skills to the young; from as young asgrade 4 pupils in primary  school to adults. We modified an experiential model that would guide our life skills activities.

 

 

There are numerous issues that affect Elevation Zimbabwe’s target group. These affect our participants both, directly and indirectly (through parents/schools) but these issues mostly get to our participants directly.

Unemployment is definitely a major issue that we deal with. Some participants may be finding it difficult to find work or they may still be living off their parents in their parents aboard. When or if their parents loose their jobs and main source of income, the youth may be forced to drop out of school. Some may even go to school, but on an empty stomach, disintegrated family as parents stay away from home in search of the next meal/school fees. Some may get an education and still fail to get employment as. They may also struggle to capital to start their own income generating projects. Elevation Zimbabwe trains these youths in life skills such as resilience, entrepreneurship using locally available resources; low capital projects with the support of our training buddies

Another important issue we deal with usually is that the young person today is more exposed to having one parent at home and it is not because of diseases or that they have passed on, but because they are working or separated. It is expected that information or support comes from their parents/guardians, but most of these young people figure life on their own.

Role models at home or within the community are scarce. The youths rely on extended role models who might not be able to translate to the youths nearest reality; hence they keep chasing the wind. Youths are fighting with growth, being lonely while dealing with challenges and supposed to overcome those issues. The young are discovering themselves through numerous means that do not offer bi-directional interface for example through movies, music. We believe our training buddies can usher some ounce of hope and direction in their lives.

There is limited to no career option or career guidance for the youth. We intend to share all career paths for young people through engaging them at an early age

Interpersonal skills e.g. communication, decision making, self-esteem, self-awareness etc. We train our participants on how to balance between issues; school, home and personal matters.

Coping with stress, parental and social expectations vs. their dreams and they are always caught in-between. I believe young people including our youth in Zimbabwe, undergo emotional pressure as a result of failing to balance such pressures including the development of hormonal changes.

 

We also support issues raised by The Zimbabwe National Youth Policy under consultative section from consultation with various stakeholders who included the youth;

 

· Inadequate focus on behaviour change and life skills methodologies;

· Inadequacy of the educational system for current job markets in both the formal and informal sectors. The educational system is still too academic and does not prepare the youth for decision-making, entrepreneurship, and ability to participate in self-help programmes In addition, there is high incidence of school dropouts due to rising school fees. This affects girls more than boys.

· Deteriorating health conditions as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and teenage pregnancy-related problems coupled with inadequate youth-friendly health services. Early sexual activity, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, unsafe abortions etc. all contribute to deteriorating health conditions.

· Lack of experience and exposure, family breakdown, lack of appropriate role models, and lack of youth centered development programmes are mentioned as problems.

· Most youth do not seek out reproductive health services until they have become pregnant or contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

 

 

Our target group is people aged between 10 – 35 years which can also exceed in circumstances were we train those institutions or organisations that work with these age groups and engage us to train the trainers. Youngsters are identified as follows:

 

–     An institution/individual/youth group approach us seeking our services

–     we approach schools primary and secondary and volunteer our services/resources

–     Founding members or secretariat identify a need among a group of youths and approach relevant authorities offering their services to the group or institutions

–     Our training buddies can identify a gap in youths and recommend us to the group or the youths to us

–     We advertise trainings

 

Our activities are supported cash/kind by:

–  The founding member’s personal savings

–  Training Buddies

–  Friends of Elevation Zimbabwe(ElevationZw)

–  Institutions seeking training

 

 

 

For every training or engagement we hold an assessment meeting with the financier or custodian to establish their desired end objective

 

We issue a pre – training needs assessment questionnaire that will be filled by the participants if they are known. If not we will establish these by collecting demographic information (age group/gender/duty) from the custodian

 

The timetable and training content are designed

 

 

Before content is delivered the trainers come up with a participants profile which leads to after the training.

 

We encourage learning by doing activities which make a participatory system approach the key difference between our interventions. Each participant must be able to complete and check each item from a task list, which they will start with from the day’s activity roaster. Our training’s main feature is on self-awareness as we believe the rest fall into the jigsaw when one is aware of their ability. There are individual exercises that will culminate into team exercises.

 

We use a lot of non-participatory techniques during the training; we even allocate the participants with responsibilities of running some components of the training along with the facilitators (this will rotate among the participants). Other techniques we employ

 

Writing in reflection

Brainstorming

Games

Song

Drawing/painting

Story telling

Acting

Quiz

Testimonies

Role playing

Team building activities

Outdoor physical activities

 

As we slowly introduce team activities we start working on the formation of teams, blending individual traits. The participants will eventually come up with individual and team action plans

 

 

Support offered after 6 months and linkages to training buddies for coaching purposes.

 

Elevation Zimbabwe does not operate in a vacuum; we believe in synergies, thus we work closely with like-minded institutions/organisations to support the development of young people.  We thrive on creating an enviable portfolio of service delivery, practice development and network support.

Through direct contact ElevationZw has directly reached 628 young people between 2014 – 2016 using ElevationZw methodology or design;

82 prefects trained in leadership

52 in school club presidents induction

290 self-awareness seminars

25 team building

54 Mutare urban and rural child parliamentarian induction

25 career readiness training including Resume development with 5 having found employment

10 primary school pupils supported in school fees

90 young professionals and students’ network

In the same period our message has reached to 3700 secondary beneficiaries, through social media.

We have collaborated and shared resources with Youth Boundless Zimbabwe (prefects training development), For Girls By Women (Menstrual Health Management), MushWorld (Mushroom training of young people to view mushroom as a low capital project)