Mentoring Zimbabwe

February 4, 2012

As you celebrate your accomplishments after the release of the O Level and A Level exam results, or even if you need to make up for it, the next step of your journey might be to consider your life and career path.

A group of young people have stepped out to mentor young Zimbabweans, driving an in-school and community mentor programme for students under the Mentor Zimbabwe Association.

Mentoring Zimbabwe is chaired by Harare City Junior Alderman Lungani Zwangobani whose mission is to create a community where youth and children participate in defining their personal, educational and professional goals and achieve them through life changing programmes, projects, one-on-one and group mentoring, networking and other activities provided in part, by mentors who hold positions of leadership in business, government, educational institutions and communities.

Some of the reasons young people fail to make decisions about their lives is because of a lack of guidance or exposure to available options.

The family unit cannot be the sole guardian. As young people there is a tendency to listen to our peers and those that have gone through the same experiences.

This is valuable if it is constructive guidance.

What more when young people are also mentored by other youth and those that have already excelled in their fields of expertise? Zimbabwean youth can gain more from learning about and emulating what successful people do.

According to Eric Parsloe of The Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring, mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.

Through Mentoring Zimbabwe young people will have the opportunity of having a mentor who will provide a sense of belonging, guidance in reaching ones full potential and leadership for the future.

This will be done by working with various youth stakeholders, mentors and those in the corporate world. Guidance will be given to all children, from the girl child, to those living in the street. This guidance will also include vocational and life skills lessons for the individual.

Mentoring Zimbabwe has also hosted a social/career expo which took place at Africa Unity Square on October 1 last year, with the aim of building the type of community desired by the citizens of Harare.

Students had the opportunity to get an insight into post-school opportunities, employment and the social environment of health, relationships and politics.

Our hope is to transform our immediate communities into world-class model societies of envy, Zwangobani said.

For young people in business, Mentoring Zimbabwe has so far held a business breakfast meeting, bringing young people together to share information as well as to create opportunities in business by engaging local and national authorities to address the plight of youth.

Essentially Mentoring Zimbabwe seeks to help society by committing time rather than limiting it to resource provision.

When you look up to someone, that person becomes your role model. Who would you like to shape you today?