Why P.A.K.E.M.A-Mentorship?
Mentorship and networking are the greatest foundations to achieving successfully educated, well-rounded and critical thinkers in our societies today and tomorrow. Therefore it is paramount to propagate committed and strong mentorship to these young girls and boys who are dwelling in the slums and remote areas; a great continuity to the fight against despicable issues facing both parties in societies today especially in the slums and remote rural areas where girls suffer in silence and are still devalued and denied of their rights as human beings, they are still victims of inequity, violence, domestic abuse, gender inequality, to name a few of the many social injustices they go through.
Challenges faced in Slums & Remote Rural Areas:
The greatest challenge facing Africa is the abject poverty that a greater percentage of the populations are facing across the continent. This has both resulted due to and into very many setbacks that have not helped us move forward and develop our societies. Some of these setbacks are lack of both high quality and accessibility to education, social injustices such as gender iniquities. There are a lot of injustices and debacles in the slums and remote rural areas and these include the abject poverty that the dwellers go through due to lack of employment, quality education and empowerment; the endless forms of violence experienced ranging from crimes, lynching, sexual harassment, prostitution, drugs to name a few. The uppermost victims to these problems are the young children and youths who get to experience the most of these adversities, and especially the girl-child is mostly affected. The other main challenge facing Kenya and other developing countries is lack of strong and committed mentoring programs accessible to all children and the youexperienced ths. Many young girls and boys within these underprivileged areas are either raised by a single parent (which in most cases is the mother), are orphaned, raised by a few concerned relatives or both parents who are jobless and trying to pull it through as a family.
Most of these girls and boys don’t get to pursue their education due to financial constraints their families are experiencing and the fact that the first three basic needs food, shelter and clothing are as important they cannot even fully accommodate these. Most of these young girls therefore may resort to unwanted and unsafe sexual engagement as prostitutes, some of them who are victims of unwanted pregnancies end up being chased away by their families and end up in the streets and homeless such that they do not have even the shack to shelter them, some of these young boys start engaging in gang crimes, doing drugs and the list is endless. Some of these young children and youths experience domestic violence, the young girls are forced to engage in early marriages by their families or guardians due to the culture norms imposed on them. The young girls in most of these communities are also considered of no value because of their gender as females and therefore are never allowed or given the chance to pursue their education; last but not least, because these young girls and boys are not enlightened enough and lack the motivation to carry on and especially people to help guide them through the life journey.
What’s the Solution?
Therefore it is that time that we continue casting light into the shadows and know that enlightenment through mentorship is becoming a very big basic necessity for our societies, be it slums, remote rural areas or urban. The power of education and mentorship will ensure a better world for today’s and tomorrow’s generation of the youths. The growing population of enlightened and educated youths who are ready to change the face of Africa as activists, entrepreneurs, educators, scientists, doctors, engineers, peacemakers by using both the resources we have internally and externally is one of greatest opportunities we have besides the alliances like P.A.K.E.M.A Mentorship Alliance that make great platforms for sharing ideas and solutions to these problems. It takes teamwork and collaboration to help alleviate the problems Africa and other developing continents are facing. Through mentorship we can all engage in the empowerment of fellow countrymen and it all starts at the grassroots level, at that tender age.
Therefore to have a successful empowerment journey across the continent we need to embrace the mentoring aspect of it. Based on our founding message and motto, enlightenment through mentorship is becoming the next most important basic necessity for the children and youths from around the world. Therefore creating this awareness, reaching out to the schools in these areas through our programs, and bringing the entire community together by encouraging them to take part in giving back to their societies through this mentoring program is the key to ensuring that this message percolates in each and every community’s heart. The power of quality education and mentorship will ensure a better Africa and World.
In order to fight these debacles we need to venture in key areas such as empowerment of the society through the innovational and educational programs that helps enlighten the society at large on how they can use the resources they have at hand to help curb these situations. It is also important to know how to reserve these resources and learn how to optimize them as we continuously invent more.
In order to solve the major social issues going on in our societies, we need to start by reaching out to the youngest in our communities: the children and youths. This is the group that is coming up and will be the future leaders of our nations. Therefore to achieve their empowerment we need to continuously promote strong and committed mentorship that inculcates critical thinking, leadership, innovation, scholarship, entrepreneurial-know-how and well-roundness among other necessary life skills. Promoting quality education and mentorship are therefore the main keys to achieving a better Africa and World that can help solve her problems as a team. Exchanging of the ideas with people from other developed countries would also help in these developmental actions.
Therefore P.A.K.E.M.A Mentorship Alliance will continue giving VOICE to the voiceless in our societies: children, young girls and boys through education and mainly Strong & Committed Mentorship. It is that time we keep casting the light within the slum & remote areas because a greater percentage of African population is experiencing poverty and the vast majorities are based in the slums. We are still fighting slums eradication and enlightening these communities through education, mentorship and having the hope that one day we shall live in slum free continent and this can only be achieved through the continuous humanity spirit of togetherness.