International Youth Day (IYD) is commemorated on August 12th each year in a bid to raise awareness about the challenges and attitudes of young people around the world. This year, the theme for IYD is “Youth Engagement for Global Action,” with the overarching objective of highlighting the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national, and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes. There is also a focus on ways in which their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.
Moja Tu is a youth-centric organization. We prioritize the needs of the young people in our program at personal, academic, and professional levels. At an academic level, we cover our student’s school fees and ensure they have everything they need to be successful in their classes, from textbooks to computers to school supplies to uniforms. In addition to this, we also check in with our students and their families regularly to see how everyone is faring, and ensure that our students get the physical and mental health care they need if they are dealing with an illness or difficulties. Furthermore, our students also receive mentorship and advice from our board members, sponsors, staff, team leads, and peers. Moja Tu is a family, and family always looks out for each others’ needs!
Our hope is that we not only add value to young students’ lives with a good education but also enrich Kenya with well-rounded, educated young citizens ready to engage and improve their society. Moja Tu students are prepared to engage at the community, national level, and global levels when they leave our program. And we are on track to achieve these goals! For the seven years that we’ve been working with students in Kenya, we have truly seen the impact education has had on the hundreds of youths that are associated with our organization.
Several of our students have shown real promise as engaged, impactful leaders of tomorrow. Edwin, for instance, writes our blogs and is a banker with one of Kenya’s leading banks. Esther, an accountant, works within the Kenyan government and helps with finances at Moja Tu. Patrick develops beautiful videos and photos throughout the year to keep our supporters in the loop. Benjamin, a final-year IT student, developed a text-based program that helps with food distribution during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The program dubbed the Asante Project, minimizes the risk of spreading and contracting COVID-19 during Moja Tu’s supply distributions. And finally, Maria and David are invaluable when it comes to getting letters to and from students and helping with errands, and passing along information as needed.
These are just a few recent success stories among our amazing group of students. Hundreds more stories are being crafted at Moja Tu daily, and we can’t wait to see the start of each new chapter in our student’s lives. Each of our young students has a story to tell and a dream to realize, and we will be there to help them achieve all of their goals along the way. We are Just One!
