It has been our experience that children gravitate towards emulating and listening to older siblings over parent and other authority figures. The Kids Mentorship Programme is based on this simple premise, the goal is to capitalize on this natural propensity by assigning willing and committed young volunteers with the requisite skills, academic qualifications and interest to interact with children educating them on pressing issues relating to their physical, academic and psychological welfare.
Our interest is centred on one thing: to provide the requisite support children need to maximize their individual potential in order to actualize their destiny as leaders of tomorrow who inspire positive change.
Intended engagement centres are public, government financed and local schools catering to our target demographic 6 to 17-year-old children. Teams will have three primary segments all of which must be interactive in each colloquy
In this segment facilitators educate children on their rights, the importance of these right to both them and the world in general and how these rights can be abused. It is important that in this segment facilitators explain in the plainest terms possible the scope of these rights, the limitations that can be encountered in their ability to fully enjoy these rights (e.g. poverty) and how children owe it to other children to uphold each other’s rights (e.g. how bullying is an infringement on those rights etc.)
Providing vital information regarding available resources to meet their needs, including education, health and other support services
Providing food, clothing, hygiene products, blankets and other comfort items.
Harm reduction counseling to address the risk associated with street life.
The second segment is focused on character development and morale building, here the facilitator gives a lecture on whatever topic has been chosen in other to build necessary character skills in the children, the topic should cover the following key areas:
In this segment however, it is important for facilitators to adopt a topic that speaks to the unique needs of the environment the children inhabit, in order to maximize the impact of the information. Facilitators should draw on personal experiences in explanations, add age appropriate anecdotes and be cognizant of the reactions of your audience to the talk. Build on what they respond to, you don’t want to lose your audience half way into your talk, children have short attention spans, so keep it upbeat, interesting and as short as possible without compromising on quality delivery.
Now in this segment let the children ask any questions they have on their mind. It would be good to say any question relating to what you have spoken on but after that open the floor to ALL questions, if it is on their mind let them ask it. This is the aim of this program, to help them and limiting the scope of that help defeats the purpose, any obstacles they face, points that they are not clear on, personal challenges whatsoever let them throw their questions to the members of the team. For matters of a more personal nature team members will be available for a few minutes after the close of event to answer those queries. It is for this purpose that each team should consist of an average of 5 volunteers, proffering a pool of experience and knowledge to better cover the scope of the questions.
