We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.
Michelle Obama
Chidi has been working hard with her youth club for quite a while. Many people in the community know about her efforts and the good her work is doing for young women. One day after the activity, Ado, one of the girls’ brothers, approaches her with a proposal. He would bring Chidi ingredients from the supermarket where he works at half price so long as she would not ask for a receipt. In this way, she would have more ingredients for the cookery classes. The young women participating overhear and think it is a good idea.
Chidi thinks long and hard about this. She could do with the ingredients, but what does this teach the girls about theft and corruption?
Most youth workers, like Chidi, work with young people to positively impact their lives. Sometimes we find ourselves working on addressing complex challenges and might be tempted to find shortcuts so that we can simply deliver the youth activity that we see young people so desperately need.
We lead by example as women leading youth activities to transform young women’s lives for the better. Youth workers should be role models and the girls see what we do. Our greatest goal – often even bigger than our earlier aims – is to create a just world where these girls can thrive.
In this section, we will consider how we can model the world we want to see through our youth clubs and demonstrate that our projects are worth investing in.
Reflection Questions
- What would you do if you were the youth worker in Chidi’s situation?
- Is there anything your youth organisation does that you think contradicts your aims?
- Do outsiders see that you are living your mission? How does this affect how they value your youth club and work?