MYSA Leader Level 1 refresher course was a great learning experience not only for the participants but also to the facilitators ‘’I may term it as peer learning “since the Leader Level 1’s reflected about who they are and what they want to be, identifying their strength and weakness in terms of implementing Kicking AIDS Out activities in different levels and developing their personal skills.
The support and mentorship from the Leader Level 2’s clearly demonstrated the passion, enthusiasm and commitment that the Leader Level 2’s has, not only to develop skills of the LL1’s as their mentors but also in seeing the growth of Kicking AIDS Out Network in changing lives of young people within our communities through sports.
Personal development cannot be measured in words but rather through learning experience: Dancan Otieno is a young boy who grew up in one of the slums in Nairobi, he has been active in football since he was 12 years old and had an opportunity to travel to Norway to participate in one of the largest youth tournament in the world ‘’NORWAY CUP” with MYSA in 2007.When he came back from Norway, he was seen as a role model by his peers and most of the young boys from his community emulated him. These gave him courage to talk to his team mates not only about football but also about social life. The potential that Dancan had did not went unnoticed since he was identified as one of the potential leader from his zone, in Mathare to be trained as a Peer leader. His passion did not stop after he was trained as a Peer leader but rather got motivated by the training which he felt was an eye opener for him to develop his life skills apart from sport skills.
In June 2009, Dancan was one of the participants who was trained as Leader level 1 after he successfully completed his post workshop activity as a Peer leader. He implemented Kicking AIDS Out activities effectively within his region (Zone). Four months later he was selected to represent MYSA in Leader Level 2 workshop in Johannesburg South Africa. “Age aint nothing but a number” these were his words when he came back from Johannesburg, encouraging his peers to take challenge in life no matter how difficult it might be irrespective of gender or age. He has also been on the fore front in leading discussions and guiding his peers in making informed choices in life. This was Dancans experience, which he shared with the Leader level 1’s during the exercise we did on mapping the gaps in the training. An experience which inspired many participants not by what Dancan has achieved but rather reflecting on the long journey that he has gone through.
Each and every new experience that he went through motivated him to tackle the challenges positively. Today Dancan has transformed from a boy to a man not only physically but emotionally and psychologically too. Dancan will be travelling to USA in mid- February for further studies.
“I must confess that this could have not been easy for me if I couldn’t have gotten support from Edwin Wasonga (MYSA Leader Level 2) who is my mentor. Because of him I have now enhanced my esteem and developed my life skills to a different level” Quote from Dancan
Leaders are not born but mentored; we can all mentor our players and coaches to take leadership role today and not tomorrow.