“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.”
Chimamanda Adozie Adichie
Mentoring is a sustained and trusting relationship where an experienced person (the mentor) helps another person (the mentee) to achieve their life goals. In our context, the mentor is a youth worker who provides guidance, support and encouragement to bring out the best in the mentee (a student/young person) and help her grow and develop her character.
Mentoring is closely related to my organisation’s mission statement: what is the mission of my organisation and how does mentoring lead to its fulfilment?
Most young women have experienced some childhood adversity, this can affect their executive functions i.e. their ability to set goals, identify how to achieve them, and turn this into action. However, they can be helped to acquire and develop these skills through mentoring. EMPath has played an important role in Project GROW partners’ deeper understanding of the Mentoring relationship and its essential elements, some of which have been shared in this guide. Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath) is a nonprofit that transforms people’s lives by helping them move out of poverty and provides other institutions with the tools to systematically do the same (https://www.empathways.org/approach/mobility-mentoring).
Reflection Questions
- If you are a mentor what has been good or bad about this experience?
- What support and guidance do you wish you had had as a mentor?
- If you had a mentor (formally or informally) growing up, what was good about this experience? What would you have changed?
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