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Name | Nondumiso |
Surname | Maseko |
Country | Swaziland |
Give a short history of the leader | After graduating in 2016, like every other graduate, i joined in job hunting and was excited to start working. The job industry proved to be more cruel than I thought though because a year later, I was still at home. While still at university, I had started doing business plans for my friends who needed them (skill learnt from one of my courses). So when i couldn’t find a job, I started telling people about what I do and asked for referrals. While still doing that, I stumbled upon a job opportunity at a Transport company, which I took with both hands because I was still hoping for employment although my freelance business was doing well. I got this job through my consulting business, I was helping the said company recover from some marketing problems. I was the only women at work, working with men in the public transport industry and also men working at a block-yard, which were all businesses under the company I was working for. The treatment was not bad at work, but it was all based from the fact that I am a woman, and the only woman around. I remember even my employer had mentioned, before hiring me, that they were looking to hire a man but he believed I was the right person to help them out of their challenges. I had to prove myself, that I can do the work just like a man can, everyday. I had to speak twice as loud for my voice to be heard, or even be acted upon. I left that job because of the unfavorable working conditions and went back to working on my business full-time. I now encourage other young women to consider self-employment for that sense of self-worth. |
Objectives | My mission statement is to use my experiences to motivate other young people to consider starting business, and help them through the process. I want to encourage them to look around them and see the vast opportunities we have to develop ourselves, and consequently, our communities because I believe that the national development goals begin with an individual. A personally developed person is better equipped to help develop the nation. |
Key activities | I am a start-up business consultant. What I do is motivate young people to consider entrepreneurship, either as a main source of income or a side source of income. I then help them get their businesses started, primarily in doing the required researches on how they can best penetrate their industry of choice and also to securing funding for them by providing proper business plans and proposals, and also help them get registered. I work with a number of other consultants who provide the services that I cannot do, so that I can refer my clients to someone i know will do a good job, including graphic designers, and other virtual services needed in a business. Once the businesses are up and running, i still hang around to offer some advice here and there, but other specialists then take over. |
Key challenges | The main challenge is that most young people are not motivated enough to consider entrepreneurship, and the few that is interested do not want to do it in a profitable way. As I always put it “they think that the world owes them something; it owes them a good job after graduation”. An even worse case is those who are less educated, they always look down upon themselves and are okay with being abused in exchange for money. but I do believe that they will change, one person at a time. |
Results |
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Change at the individual level | This job have helped my confidence level a lot. Before I could promise people to help them, I had to help myself first. I had to be confident in myself first, before I could be confident in my work leaving an impression where it went to pave way for my clients. I had to be in a good place as an entrepreneur before I could tell others about it. I believe that that is what is affording me the honor of being featured in places my resume really couldn’t take me. |
Evidence of change at the individual level | Entrepreneurship have boosted my confidence a lot. I believe that my |
Change at the household level | I grew up in a rural background where only a few jobs were understood, especially for women. Every other job, always received a blank stare as if they are wondering who will want to marry you with an office job. It is understandable because an office job was somehow seen as superior than other jobs, and no man would want marry a woman with such a job because of various reasons. Defying the odds even more by choosing a business of my kind and not limiting myself because I hope to get married have been a learning curve for them. |
Evidence of change at the household level | Since starting out as an entrepreneur after graduation, my family and peers realized that there is life outside employment. Getting married to a working husband, or giving sexual favors in exchange for money are not the only ways out of scarcity of jobs, there is another more gratifying way; employing yourself. And also, do not limit yourself to a template of life set for you by someone else, because women cannot just live successful lives outside of marriage; they can thrive, so do not limit yourself so that you can be enough for a man. |
Change at institutional level | Entrepreneurship gave my voice some kind of influence. I believe that it being coupled with the fact that I am a young woman has made me to be considered as an influence to other young people and have seen me being elected as a youth leader in my church, the Church of God Of Prophecy, not just for spiritual purposes, but because the youth in church need to be equally motivated in other life matters including their professional and social lives. I am also the youth advisor in Mankayane town where I work with the youth, and also represent them in community/town activities. I believe that this is all because I work hard as a young person, and also work hard for the next young person, especially women, to not be left behind in the town’s fight against poverty strategies, fight against gender-based violence and other cross-cutting issues. |
Evidence of change at institutional level | Entrepreneurship gave my voice some kind of influence. I believe that it being coupled with the fact that I am a young woman has made me to be considered as an influence to other young people and have seen me being elected as a youth leader in my church, the Church of God Of Prophecy, not just for spiritual purposes, but because the youth in church need to be equally motivated in other life matters including their professional and social lives. I am also the youth advisor in Mankayane town where I work with the youth, and also represent them in community/town activities. I believe that this is all because I work hard as a young person, and also work hard for the next young person, especially women, to not be left behind in the town’s fight against poverty strategies, fight against gender-based violence and other cross-cutting issues. |
Change at a policy level | The importance of not leaving young people out in developmental issues still remains a priority to the community leaders, because of young people like myself , who continually makes the effort to represent the youth well in local government activities. It inspires them to always consider the youth and women in developmental issues. Also, giving out a platform to young people, and supporting them to have youth clubs and cooperatives to improve the livelihoods of young people in the community have improved impressively. Even business opportunities spotted around our community are communicated to the youth because they are the first preference as they still have the energy and determination, and with the right support, also have the means to run businesses successfully and decreasing the unemployment rate. |
Evidence of change at a policy level | A group of young people is always invited in town board reports and budget meetings, to hear out our contributions. We are also given the opportunity to drive change in the town, in December 2018, for example, we were given the opportunity to host a flea market which was done successfully, and we’re looking into doing more locally and nationally recognized events to market the town. We were also encouraged to form a youth cooperative, we have already been trained on how to go about that, and although it is taking longer than expected to get it off the ground, I believe that it will be success. And this is all because of youth-inclusive policies by our local government. |
Capacity building | In the past two years, I have attended trainings including; 1. SRHR workshop done by GenderLinks to strengthen action plans in local government, and also to choose campaigns they will do to empower the community health-wise. 2. A gender-based violence training for women done by GenderLinks to sensitize local government about issues of gender-based violence; how to spot it, how to get the necessary help, or how to avoid it. 2. TB training done by The National TB Centre, to sensitize local government about TB 3. Local Economic Development (LED) workshop done by The Ministry of Housing & Urban development – the hosting ministry was introducing the LED approach to the Local government to act as a community leader and champion to encourage participation, drive job creation, and empower groups such as women, youth and vulnerable groups. 4. Catholic Commission For Justice & Peace world AIDS day campaign to join hands with the rest of the world in commemorating the day. |
Lessons learned and shared | In all these activities and trainings, I have learnt some much needed information to, not only for myself, but for the next person as well. I have learnt that we need to take care of our health and sanity, before anything else, because a truly developed country is one with a healthy and a safe nation. everything else comes after. this is why even the more development-focused trainings put an emphasis on considering women and vulnerable groups, because they cannot be left behind. I have learnt that we young people are just as important as every other stakeholder in the development of our communities. Although many don’t see it yet, but we are better equipped to push our communities forward, with the help of our leaders. I believe that with this kind of information, and all the other information I learnt from less formal meetings, is going to help me, and others I will share it with, to drive some change in the world. |
Next Steps | At the moment, I am preparing to attend a Girls 4 Health training for Peace Corps Volunteers, scheduled for 16 to 18 March, 2020. I believe that I will learn a lot about the Peace Corps in this training, and I will know how best to make use of help they are giving our country in as far as the girl child is concerned, because the issue of the girl child can never be over-emphasized, and we really could use all the help we can get. I will also be partnering with any other available organizations, and train as much as I can because I believe that knowledge is power, so when I know better the issues that are holding people back from living fulfilling lives, I am at a better position to help them. |
📝Read the emotional article by @nokwe_mnomiya, with a personal plea: 🇿🇦Breaking the cycle of violence!https://t.co/6kPcu2Whwm pic.twitter.com/d60tsBqJwx
— Gender Links (@GenderLinks) December 17, 2024