Youth Empowerment

The Brave Girl Initiative collaborated with the iBoost Foundation on an event to empower students doing Form 5. The event was held at the Free Evangelical Church found in Ngwane Park, Manzini. After the sudden announcement was made by the Ministry of Education that all Form 5 (Grade 12) students would be retaking their examinations, waves of anxiety overcame the students since they had already finished their entire examination. The two organizations, saw the need to band together and have an empowerment session with all the students to encourage their to press on and more importantly give counsel to some of their questions and concerns about what this means for them and what it has done to them mentally.

Representing The Brave Girl Initiative, our afterschool program coordinator, Nokwanda, had the privilege of sharing her experiences, from high school all the way to college. One topic that stood out to the students was the issue of perseverance and not comparing your life to someone else. Nokwanda shared about finishing high school, and all her friends got into colleges whereas she had to take the longer road getting there. Things just weren’t panning out. But if she had focused on what other people were doing she wouldn’t have be where she is today.

We went on to discuss what causes barriers between a student and his/her future, and the participants assisted in listing factors including peer pressure, lack of funds, etc. One of the students pointed out that some learners tried to convince him not to study because their future was already ruined. His friends told him that there was no way he could study for an entire examination in just a few days. Talking to each other like this caused a lot of act rendered the anxiety and feelings of hopelessness. Our advisors then proceeded to discuss with the students what to do when he/she feels the walls closing in. We discussed breathing techniques, journaling, and gave resources for counselors they could reach out to for help. We decided to remind them that they have visions and dreams for their future, so we asked each of them to share what career paths they wish to pursue after the results come out. Most of them want to travel overseas to do medicine. As reference to her presentation of being patient and working hard, she used the story of King Saul in the bible as her analogy, whom in a moment of impatience and ignorance he lost all his blessings.

The idea was to encourage the learners to not focus on the outside noise but rather on the future they dream of having because it’s still there just that life is a series of changes and you have to be flexible with each change and fight for your dreams. We ended the last hour of the day with the organizers doing one on one counselling sessions with every learner who was present. Learners were mentally renewed and ready for their examination papers on Monday because of this quick thinking of two organizations who have a heart for the youth in Eswatini.