As Education Minister Mutula was adamant on banning tuition classes for primary and secondary students, Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) took advantage of the opportunity to organise a mentorship program for teenagers in an attempt to give the youngsters a sneak preview on Uni life.
The mentorship program dubbed ‘youth summit’ was attended by students in class four to form four who were home for the August holiday. The students filled CUEA’s Missio Hall to the brim.
“This is the first forum of its kind and the attendance was overwhelming. More than 800 teenagers attended the youth summit,” said Pauline Agondoa, the Chief coordinator of the event.
The participants were taken through sessions on how to set and achieve goals in life, self awareness and issues of sexuality among other topics.
“Our aim is to interact with the youth, encourage them to be open and speak about the issues that they would otherwise not tell their parents. Its better they speak about those issues in a forum like this rather than talk to their peers who can mislead them”, she added.
Mrs. Agondoa, who is one of the administrative staff at the university, went on to explain that the young men and women funded the event by themselves.
“You know, people think that there is an NGO behind these kinds of events. But all the participants needed to do is to pay Ksh500 that would cater for their lunch and pay the facilitators.”
The level of organisation was also astounding. The teenagers were grouped in different halls according to the class their are in. “For the young ones in class 4-5 and 6-7, we felt that they needed to be separated from those in class 8 to form four,” said Mrs. Agondoa
“I really enjoyed attending the summit and learned a lot about how I can pursue my goals and other stuff,” said Brian Kyengo, one of the students who attended the youth summit.
“I was very encouraged by the speakers to go for what I want in life and achieve it,”said Beryl, another student and participant in the event.
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