Kenya Connect Mentorship Program
Kenya Field Director James Musyoka with Advocates for Children leaders
at the University of Maryland.
The Mentorship Program was inspired by these UM students.
Education is an essential building block in the life formation of a child. Many children within Kenya Connect enrolled schools face many challenges including severe poverty, loss of one or both parents, and a lack of emotional support. These challenges can result in low self-esteem, a sense of hopelessness and a feeling that continuing their education is pointless. A mentor can provide invaluable guidance and encouragement to such children to enable them continue in their education.
Mission Statement
To remodel the educational goals among the venerable children in the society providing a personalized one to one mentorship.
OBJECTIVES
- To provide psychosocial support to needy children who could benefit from the involvement of a mentor in his or her life.
- To foster a sense of self-worth and esteem among young children.
- To provide leadership opportunities for mentors to be involved in guiding and giving hope and encouragement to disadvantaged children.
- To provide mentors with an opportunity to be actively involved in educating the young through pen pal letter exchange
CHILD’S PROFILE
Kenya Connect will identify a young needy child preferably in fourth grade or older. The mentor will receive a profile on the child’s family background. The brief profile narrative will include a photo as well as info on the following:
- Date of birth and current age.
- Parental status.
- Location of the child home - Country, province, district, village
- Languages spoken
- No of siblings
- Child’s hobbies.
- Future career aspirations.
- Favorite food
CHILD’S LETTER
Each of the children to be mentored will write a personal introductory letter to their mentors expressing about themselves. They can also make drawings. Subsequently they will continue letter exchange to their mentors updating them about their progress in school. A child can send letters on quarterly basis i.e. 4 letters per year.
ROLE OF THE MENTOR
We recommend that mentors should be students in high school or college students.
The mentor may have a choice to decide the gender of the child they will want to mentor otherwise in absence of a special request, Kenya Connect will provide a child of any gender.
The mentor will be required to:
- Help to identify their children’s talents through letter exchange and encourage as well as motivate them to develop their potentials by offering advice on how they can actualize them in life.
- Reply their children letters and whenever necessary correct any spelling and grammatical mistakes.
To Get Started:
Contact Kenya Connect at kenyaconnect@comcast.net
Write “Mentorship Request” in the subject line. In the body of your letter please include:
Name, Age & Gender
Mailing Address – this is important, as the children in Kenya do not have access to email
Any special requests regarding the age or gender of the child you wish to mentor.