Youth empowering youth: take responsibility

Youth Empowering Youth (YEY) is a leadership training program we carry out for children between 13 to 18 years of age which was introduced to our organization in 2021 by Low Entropy, a Canadian NGO based in British Columbia. Dufatanye Organization started this program at our training center in Nyanza district and plans to extend it to other sectors and beyond.

This program implements one session every Saturday for 9 weeks and these sessions include: Ripple effect, Attitudes creates your life, The moment you stop blaming, take action with small steps, drive your life with powerful Habits, Be a student of life, Momentum is your responsibility and then next steps.

These sessions guide the youth of the importance of planning, effects of excuses, stages of life, talents, motivation, effects of attitudes, dreams, goals, failure, teamwork, success, behavior change, life opportunities and choosing friends. This training is aimed at problem solving in all spheres of life.

The introduction of YEY program to Rwandan youth came at a time where the youth worldwide are being negatively influenced by popular culture of drug addiction, school dropout and crime. It is important for us to educate them so that they become positive pillars of change among their peers and in their communities.

Youth have a role to renew and refresh the current status of our society including leadership, innovations, skills etc. Youth are prone to societal pressures and they are also catalysts of finding solutions to these challenges. Empowered youth are expected to advance the current technology, education, politics, and peace of the country.

Here, the youth are given opportunities to discuss their views, learn from others and from their individual personal stories told during the lesson facilitation to enable them to change their attitude and we do follow up by visiting them in their communities to assess the lessons’ implementation and impact in their lives.

In a nutshell, this training honors the voices of the youths and validates their experiences, through informal discussions, asking open-ended questions, working on problem-solving case studies, and sharing ideas while building on learning experiences together.

Therefore, empowering, strengthening, and including young people in decision-making processes will lead to higher academic performance, reduce unemployment, and create more socially conscious entrepreneurs. This will lead to a better society, a better country, a better world. It’s of great importance to include youth.