Mentorship for students in and out of school has been described as the best remedy for better performance in the lives of young people. This is according to leaders of Youth Empowerment and Support Initiative (YESI Malawi) who had involved secondary school-going students and recent university graduates in a mentorship and career clinic in Salima.

The event which called for participation from over 30 youths was aimed at drilling them in academic excellence, resisting negative peer pressure, setting smart goals and the importance of volunteerism among others.

After the successful sessions at Msalura Community Day Secondary School (CDSS) in the heart of the lakeshore district, Team Leader for YESI Malawi, Samuel Malasa Banda narrated that getting the young people together was an exciting and fruitful experience.

“We believe in empowering youths to give back to the community they live in and mentoring them is one of the best ways we have realized to be relevant to unleashing the potential they have.

“The team of mentors we built has been of great help to them just like the other times we have been engaging with secondary school students in the past,” added Malasa Banda.

YESI Malawi, formerly called Education Support Initiative, has so far provided mentorship to secondary school students in 10 secondary schools in Salima along with its team of mentors who are graduates and students from several local universities.

Participants take a group photo at the end of the session.

One of the young people who attended the Msalura CDSS session, Stanley Chawinga, said that the sessions, particularly those involving volunteerism opened his mind wider and gave him the enthusiasm to do more with his life after college.

“I have been home for a while after graduating but can’t find a proper job and all along I have been thinking volunteerism is a waste of time. I will have to manage my time well and reshape my goals to be smart for me to achieve them and be happy,” explained Chawinga.

He has since implored on fellow youths to desist from staying idle pointing out that their future is in their hands and must strive to realize it.

YESI was founded by like-minded young people in 2017 and apart from mentoring students, it also sources tuition sponsorship for underprivileged secondary school students as it works in other sectors like environment and climate change, health, ICT and information literacy among other ventures.