Mtendere Library

15/01/2021

*Girls Club*
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From the initiative of Ms. Clara, a girls club was created at Mtendere Library to mentor teenage girls, and generally youthful girls, about life skills that can make them healthy and successful members of society.

Educating girls, especially, in remote areas where there is little access to civic education and information resources to make girls know what's best for them is critical. Ms. Clara and her colleagues have taken the matter into their hands to mentor young girls on topics ranging from personal hygiene, how to be successful in school, and how to grow as leaders and good citizens in society.

With a membership of approximately 15 girls, mostly of high school level, the group has been meeting every week. The group became active in August 2020, but when high-school terms began in October 2020, gathering the group members started becoming a challenge.

Hopefully, 2021 is the year to reach out to even more! We are proud of what Ms. Clara and her colleagues have done!

When the pictures when taken, the topics of the day were;
(a) The importance of girls' education and factors that are affecting girls' education.
(b) Menstrual hygiene management and health.

29/07/2020

"Hello, l am Limbani Gondwe, a fourth-year student at Catholic University of Malawi. Am doing a bachelor of social science (Economics) degree. When l was two months away from completing my fourth-year first semester, schools were closed due to COVID-19. Our school opted for an e-learning system, fortunately. In the same month, we moved into our house which is 10 minutes away from your library. I am one of the people who are been helped heavily by this library. I would like to thank you for bringing such a wonderful and helpful development into existence. I think Malawi needs more people with a beautiful mind like yours. I also appreciate that your people (Mr. SOKO and that Liberian lady) welcomed me with a warm heart (they are good people)." Limbani.

It has been an honor to see Mtendere Library helpful to the youth like Limbani. Constant learners are the type of leaders the next generation needs! Wishing you an amazing academic journey going forward, Limbani. 📖🤩

15/07/2020

The youth need to be at the epicenter of entrepreneurship as technology keeps progressing. The growth of technology comes with higher rates of automation and global collaboration. If the youth are not properly trained, most of them may have worse employment environments in the future, than the one that exists in this day and age. As 3D printing capabilities are increasing, as most activities tech-aided, the workplaces are cutting employment numbers, while the global population is increasing.

Properly equipping youths with skills can make them enjoy technology growth, rather than despise it. After the year 2020, many businesses and jobs will never go back to the old ways of operation. The dependency on technology has increased, and so should the tech knowledge among youth increase. Thankfully most cities have shown so much progress in embracing innovations in various critical sectors like ICT, health, agriculture, and education. Innovation hubs have greatly contributed to that trend. Below are some of the amazing accomplishments in Africa.

Joel Mwale, a Kenyan young entrepreneur who founded skydrop, purified water company, at 20 years old. And currently, Joel is starting Gigavia, an online platform to enhance higher education. Gigavia already has a $1M from an investor, and 13 Universities across multiple countries are on the platform. Each university shall be charged $1 per student.

Another amazing young entrepreneur is Farai Gundan, a Zimbabwean young media personality who founded Farai Media and co-founded AfricaTripDeals, a global distribution system to encourage traveling to Africa.

The youth should keep pushing boundaries. Read broadly, be innovative, and love entrepreneurship.

Skills for a resilient Youth!
July 15!
Happy World Youth Skills Day!!!

Image credit: sugga's industries international

11/07/2020

“Did you know? Globally, one in five young people is NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training). Three out of four young NEETs are girls.” (UN, 2020)

2020 should be a year to create awareness of the importance of equipping young people with professional training, and entrepreneurship skills, especially young women. Africa, to be specific, has faced one of the hardest punches of global lockdowns because any sort of education or training young people were going through had to be paused. While other parts of the world where internet distribution is high continue finding alternatives for keeping education and training progress, most Sub-Saharan countries just send the youth into their respective homes without alternative means of progressing school.

Sadly, girls have become the major victim of the lockdowns. In Kenya for example, reports say that there is increasing cases of domestic abuse, and an alarming increase of unintended pregnancies of girls between 15 and 19 years old. And the general tendencies of young pregnant girls is that they drop out of school, and get married.

Keeping the youth, especially teenage girls, academically active is what is necessary for going forward in 2020. Some local communities have found means of keeping the youth academically engaged, even when schools are closed. For those who can access the internet, the transition has been relatively easier. However, for the majority, who can’t access the internet, there are radio and TV programs for class lessons.

In places where there are community libraries, which are allowed to operate, the youth have demonstrated interest in keeping up with academic progress while keeping themselves safe.

In Malawi, for example, schools are closed but libraries are still in operation. So Mtendere Library, as a non-profit community library has been receiving consistent organized groups of girls, who walk long distances, just to access the library services. Another group of 27 girls between the ages of 8-14 have been taking 40 min walks with the librarian, from her home area to the library, and back. This internal drive to pursue education is what makes the young girls, and youths in general, learn how to make bold decisions for themselves and their respective futures.

Reducing the number of young NEETs will also generate a lot of entrepreneurial youth.

Skills for a resilient Youth!

10/07/2020

Entrepreneurship is a basic tool that every youth needs when their academic journey or career path is uncertain.

Most students, especially those from poor economic backgrounds, struggle monetarily to stick on the academic journey. Some struggles include finding money to; process university applications, getting transportation to a resource center, or covering upkeep costs.

Here is a tool you can use to face such circumstances: small scale business.

Start a business, especially a food business because it is always running consistently. Learn how to make meat pies, samosa, fritters, or meatballs. Find a local person, friend, or a market lady to teach you (probably for a small fee), or else learn from a youtube video [You can learn a lot from Youtube!]. After that, start dropping them at nearby shops at a wholesale price so that the shops can sell your product, and take a percentage profit out of it. Start with 10 or 20 of them. If you give a shop the product at $0.8, they may sell it at $1.

If you’re not a very busy person [or not shy doing business], you can even retail the products by yourself. Walk door to door in a business center, like in town. You’ll be surprised that business people are the best customers! You may not need to sell openly like a street vendor, because it’s illegal in most places. Cover your product well, and only open it when you’re inside a customer’s office or shop. And, look descent! Be formal, meaning, be in your business casual attire, whether you’re a retailer or wholesaler.

To guarantee the success of the product, do a good research of prices, so that you don’t sell too expensive (which may chase away customers), or too cheap (which may hurt your profits). To get the price right, go around shops and compare prices with comparable products. If I am making samosa, I should compare it with how much others sell samosa. If the quality of your product is a little lower than comparable goods, just sell a little cheaper [It doesn’t hurt in the long run].

Other great products to give you quick cash are honey, clothes, and fruits. If the customer is willing to know you better, feel free to explain why you’re doing the business. Even after a degree, if you don’t have any ways to get money, do a small scale business. It’s way better than begging, and you learn vital business lessons from it.

This excerpt is built on my experience. Don’t feel shy doing business, feel proud!

Skills for a resilient Youth!

image credit: NCR Global

08/07/2020

Ever heard of a ‘Boy who harnessed the Wind’.

At the age of 14, a boy named William Kamkwamba was able to build an electricity-generating windmill from scraps of bicycles, blue gum trees, and other items from scrap yards, after reading about it in a book titled Using Energy. He was from a rural village, Wimbe, in Kasungu District, Malawi where little materials in the book could not be at his disposal so he had to find spare parts and scrap materials to use as substitutes. By then, 2001, in the midst of national wide drought and famine, William was able to build a windmill, and used it to pump water to irrigate his family’s farm, and power light bulbs in his home, and charge phones.

Thanks to the invention, he got world recognition and got a scholarship to African Leadership Academy, and later Dartmouth College.

William’s story is a testament that there is an urgent need for youth innovation in Africa. Africa is the youngest continent, and that youthful energy needs to be reflected in innovative designs in various fields like tech, marketing processes, governing et c.

You can watch William Kamkwamba Tedtalks using url links below:
https://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind -321090
https://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_built_a_windmill -234875

Skills for a resilient Youth!

When he was just 14 years old, Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba built his family an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working from rough plans he found in a library book.

06/07/2020

Did you know: There's a day designated by the UN to encourage the youth to celebrate their academic, technical, and entrepreneurial skills. That day is called the World Youth Skills Day, and it is on July 15.

World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) was set after observing how the youth face so much unemployment and under-employment across the globe. Africa, whose majority population is Under 24 years of age, unemployment combined with poor academic resources hits the African youth the hardest.

More than any year, 2020, should be the year to strongly commemorate this day. According to UNESCO, more than 70% of youths have been affected by school closure, due to COVID-19. Obviously, Africa, with the least distribution of the internet, school closure has forced many students into their homes without alternatives to progress their academic schedule.

This 5-day post series is going to put out positive stories of various youth’s abilities in order to encourage the youth around the globe to remain positive, and learn about their fellow youth who were successful by demonstrating curiosity, persistence, determination, and entrepreneurship, even in unfavorable social-economic environments.

Skills for a resilient Youth!

18/05/2020

Mtendere Library just won a grant. A $1,500 prize! We hope that helps us offer the best service to the community. Mtendere Library hopes to use the grant to start a printing press business, as a means to keep the Library financially Sustainable. To be specific, the Library aims to pay the librarians directly from the library account without the intervention of donors.

Growth is gradual. grow with us. Just read a book 📖per month. ✌️

29/04/2020

Than any other time in history, online schooling has been proven as the critical cornerstone of global education. Students from all over the world are engaged in all types and sizes of classrooms, while they are in their homes, and their lecturers don't have to strain their voices to be heard.

As this dimension of education is even getting stronger (by improving interaction and reducing internet glitches), it is becoming obvious that even when the world returns to normal, online education will remain powerful, and capable of resolving some challenges that in-person education can't, like instant global connection.

However, it is saddening that, with the current global pandemic, there are millions of kids, the youth, and people in general, who can't access school anymore, till further notice. Some don't even know that their colleagues around the globe did not go for a break because of a pandemic. For their colleagues, what changed is a classroom, but the syllabus, school calendar, lectures, and lecturers are still intact.

It's unfortunate that this has just been another component of education that can only be accessed based on the merit of geographic location, and economic background.

It's gradual, but we, as Mtedere Library, hope internet, computers, and computer literacy can reach everyone.

Malawi, as a place where Mtendere Library operates, our vision is to contribute to computer literacy, which is a critical basis of increasing the reach of online education in Malawi.