How To Grow Interns

Interns are a popular item with in the market place because mainly they offer free labor although with minimum expertise on the job if any at all. They come in handy when you have overwhelming work load and can be a source of enthusiasm because of their high energy levels but do they actually achieve their purpose for being sent out…

According to Wkipedia.org, ``An Internship is a job training for white collar and professional careers.’’ Internship positions can be paid for or unpaid for and usually temporary.

In most universities in Uganda, the students are expected to take on internship in their second year in a bid to get work experience or have a taste of what it would be like to work after graduating from campus. The standard internship lasts for close to three months.

However, do students really get the ``so called work experience? ’Are the work places ready for these interns?’’ These are questions that every company or organization should be in position to answer.

The universities might be churning out thousands of graduates each year who are ill-prepared for the work place but isn’t this the solution the internship experience is meant to provide??

If students are rough on the edges, let the internship experience sharpen them. The whole internship process is geared at equipping students with work place etiquette as well as giving them a practical work experience.

A few tips on how to best prepare to receive interns in your workplace;

v Follow the trends of various universities in order to know when internship happens and prepare accordingly to receive interns .If they are expected each year, then planning for them will not be a hard task.

v Know how many interns the organization needs and break it down to know the departments that need interns.

v Define what the interns are to do while with the organization. Remember, people can`t do everything. This saves time on both ends –for the interns and the host organization.

v Allocate supervisors to the interns; these supervisors monitor the progress of the interns and ensure they are growing for the time they are with the organization. This process is about value –addition for the students as they help out the host organization.

v There should be a skill set the organization is dedicated to equipping the interns with.

This provides another dimension to youth empowerment and cuts the cycle of unemployment giving youth an opportunity to be trained and prepared for the work place.

Work places in all their various capacities need to be concerned with youth empowerment. It`s time they paid attention to the internship process and rigorously add value to the interns they receive each year. At Kyusa, we are keen and committed to empowering as well as equipping the interns that we take on from time to time because we realize the relevance of that phase in the life of a young person aspiring the launch into the labor market.

All stakeholders must join the youth empowerment movement and play their role.

Effective Management of Time & Money

“Tell me how you use your time and how you spend your money and I will tell you where and what you will be ten years from now” -Napoleon Hill

Time and money are some of the most valuable resources that you have been blessed with. Therefore, understanding how to use them is very vital in evaluating your progress and identifying what may be holding you back. Your personal attitude towards life determines your attitude towards time and; how you use your time determines how much you want to earn as regards your destiny.

Managing your time is similar to managing your life that is; you need to know what you want to use it for. First of all, you need to learn to prioritize your tasks and always create evidence of accomplishment of a given task; as this serves as a reminder of your efficient use of time. In addition, you should also decide to devote your spare time to the things that you think are important to you other than your job for example family, friends, reading, education and recreation among others.

On the other hand; just like time, money should also be spent with a clear purpose. You therefore need to create a budget for all your expenses and ensure that you stick to it through self-leadership. You also need to allocate a portion of your income to savings, charity and give yourself some reward for doing your job.

Developing and sticking to your budget has many advantages which include; increasing your habit of self-discipline and also helps you learn how to make your money serve your purpose.

Finally, when you have figured out how to improve your use of time, you will be able to allot more of it to managing your money! You need to learn to seize every moment of time as if it were the only one you had.

We therefore encourage you to sign up for the Kyusa program so that you are equipped with more skills on time and money management through the Financial Literacy module in the Kyusa curriculum!

Enrollment for the January 2017 intake is on.

How To Manage Your Sales

Selling and selling properly is a key factor in business!

Every entrepreneur is encouraged to learn how to sell as it is another way of social interaction. Dave Ramsey states, “Selling is nothing more than transference of feelings”. Entrepreneurship involves persuading a team to follow you in achieving a certain goal. Therefore below are some of the steps taken to ensure effective selling;

As an entrepreneur, you need to know your target market to the dot so you are able to qualify your clients. You should also encourage your team to always serve clients’ needs but not pressure them to buy products. This is mainly because clients usually purchase for their own reasons not yours.

In addition to the above, you need to be able to build rapport as this is what creates an opportunity for the buyer to trust you. One writer also emphasizes that people will buy from you only if they trust you, your product and company. Therefore, you need to have attractive packaging of your products, proper eye contact among other things. When rapport is effectively built, then positive referrals within the community begin to flood in which eventually boosts your business.

Furthermore, you also need to be well educated and informed about your products and competitors given the fact that it is very difficult to teach someone how important something is unless you actually know it. You are also able to passionately serve your clients when you know so much about your competitors mainly because you know why you are better.

Finally, always make it a point to sell and serve by describing the benefits of the products mainly because people do not buy products or services but rather what those products or services do! as encouraged by Dave Ramsey.

Let us therefore partner with Kyusa in creating a community of youth who have been fully equipped with entrepreneurship skills that will enable them to effectively sell their products or services thereby earning a living and causing social transformation. Enroll a participant for the January 2017 intake.

HOW TO LAUNCH YOUR BUSINESS

Many people always have the thought that starting business is hard. I say “no” to this thought by sharing a few nuggets on how to launch your business;

First and foremost you need to know the “why”, “how” and “what” of your business; you should be certain about the reason as to why you have selected a particular line of business. This reason should be big and audacious enough to keep you on fire and spread over to your future team and stimulate them. You should also know the strategies you are going to apply and what exact product or service you intend to produce. When all this is clear, the journey to launching your business then starts.

Secondly, you also need to identify the needs of the people in the surrounding areas and see how best to serve them. This can also help you in identifying your niche that is finding out what distinguishes you from other producers. For example, if there are many shoe sellers in an area, you may choose to sell yours with a free pair of stockings in addition.

Always start small and be proud as you launch out because even great oaks were once small acorns as stated by a certain writer. You are advised to start with the available amount of capital and resources. Borrowing to start business is usually discouraged. Hence, sometimes you might need to use the space at home in the early stages of your business till your income increases for example you can start by having a mini bakery at home where you bake the cakes and fry the daddies from .

Finally, when you start, always endeavor to employ workers who buy into the “why” of your business as this will save you from various problems. Therefore; forgetting all the fears, with our passions and dreams right, let us jump onto this train of business.

Kyusa commissions change agents to start up passion driven businesses through the Business Development module which is part of the curriculum. It is for this reason that I encourage you to recommend a person for the January 2017 intake.

Self Leadership

Whenever leadership is mentioned, most leaders think of their followers which is not the case. A leader must be able to lead in all directions that is; those above you, your peers and those below you in order to be considered an effective leader.Prior to that everyone needs to lead themselves first before they can lead others and this makes self reflection and inner growth key for all leaders as they tackle the challenge of self leadership.

Self leadership requires a leader to know and develop their gifts to the best of their abilities for example through mentorship, consultancy, voluntary work and going for further studies. It is also the leader’s job to keep their passions alive for example read whatever he has to read, go wherever he has to go to stay on fire. And he does not need to apologize to anyone as he/she works at keeping their passion alive.

In addition, it is the responsibility of the leader to know their evisioned future and keep it sure. This can be through having constant personal vision nights where you answer questions like;

·         Is  my vision clear?

·         Is my passion hot?

·         Am I developing my gifts?

·         In what area am I most gifted?

·         Is my pace sustainable?

·         Are interior issues undermining my leadership?

“It is difficult to lead people to the future when your own picture of the future is fuzzy” hence the importance of personal vision nights.

Finally, a leader’s character needs to be in the right shape for the whole team to be able to achieve the mission. A leader needs to have moral authority given that followers will only trust leaders who exhibit the highest levels of integrity.Hence, leaders need to maintain a good character as they desire to influence others!

I therefore encourage you to partner with us in raising change agents who will exhibit high levels of self leadership as they roll out into the community to foster development. 

Effective leaders

Leadership is a trait which is both inbuilt and acquired. It is an important function of management which helps maximize efficiency to achieve organizational goal or dreams and currently, the world needs effective leaders who will foster change. Therefore, below are some qualities of effective leaders;

First and foremost, effective leaders need to have positive thoughts and positive talk. They must view challenges as chances to lengthen their lists of successes. They should not shy away from facing and accepting the brutal facts that is they should be able to sit down and solve issues while hoping for a better future.

Secondly, they need to look beyond their personal roles, fame and achievements. Effective leaders need to have visions-pictures of the future. Vision gives people something to strive towards. Leaders should keep casting these visions always till they are understood by the people.

In addition, humility, willingness and ability to take on risks should be part and parcel of the lives of effective leaders for example; they need to be work oriented. They should also be able to identify and include the right people with them towards achieving goals. This is mainly because, for a team to be effective, it needs the right people who have the competence to achieve the set goals.

Such leaders also believe in step by step actions towards achieving a common goal. The word ‘rush’ does not exist in their vocabulary. They are always seeking for detailed information and evidence before they can make decisions that concern both their personal and corporate circles.

In conclusion, effective leaders are always on the frontline .They are the ones who start work or projects mainly by communicating the policies and plans to their team members. They also guide people on the right way of performing responsibilities effectively and efficiently that is; they decide the destination of the bus.

At Kyusa, we equip the youth with leadership skills through the various modules for example under team dynamics and communication skills modules. The youth need leadership skills if they are to be of influence.

I therefore encourage you to partner with Kyusa in raising generations of change agents fully equipped with leadership skills and are able to activate dreams or passions that will transform communities.

SMARTER Goals

“Happiness is the progressive realization of a worthy idea or goal” 

– Earl Nightingdale.

Many people today when asked what they desire in their lives will tell you they want to be happy.

According to the fifth edition of the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, the word Happy has many definitions. I chose to go with the one that describes it as – feeling or expressing pleasure or contentment.

Happiness or being happy in itself is not a goal to be attained. A goal, we know should be S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable and time bound); of late there is a newer version referred to as SMARTER goals where E stands for exciting and R for rewarding.

As a result of all this vagueness and illusion of what happiness means, we find that we are chasing after wind by building castles in the air which crumble the moment we realize it was just a dream.

We ought to pursue something that will bring the happiness we desire as opposed to pursuing happiness. A worthy goal or idea is one that brings fulfillment and satisfaction. It is tangible and its effects should outlive you.

At Kyusa, our heartbeat is for the youth to live their lives in pursuit of worthy goals that will empower their lives and cause them to transform their communities.

In the words of Paulo Coello, “success is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace”. And this state can be achieved by knowing what you want and going for it all the way.

A Go-Getter

The ability to stand by one’s word is in itself a gift not everyone possesses. It breeds a spirit of principle consequently enabling one stay on the right path towards the realization of their dreams.

Ephrance Nanyonga has been blessed with this gift. Passionate about swimming, travelling and nurturing people, the 20 year old, S6 leaver envisions a future bigger than eye has seen.

Before the Kyusa intervention, Ephrance was involved in a poultry project with a group of friends in pursuit to realization of her vision. This experience turned out to be the bench mark on which the interest in the Team Dynamics module arose.

While taking the program Ephrance was empowered to set SMART goals, manage herself, boost her confidence and foster her own independence which has made her a stronger leader among her peers at the Maisha Community Clubs where she serves as a manager for the kitchen section. The financial literacy training also empowered her to manage her finances and as a result her saving culture has greatly improved as she saves for future investment.

 As she intends to advance her studies with a Tours & Travel course. Ephrance has identified Piggery as a business venture, made a standard business plan and is taking necessary steps into its breakthrough so as to realize her immense vision for life.

Our Society is filled with a lot of leadership potential such as that within Ephrance. Only when we create platforms for them to blossom do we better the lives of the generations to come.

You cannot create a future for a generation, but you can create a generation for the future.

”Raising Generations of Change Agents”

SKILLS BROUGHT TO EFFECT

One may have the most skills and greatest of strengths but such is an unfortunate man until they master how to use their skills as a raw material to earn them a living.

This vividly describes Andrew Ssemombwe before the Youth Outreach Program with Maisha &Kyusa. Richly blessed with cookery, electrical wiring, swimming & shoe making skills, Andrew lacked the knowledge on how to earn from them. All his businesses ideas in this regard did not live to turn into business opportunities consequently keeping him in the rat race.

While partaking the Kyusa program Andrew was greatly intrigued by the Business development module where he learnt how to turn his ideas into opportunities from whence he could earn a living. The records’ keeping in business training was a wake up call for him to track the happenings and earnings of his shoe making business.

Fortunately, he has been involved in shoe making business and intends to apply all the entrepreneurship skills that he has attained through the program effective immediately. He has also set his goals clearly and is steadfastly working towards accomplishing them.

The world has many Andrews today that need our intervention. Only with Kyusa can this intervention be made.   

Mind Your Business #1

By Ralph Karama

Mind your Business! Is a statement I often hear. I then ponder and wonder what business these people refer to. The understanding many of us have of a business is one that sells cakes, clothes or even jewelry. Contrary to this, I believe our lives are our sole proprietorship.

Applicable to all businesses is the urgency to keep records. Today we handle the cash book as an essential business record. It is important for one to keep track of your income in flow, debit and credit not forgetting your balance. Now I am not talking about the income coming into your compartment because of selling something, but rather your personal income.

This right here is a sample of a cash book.

BRENDA’S PERSONAL CASHBOOK

Date	Opening Balance	Credit (Money Coming In)	Debit (Money moving Out)	Closing Balance
19th May	20,000/=	50,000/=	25,000/=	45,000/=

In this case Brenda started her day with twenty thousand, received fifty thousand and spent twenty five thousand. She therefore ended the day with forty five thousand Uganda shillings.

It is expedient for us to understand that “minding our business” involves keeping records of a number of things that happen in our lives. Finance being just one of them. Otherwise our businesses will fail. Well who wants an unsuccessful life?

So are you minding your business?

At Kyusa we empower out of school youth with business development skills including record keeping in business which can clearly be applied in our personal lives as demonstrated above.

It is much easier to prepare yourself for the future than preparing a future for yourself. Start now. Mind your business!

YOU’RE UNIQUE: LIVE IT

 ``The greatest enemy of great is good,’’ your greatest enemy is yourself; the voice within that keeps telling you to be like other people. You then end up trying to be like others and live a mediocre life. You even labor so hard to dress like them, speak, walk and even produce the exact products when it comes to business.

A Congolese proverb says, “wood may remain ten years in water, but it will never become a crocodile.” You can never change who you are but can ignore it. You only declare yourself a slave when you decide to depend on other people’s opinions to drive your life instead of focusing on your creativity that God created you with.

If you have no plans for yourself, you shall only be part of other people’s plans which defies the greatness you ought to display. Trying to copy other people’s lifestyles has killed originality which would have birthed all good things according to John Stuart Mill. You need to resist imitation and live the unlimited life. You must learn to be yourself in everything that you do.

Imitation is limitation and no one ever becomes great by imitation. You therefore need to make your own impression and dare to be who you are in leadership, entrepreneurship, business, employment.

At Kyusa, we take the youth through modules like self management, planning, business development, creativity and innovation. We encourage our change agents to discover who they are so that they are able to serve their unique gifts to the world and live life out of their unique ability.

Therefore, let us partner in this venture of raising passion driven change agents who desire to be great by being who they are.

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change…….Carl Rogers

Break The Cycle

Growing up, you desired to be wealthy. You were lucky enough to go through school, a chance you ought to be thankful for.

 While there, you fought battles in your mind of how you would excel amidst the increasingly competitive world.

Soon enough school was done and you realized one of the ways up the ladder of success was entrepreneurship. You started a business short of a documented business plan but rather one of mental processes where your business model canvas is none other than your mind and BOOM!! You were into business.

Two months down the road you still have to call Cousin Harry for twenty thousand for re-investment into your business. Sister Molly still bails you out on the weekly airtime for your personal phone bills not forgetting Uncle Mark who is now on your speed dial for lunch money. Why?

You did not follow principle. You played dumb to the principle of Record Keeping. You took for granted the importance of documenting your business plan so as to periodically evaluate it.

You despised how imperative it is for your drawer to contain a cash book, stock book and other essential business records. You aren’t unlucky cursed or a failure. Life simply desires that you learn what you do not know for the good of your business.

Many young people venture or even desire to venture into various businesses but often negate the importance associated with proper record keeping systems. At Kyusa, through our Business Development module, keen emphasis is placed on the essential records ought to be kept in business straight from the planning through to the implementation stages with the intention of avoiding major set- backs in businesses thus enabling them thrive.

It is unfortunate that the cycle of many young people falling prone to unsuccessful businesses due to poor record keeping systems goes on and on.

Break the cycle today, enroll for the program today.

Answering The Call To Greatness

Greatness! This is not a function of circumstance but rather a matter of conscious choice! We can become great if we are interested. Greatness is all about producing extraordinary results in all that we do. It is laying down our lives for the true cause we believe in.

The journey of greatness requires us to have the right people in our circles in addition to being humble. This is a process that calls for the “crawl, walk and run” approaches to life. It also necessitates that we move past the fear and take action.

Greatness is also motivated by deeper creative needs and yearnings for excellence; and not fear. It involves giving up something good for something better.

Having a great life also necessitates that we spend lots of our time doing the things we are passionate about. We need to majorly focus on the things we ably do better than other people even when we are not necessarily living in a great environment; all we can do is keep applying the fundamental principles that lead us to greatness.

Jim Collins in his book, Good to great; encourages us to know the right thing, have the discipline to do it and equally stop doing the wrong thing if we are to move from a mediocre life to greatness. He also says that we cannot remain laggards and hope to be great.

At Kyusa, we put great emphasis on building a culture of greatness within our staff and the change agents. We not only produce the best change agents but also work towards bringing out the best from them through our trainings and enriched curriculum. We also invest a lot in bringing them to a point where they discover their seeds of greatness that is their gifts, creative ideas and talents; and walk with them onto the journey of cultivating these seeds.

It is on this note that I encourage us to put all our efforts together towards helping the youth find their voices and encourage them to help others find theirs too.

Let’s live life to its fullest and die empty!

EUPHORIC STRETCH

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo.

We all have experienced the euphoria of a dream come true. That intense, inexplicable, feeling of sheer pleasure, that comes from the actualization of a desire.  Seeing it take tangible shape from the intangible world of thought and imagination. A castle in the air some would call it. A place many of us have gotten to and stayed. Time goes by and we still talk about it as if it happened yesterday only to realize that alas! It’s been ten years since. You have been stuck in that moment which has now become a monument. So how do we keep in this state constantly? I am glad you asked.

Dreams, desires, wishes, goals, you name it, are part of our lives (or supposed to be) whether we are conscious of them or not. We live for them. We even on occasions postpone living in the now for the then. We say things like ‘I shall be happy when …., I shall do that when …., etc. and when D day finally comes, we glory in it and many times fail to move on. The problem is not the fulfillment of the dream or goal. The problem is in failing to move on to something even more exciting. The dream becomes the ceiling instead of the foundation.

After a while, the thing we lived for is no longer as exciting anymore. We wonder why. It is because when we hit our target, we did not move the bar higher. We gloried in the accomplished task and did not stretch to another level. Celebration cannot last forever. The tide will soon ebb and the music will dull and finally stop. The antidote for this is to constantly desire higher. Raise the bar and do not limit yourself. Acquire a new zeal and become unstoppable in your quest for more, bigger, better.

Set goals and dreams that are out of this world. The kinds that make people say you are out of your mind. And yes, with such dreams, you need to be out of your mind to see their reality. Your mind is a limitation. Do not consult with it. See yourself as limitless and you will begin to attract resources that will take you to places of constant euphoria.

At Kyusa, we encourage our Change Agents to dream big and think out of the box.  If you must eat a toad, go for the juiciest of all!

Allegiance to our nation

“Working with the youth to tackle the unemployment problem in Uganda” was the theme for the Uganda national Labor Day celebrations in May 2014.

In the same month, Kyusa was officially registered with the intention of addressing the lack of economic opportunity among out of school youth, a clutch long ignored and isolated by society.

 Failure to advance with school renders one idle and can have a huge impact on their self-esteem if insufficient guidance is given. This has resulted into the increase of the prevalence of crime especially in the urban slums of around Kampala for “An idle mind is a devils workshop”

Having run our pilot class in June 2014, we are committed to empowering the out of school youth through a holistic program comprising eight modules that tackles life skills, entrepreneurship and employability skills. We turn the participant’s mind of hopelessness into the bliss of having to discover oneself and their passion and using the same passion to start up passion driven careers or even develop the competence to secure employment.

Having achieved a 35% increase in impact as compared to our 2015 annual target, the 80% employability among our program graduates gives us the honor of serving our nation through empowering young people and in turn reducing crime and increasing the country’s productivity.

Everyone is indebted to their nation! We are progressively paying our debt in the best way we know how.  We are very positive that reviewing our country’s education system at all levels by fixing life and soft skills into the curriculum will be a major step into defeating the Goliath of unemployment.

Our goal this year is to empower 200 youth with entrepreneurial, life and soft skills. We encourage you to partner with us in exercising our loyalty to our country. Contact us at Kyusa.uganda@gmal.com and together let us partake in “raising generations of change agents”.

For God and My County!

Why Goal Setting?

``A goal is an end toward which you direct specific effort, ‘according to Gary Ryan Blair in his book Goal setting 101.

According to John.C.Maxwell,90% of successful people set goals and 90% of people who feel they have failed did not set goals.’’

We simply can`t go through life without a plan. Our lives are precious and so are our resources that to get the best out of them, we must set goals. Every area of our lives deserves to be planned for in detail.

Goal setting establishes direction for our lives because it forces you to be specific. It also challenges you to grow, boost confidence, identify results and helps you organize resources. Every individual has a pool of resources that should be harnessed to get the best harvest.

Gary Ryan Blair in his book goal setting 101, talks about the ten crucial life dimensions. Our lives encompass all ten dimensions and we ought to set goals under all. The ten dimensions include personal, health, recreation, family, friends, community, career, financial, household and spiritual. Setting goals under each dimension helps you to balance out your resources and achieve more for your life.

The goals set must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bound) .A goal has to be specific, measurable, achievable,  realistic and have a time line. For example, our change agent Joan Nampijja set a goal to open an account in one of the local banks in June last year. She opened up the account in June as planned and deposits on it money from her restaurant.

Goal setting is a crucial segment at Kyusa and even staff is encouraged to set goals always. Every module taught to change agents is first taught to facilitators .They pass on what they too have experienced because experience is the best teacher.

At Kyusa we believe that journeying without SMART goals is journeying for failure and settling for mediocrity.

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

Two roads diverged in the woods. I chose the one less travelled……… (Robert Frost)

In life we are often plagued by doubts concerning what we ought to do. We are afraid of stepping out of our comfort zones. We say things like; it has never been done before, how will I be viewed, who will help me and so on and so forth.

We are comfortable in following others and not taking the lead. “you do not have to reinvent the wheel” is the famous saying. As a result we do not see any more originality but duplication. We would rather ‘improve’ on someone else’s work than come up with a totally new concept.

The road less travelled is lonely, risky, bumpy and full of challenges. It takes a rare measure of determination for one to take it. It is not for the faint hearted, the fearful or undecided.  It takes conviction and commitment to be able to travel this road. It is for those who want to stand out and not blend in. It is taken by those who know that they are called to make a difference in whatever field they are currently in.  The fuel for this journey is passion; a burning desire, that consumes your every fear and uncertainty.

Great innovators that history boasts of today were men and women of passion, these people were not afraid to be different. They faced criticism and some were ostracized from society. This did not deter them. If anything, their rejection was their determination. Their motivation was not based on people’s approval. It was intrinsic. They lived the principle of ‘begin with the end in mind’. The joy that was set before them was greater than the persecution they faced. They chose the road less travelled and left an indelible mark because of their tenacity.

I challenge you today to follow your passion and take the lead.  Do not settle for the comfort zone and neither should you blend in. There is a whole world out there waiting to be discovered and explored. Stand out-DARE TO BE DIFFERENT.

At Kyusa, we empower a passion driven generation that will be change agents wherever they go. We do not give you passion but help you identify your passion and encourage you to put it to constructive use so as to better your life and the community around you. 

…..and that made all the difference.

You Owe It To Yourself

“Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.”

Lao Tzu.

The beginning of maturity is to realize that there is no one coming to the rescue. Everything you can be is entirely up to you. As time shifts, you notice that all your decisions and actions sum up to your current life. Where you want to be in future is usually determined by what things you do in the present. Therefore you need to pick yourself up and start making things happen.

You must start making serious decisions about where you want to go as a youth and endeavor to go through the necessary process to get there. You need to appreciate yourself as a resourceful person by viewing yourself according to who you are and not what you do. Quit defining yourself in accordance to your job and start selling who you are. You have skills to be discovered, books yet to be written, songs yet to be sung and talents yet to be displayed.

All of us have been put in this world to serve our best to other people through our special gifting. Therefore, you need to have full control over yourself in order to realize your purpose –that is self management. Self management is a critical module in the Kyusa curriculum.

Meir Liraz encourages people to learn to accept total responsibility for their lives. You need to constantly evaluate yourself and keep focused by doing one thing at a time. You also need to be kind to yourself and appreciate yourself when you achieve a set goal. Setting time limits for all you are meant to do is vital. Endeavor to do more in less time since,” he who kills time buries opportunities!”

Finally, you need to concentrate more on positive thoughts, master the habit of studying, journaling and avoid making excuses. Bill Hybels encourages you to,”Examine yourself and your life then change whatever you can change that will lighten your load and help you prevail in your calling.”

We therefore implore you to partner with Kyusa in ensuring that generations of change agents are raised who are self aware and have control over themselves.

Why Youth in Africa should become entrepreneurs?

Africa is increasingly taking its place on the global stage as a continent of growth and opportunity. Yet critical challenges remain, particularly the need to create a significant number of jobs for the continent’s booming population, and the need to build a cadre of home-grown business leaders able to access global markets and drive growth in a sustainable and inclusive manner. For this reason, African entrepreneurship is central to Africa’s future prosperity. The biggest business opportunities in the coming decade will be created by Africans who start businesses, generate jobs and wealth, and capture growth opportunities.

Considering the depressed state of the formal job market in Africa, it’s a good thing that more and more youth in Sub-Saharan Africa are looking to entrepreneurship to secure their future.  

 The education system that we have encourages students to become job seekers instead of job creators thus hindering youths from realizing their full potential. Even those who have not gone to school would prefer to get employed than to start their own businesses. Most of those who start their own businesses do so out of necessity. I believe that our attention should be on sustainability of entrepreneurship projects because entrepreneurship is a silver bullet to our unemployment challenges.

Why youth should become entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurs are innovators. Think of all the new technology and ideas that have come to life over the past few years. Those were all once just an idea but amazing entrepreneurs brought those ideas to life.

You have the opportunity to change lives. Have an idea for a product or service that has the potential to make a huge impact? Go for it ,nothing is stopping you!

You serve as a role model. As an entrepreneur, people will look up to you. You have the ability to be a role model to family, friends, employees and community members. Your success serves as motivation and inspiration.

Your mind will always be utilized. Every single decision that involves your business is your responsibility, from the initial concept to the broader growth of the business.

You never feel undervalued. If you have ideas to make the business better; you can implement them right away. You don’t have to hope that someone in a higher position will give you the time of day and listen to your suggestions.

Opportunity to give back. Owning a business gives you the opportunity to support local charity events, local schools and nonprofit organizations. Being able to make a difference in your community is a great feeling.

Partner with us at Kyusa as we train, inspire and empower youth to become entrepreneurs as a way of gearing them towards becoming key players in the African economy.