Anzisha Prize Tour

 

Are you a model of entrepreneurial success in your community? What steps can you take to expand your sphere of influence and transform ideas for good into impact?

Anzisha wants to help you think through these questions and invest in young change makers like yourself that are working on addressing key issues. We’ll be holding summits in cities across Africa that will bring together shining young self-starters that are positively impacting their communities. These information sessions are free to attend, just bring yourself and your ideas for change.

Are YOU impacting the world around you?

Have you started a project that is changing lives?

Are you addressing challenges in your community?

If the answer to all of these questions is YES,

Join us at an Anzisha Prize summit in a city near you and learn how Anzisha can help you earn capital for your idea and build the change that you want to see in your world.

Tour Locations:

March 15th                         10am & 1pm       Lagos, Nigeria                        Wennovation Hub

March 17th                         11am & 2pm       Lagos, Nigeria                        Wennovation Hub

March 19th                         9am                     Lagos, Nigeria                        Wennovation Hub

March 26th                         12pm                   Dar es Salaam, Tanzania     Commission for Science and Technology

March 28th                         4pm                     Nairobi, Kenya                       iHub

March 31st                          TBD                      Nairobi, Kenya                       TBD

April 3rd                              TBD                      Rabat, Morocco

April 5th                              2pm                      Lusaka, Zambia                      American International School

April 7th                              2pm                      Accra, Ghana                          British Council Hall

April 10th                            3pm                      Accra, Ghana                          Ashesi University

April 12th                            TBD                      Dakar, Senegal

April 17th                            5pm                     Kampala, Uganda                    Mara Launch Pad

April 16th, 17th                                               Johannesburg, South Africa  GIBS

April 19th                                                         Cape town, South Africa         University of Cape Town

TEAM BUILDING AT RUCHU.

4^TH February 2012 was our first date with Ruchu Girls High School this year. Located around 90 kms from Nairobi and with the newly refurbished Nairobi-Thika Highway, we were there within no time. Our session with the bubbly form twos who number are close to 200 students was to commence promptly at 10:30 am.

Of course I was excited to be back a year later with the mentorship program (Sisterhood) and with a new class. The day’s session was to be like no other we had previously had. The day’s speaker was Ms Catherine Matheri a life coach and a French lecturer. We were elated that she could facilitate the day’s activities and be our first guest speaker to return to Ruchu Girls.

A session of 200 students really cannot be easy; but thankfully Ms Matheri has extensive experience in handling students. The session was for team-building and therefore we divided the girls into smaller groups of around ten-fifteen each. Now when you think team building, you probably imagine a field with crazy stunts such as those you might see in ‘fear factor’…..The stunts that Ms Matheri had in mind however did not entail leaving the comfort of the girls’ seats but still proved quite entertaining and more notably worth their while.

Each Group was provided with lots of plain paper, colourful markers, manila papers, pins and a list of instructions. Each Group was to decide on a hype town name, and true to that, some very interesting towns were created. Each town had to have a mayor and the girls were encouraged to create other jobs which they felt their town needed. Each Member of the group had to have a different profession. The interesting thing was that no-one person chose her profession! The group members would decide and allocate jobs to whomever they felt most befitting of a certain role and provide reasons for the same.

Next the town was to come up with a mission and a vision statement. The Town had to further come up with a list of things it expected to achieve and those virtues that it felt were most important to it.It was quite exciting to walk around the hall and seat in different towns. Different personalities in a town made each little group so different! It was very intriguing to listen to how town names were created which I felt was largely contributed to things teenage girls might fancy! As there was going to be group presentations, each town tried to pimp, floss and add serious swag to out-do the rest!

The town name, its members and its vision and mission statement had to be well written on the manila papers. Each person had to pin up their profession for all to see.

The whole process seems quite incomprehensible but it has pronounced significance. It is important for the girls to learn how to work as a team! Many a times, we need to be part of a group to be able to achieve our goals. They are times also when others see some characteristics and abilities in us which we are not always aware of. Some young ladies I noted were very surprised when their group-mates chose a profession for them which they would not have otherwise agreed on. Finally, it is important to have a flight path towards achieving our objectives. The mission and vision statements helped the girls identify what really matters to them as individuals and as a holistic group in society.

Ms Matheri left the girls with Home-work; each town was to have a town book which they would make entries in, each week after meeting. The girls had the autonomy to decide what the agenda of each meeting was about. This ensures that the girls recognize that they have support structures among each other and should thus be each other’s cheerleaders and comforters.

Time always flies by when you are having a ball. It’s always a bitter-sweet moment leaving the girls, but we will be back soon…..10^th March 2012 to be precise. Till then…

THE CAMPAIGN MANAGER!

Winning is always nice!

 And we all want to win or be part of the winning team.

The last few weeks have been a roller-coaster ride. You see for the first time ever, IU finally decided to have its first ever officially elected student-council. This has been a very long journey coming and we were all glad that the big ballot day was scheduled in a short span of three weeks!

Am not sure that politics, especially students’ politics is my forte. With that said, I was sure as hell not vying for any seat in this Government. How the tables changed when one of my very good friends animatedly informed me of his candidacy! And yes, He was going for the big seat-President of IUSA.

To cut a very long story short, I decided to take up the role as Jesse Mutua’s campaign manager! I might add that this is a job that I had zero experience in! When I said yes to the offer, I thought ‘How hard could this be? ‘I knew I would get readily available info especially in light of showdowns for Republicans in the US and the vigorous campaigns happening back home in regard to the forthcoming general elections. So there we were….with three weeks to do the nearly impossible…. 

Lucky for us, we had very loyal supporters who were willing to help in any way. From those, we formed a core-team. Strategy was our game and we hit the ground running! We ensured that our candidate was well visible. Posters, social media. The works! A buzz was already being felt within the campus corridors.

As all campaigns might have it, scandals begun to crop up here and there. The Presidential race had three candidates and so you can fathom how either team might want to set back another. Obviously when you take up a mantle in such a battle, you sign up for anything and everything sadly. There were moments when such horrid things were said or when we knew that it was not fair-play, but Jesse insisted on integrity and honesty all the way.

As Kenyans, we have a distasteful habit of asking for ‘Kitu Kidogo’ all the time. Even when our civic duty is called for, we still want ‘Chai’. At the political fore-front, this is the order of the day. We were horrified a replica of the same was happening in our schools and students expected us to ‘toa’ in exchange for a vote! I am almost sure that we were the only team that REFUSED to bribe anyone! We insisted that you vote because you believe in Leadership you can Trust (Campaign Slogan) not because we can and will pay your bus-fare, a couple of shots, or a game of pool!

A lot of haters out-there especially the crook business-men advised that no vote without finance!!!What a bunch of baloney! I was so ashamed when a student who might be my father’s age asked me for something small in exchange for a Jesse Vote…I have a feeling, he will never be able to look me in the eye ever again as I categorically told him NO.What crappy role-models are these and what mixed signals are they sending to the youth especially!!!

Debate-day was soon with us and all candidates for various offices presented their manifestos. This was followed by Q&A’s.Jesse is really very eloquent and answers questions quite meticulously. It was interesting to listen to his rivals and note their temperaments. The crowd went wild when some took the podium, but I could tell real cheers from sarcastic ones.

Two days later…and the grand elections were here!!!The polling booths were to be open at 0800 Hours with four polling stations. On the morning of Friday the 9^th March, disorganization and poor communication were the beginning of what was to be a historic day. Four Hours later, voting began. You can imagine my utter shock when I went to cast my vote and found my name missing from the register….more running up and down…finally able to cast my vote an hour later.

At 1800 hours, polls were closed and counting begun. This was a painfully slow process filled with anxiety and anticipation. At 2130 hours, we were invited for the results announcement…..

You can imagine what must have been going through anyone’s mind then. Did we win? Did we do enough? Will we achieve all what we set out to do?

As it was so late, thankfully the dean of students went right to the results saving the speeches for the swearing in ceremony to be held on the 13^th March. You could hear a pin drop in the hall when she began reading out the results. When she got to the President, I thought my heart literally stopped beating…..she read out a name not close to the one I had in mind……..

I couldn’t believe it; we had lost by six votes. I was mad, frustrated, and felt cheated especially by the people who failed to turn-up to vote. Getting out of there the fastest way possible was only what my mind could register. If I felt disappointed, I can only imagine what Jesse might have been feeling, couldn’t help but feel that I let him and the entire team down….

This weekend was our grieving period. Come next week, we intend to hold our head high. We refuse to throw stones and utter insults.Instead,we will walk up to the newly elected IUSA Government come Tuesday afternoon, shake their hands in congratulatory mood and wish them well from the bottoms of our hearts.

I know this will not be easy, but it is the RIGHT thing to do. You see, losing is just feedback. We might be down now, but we (especially Jesse) is not out. Losing is sometimes part of winning!!!

CHOSE TO BE HAPPY TODAY

We convince ourselves that life will be better once we are married, dating the right person, have a baby, then another or finish that pending task at hand!

Then we get frustrated because our children are not old enough and that all will be well when they are older.

Then we are frustrated because they reach adolescence and we must deal with them. Surely we’ll be happier when they grow out the teen years. We tell ourselves our life will be better when our spouse gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when we can take a vacation, or when we finally retire.

The truth is there is no better time to be happy than right now. If not, then when?

Your life will always be full of challenges. It’s better to admit as much and to decide to be happy in spite of it all.

For the longest time, it seemed that life was about to start. Real life!! But there was always some obstacle along the way, an ordeal to get through, some work to be finished, some time to be given, and a bill to be paid. Then life would start.

I finally came to understand that these obstacles were life.

That point of view helped me see that there isn’t any road to happiness……………..happiness is the road.

So enjoy every moment, stop waiting for school to end, to find the right friends, to lose or gain  10  pounds, for work to begin, to get married, for Friday evening, for Sunday morning, waiting for a new car, for your mortgage to be paid off, for spring, for summer, for fall, for winter, for the first of the fifteenth of the month, for your song to be played on the radio, to die, to be reborn…………..before deciding to be happy.

Happiness is a voyage, not a destination.

There is no better time to be happy than now. Live and enjoy the moment.

 From an email thread!

Champions

After a very awkward week, I was thrilled to rally a cheering squad to the Kenya Swimming Federation National Championships which was held over the weekend! Our agenda was to go give a standing ovation to our very own cousin who makes the rest of us look bad in any pool!!

Am sure you can imagine the magnitude of this event! These are the crème of all swimmers in the country from various age-groups who have been training for different courses. Seating with my squadron in the bleachers I couldn’t help but wonder how much time, effort, energy, costs and much more have been invested in each of these swimmers.

It may have been a lot of work pampering our dear water baby and ensuring he is well hydrated with orange water (apparently all these serious swimmers drink this stuff!)and is well fed and warm. However the hard-work was left solely on his shoulders. I know for a fact that he swims nearly every day for at least two hours, eats a very healthy diet and works out! This calls for a great deal of discipline, commitment and focus! The results as you can rightfully visualize are almost quite obvious! Now, when you think of GIGO (a computer acronym for Garbage in Garbage out) you understand that you are what you do often and what you do is pretty much what you get! That said it is still very startling that with this knowledge we still expect to be champions in our own right in whatever we fancy without working at it! It is very strange that on our wish list they are a zillion goals we have set but we have not taken any initiative to realize any one of these goals!

Thinking of all the swimmers over the weekend, regardless of their age or what course they were pursuing; they have all made sacrifices to make it to the nationals. They have had to sacrifice some leisure and rest to get adequate training. They may have had to let go of some friends who do not share in their visions. They have coaches who train them and family and friends who cheer them even when they would rather give up! Come the hour of reckoning, they have to stand on the board and go the mile alone. The rest of the spectators can now only watch and applaud them on.

Thinking about it, this is how life really is, a race which you decide to take at your own pace. You may have a great team rallying behind you and giving you all the support and encouragement you need along the way. Many a times, you will get boo-ers who will try to dampen you spirit and make you believe you are not worthy, or that you can’t succeed! However, you must have a goal and must train to achieve it.You must have the discipline, focus and zeal it entails. Like the swimmers you have to keep pushing yourself, not making an excuse because it would be easier too and keep working on bettering yourself. Like the coaches who rush to the swimmers side at the end of each race informing them of the time they accomplished and giving them a pat on the back, we all need to have mentors, coaches and role models who believe in our potential, share our values and beliefs and can help us along the way!

But most of all as a true champion, we must all accept that we are better at something’s and others are undeniably better at other things. We therefore need to display good sportsmanship and congratulate others for their accomplishments and be genuinely happy for them! Shake their hands and wish them well. This must be harder for some people more than others but we must always remember the words of ‘desiderata’: those who are green with envy over others success are vexatious to the spirit!

So our water baby did us very proud over the weekend, hopefully we might send him to the Olympics very soon. This weekend I re-learnt from him the importance of setting realistic goals and put my all into actually realizing them! So maybe I need to get up earlier, cut down on the sugar and get those books cracking!!!!!

I might want to ask what goals do you have on your to-do list? And what are you REALLY doing about them? It’s one thing to have it on paper and a whole different story when you put action to them!