Who is a Mentor? Tips for building successful mentoring relationships

This article is adapted from the Indiana University's Office of Mentoring Services & Leadership Development website.

While there are many different ways of answering the question of who is a mentor, a basic definition with which we can begin is that a mentor is a special kind of helper who works with others in a positive, constructive way so that both mentor and protégé (or mentee) have the potential to grow through the relationship.

Mentoring is a way of offering a variety of services to mentees throughout the duration of the mentoring period, and sometimes even after. The program takes what's called a 'developmental' approach, which in everyday language means that we're working to create services that support mentees as they grow, learn, and mature through their living and learning experience.

Therefore, a mentor is an individual who creates a paraprofessional working relationship with students aimed towards personalizing and improving the quality of student life and learning.

So, how do mentors fulfill their role?

As we consider what mentors do that leads to achieving the goal of 'personalizing and improving the quality of student life and learning,' it's important to realize that:

1. many of the same things we do in everyday life to 'help others are similar to the role of a mentor, and
2. it is a mentor's responsibility to take what we do in everyday life and develop those 'helping' abilities into a set of paraprofessional mentoring skills.

Some of the things that one might do to help a friend who's having a hard time might include:

• providing information and advice based on your experience and ideas;
• encouraging him or her to take a healthy, positive, and constructive risk;
• 'being there' just to listen and understand;
• offering honest and positive feedback;
• planning and thinking with her or him about how to work through a challenging or confusing situation;
• sharing different points of view to understand an issue or problem from as many different ideas and ways of thinking as possible; and,
• making use of multiple perspectives to base decisions in choosing from the best of all the options, creating an action plan, and following through with that plan.

Helping, providing, encouraging, being there, offering, planning, sharing, and making -- these are all things we do to help one another as we grow, learn, and change through everyday living and learning. And, in large part, this list provides another dimension of understanding who is a mentor and what he or she does. But, we need to go further to understand what it means to become a skilled mentor.

CIPE 2010 Youth Essay Contest 2010

The Centre for International Private Enterprise (or CIPE) has recently released the categories for its annual Youth Essay Contest. The categories are:

1. Democracy that delivers
2. Entrepreneurship and society
3. Women and participation

The competition is aimed at students and young professionals aged between 18 and 30. All entries should be between 2000 and 3000 words in length, and should be submitted online via the submission page on their website by the 18th June, 2010. CIPE will publish winning essays, and first, second and third place authors in each category will receive an honorarium of $1000. You can see more detailed essay guidelines (including brief discussions and suggested questions for each topic) and judging criteria here. All the best to those entering!

CIPE aims to strengthen democracy around the world through private enterprise and market-orientated reform. As you might already know, the CIPE Development blog features on our 'Interesting Blogs' widget on the right hand side of our pages, where you can always find the latest updates on their work.

Tracing the bitter truth of chocolate and child labour

This is an article from the BBC you might find interesting...

This Easter, Britons will eat their way through 80m chocolate eggs without the slightest taste of how the essential ingredient in our favourite treat is harvested.

The truth, as BBC Panorama reporter Paul Kenyon discovered when he posed as a cocoa dealer in West Africa, leaves a bitter taste. In an investigation into the supply chain that delivers much of the chocolate sold in the UK - more than half a million tonnes a year - the BBC found evidence of human trafficking and child slave labour.Panorama also found that even chocolate marketed as Fairtrade cannot rule out that that, despite having standards and auditing in place, there may still be a possibility of child labour - as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the supply chain.

Dangerous tools

By the time it hits the High Street, cocoa becomes increasingly hard to trace.As it passes from farmer to buyer to wholesalers, exporters, importers and manufacturers on the journey from cocoa pod to dried bean to chocolate bunny, it becomes more and more likely that the source of the bean will be lost. Together, the two countries produce 60% of the world's cocoa and more than 10m people survive off the industry.

In a village in Ghana, Kenyon met 12-year-old Ouare Fatao Kwakou, who was sold to traffickers by his uncle and taken from neighbouring and impoverished Burkina Faso to work as a cocoa picker.More than a year later, he had not been paid a penny for his work - the profits of his labour going instead to his new cocoa masters and to the uncle who sold him.

In the port city of San Pedro in Ivory Coast, Kenyon posed as a trader and sold on cocoa beans which had been produced by the worst forms of child labour. It is at this point where the traceability of the cocoa ends and it can be sold on to major chocolate makers worldwide who cannot say how it was sourced. The end buyer of Kenyon's child labour beans was one of the world's biggest exporters who in turn sell it on to several well known high street names.

Update: Library campaign

The library team went with a professional architect, Mr Senyo Tetteh (who has very generously offered his services free of charge), in order to get a recommendation as to what exactly needs to be changed, and an approximation as to how much this would cost. Previously we were thinking furniture, new nets on the windows, and tentatively, an air conditioner. Mr Tetteh proved to be very ambitious, and recommended we do the whole works; including replacing the ceiling and floor! We got right behind him on this - the more we're able to do for the library, the more likely it is that students are going to want to use it.

This means we’re going to have to start some serious fundraising! We're waiting for an approximation of the final cost, but it's sure to be quite a lot. After meeting with the Fundraising Campaign group to review our options, we decided that we would be much better off sending sponsorship forms to various companies than we would be having a school fair. Do you have any thoughts or ideas on this issue?

All at the YLMP would like to say a big thank you to Mr Tetteh for all his help and advice on this project.

--Update-->
The budget is in, and at GH¢32,010*, we do have a lot of fundraising to do. Click here for the current post on the budget.

*The original amount was GH¢50,567, but this has now been reduced.

Mini Seminar: STIs, HIV/AIDS, & Sexual Abstinence

On the 12th of March, all mentees participated in a 'mini seminar' on STIS, HIV/AIDS, and sexual abstinence. Although we started off with a few glitches including technical problems, once we got going everything ran smoothly.

The seminar was led by Abyna
Ansaa-Adjei (better known to many as Madam), a lady with a special interest in seeing youth make the absolute most of their potential. She started off with an interactive demonstration, dividing mentees into three groups. Each mentee in group one was given four different pieces of coloured paper. They were asked to exchange these among themselves. Group two were asked to go around asking people their names, and to write them down. Group three were asked to write down where they would like to be in 10 years.

After this was done and everyone was settled back in their seats, representatives from each group explained what they had done to the rest of the group. Madam then explained the purpose of each exercise. For group one, the different colours represented different sexual partners. For group two, she illustrated how names written down showed how STIs can spread from person to person. Finally for group three, Madam asked various mentees to explain how contracting HIV/AIDS can prevent them from becoming the person they had described themselves as being in ten years.










After a lively start that engaged all present, it was time to get down to some serious business. From definitions to the social attitudes that allow sexually transmitted infections like HIV/AIDS to run rife, Madam gave an informative talk that addressed it all.

Clean Up Campaign Visit Kinbu

The Clean Up Campaign group visited Kinbu to find out what the current sanitation framework is like. Many people expressed the view that it was not as bad as they thought it would be, which is always encouraging.

It was established that there are currently bins in every classroom as well as two large bins on the school compound. These bins regularly overflow as the current arrangement with Zoomlion is for a weekly collection. Although it would be beneficial to have more than one collection, the school cannot currently afford any more at this point.

The Clean Up campaign are currently investigating avenues for the collection of recyclable rubbish at Kinbu. Revenue collected from this project can go towards funding additional Zoomlion collection days.

For this to be possible, it is necessary to purchase approximately 60 small and three large bins, so that paper and plastic recyclable waste can be collected separately from other biodegradable and non-recyclable rubbish. A proposal has been sent to Zoomlion, and although a response has not been received yet, their CSR department seemed quite excited at the prospect of working with the school. We’ll keep you posted, so be sure to keep checking back for updates!

Student Perspectives – Kinbu Library

A form two student, Elizabeth felt that the library was not an interesting place to be because the books were outmoded, and also not relevant for the courses they studied. She felt that if there were some new and interesting books in the library more students would be encouraged to read. She added that she sometimes spent her break periods in the library. She did mention that the library period had been taken from their time table this term.

Julien Kofie, a second year high school student said he never visited the library because he’d heard the library did not have the economics and geography textbooks he needed. He rather frequented the Ghana Library to study and conduct his research. He mentioned that he would visit the library often if the textbooks he needed was provided.

SHS3 Home Economics student Kafui admitted that she does not use the school library because the books are archaic. She stated that they do not have a library period any more. The last library period they had was when she was in SHS2. She says she would like to see books that are more relevant to her course in the library.

Written by Abena, David and Elinam.

Library campaign visit Kinbu

OK, formalities over. Now it's time to get to the real meat of the blog - and update you on what the 'campaign groups' have been doing. On Thursday the 18th of February, a few senior mentors went to visit the Kinbu Library to get an idea of what needs to be done.

The English teacher Mr Alfred Vaeta kindly took us round. Many mentors made comments about the fact that the library seemed to be in better shape than they had first thought it would be, but there was still a lot that needs addressing.

The first thing we noticed after walking in (after our eyes adjusted to the dim lighting) was that there was a lot of dust around. Despite the fact that the library is dusted every morning, there was dust everywhere. There are no nets on the windows, only rather flimsy looking curtains - an obvious cause. The windows cannot be shut to keep dust out as hardly any of the fans work, and it would get unbearably hot.

Walking around, a few intriguing items caught our attention. Clearly, the school’s storage had spilled into the library, but even that did not explain the presence of some rather fascinating items which included (of all things) a car engine. There were boxes of assorted rubbish, a couple of old speakers, piles of brooms and other cleaning equipment… many things that should have no permanent place in a library. Interestingly we noticed a library store, but this was full of – yes you guessed it – more junk.


There don’t seem to be any plans for these things in the immediate future. Of the several donated books that 'cannot be used by Kinbu students', Mr Vaeta seemed to allude to the fact that they would be thrown away! After calling him on this, he briefly mentioned they could be donated, but many mentors were unconvinced of this.

After talking to the students, it became obvious that many changes need to be made, and fast! You can read a brief selection of their thoughts here.

Who Moved My Cheese?

As you might be aware, one of the books this year’s mentees will be studying is the hugely influential Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. First published in 1998, Who Moved My Cheese? addresses the concept of dealing with change through a witty parable that compares the behaviour of mice and ‘Littlepeople’ - beings that look and think like people, but are the size of mice.

When the cheese the mice (Sniff and Scurry) and Littlepeople (Hem and Haw) depend on suddenly disappears form Cheese Station C, the two sets of characters react very differently. Having previously noticed the supply of cheese dwindling, Sniff and Scurry simply pack up their things and leave to find new cheese. Hem and Haw however, are determined to get to the bottom of the issue and try many different things to try and get ‘their’ cheese back. The story follows Haw, who eventually leaves Cheese Station C after realising that complaining about having not having cheese isn’t going to make the cheese come back, or get him any answers. See here for a more detailed synopsis of the book (as well as some criticism).

Who Moved My Cheese? is a truly enlightening story that explains very simply how to change your perspective on change in a way that makes it seem less threatening. It is a must read for anyone – change is inevitable no matter who you are, so why not learn to make it a platform for innovation and success?

There are editions for teens and for children, and even an award winning movie, so everyone can relate to the story and learn from the simple lessons that it puts forward.

If you have not read the book and would like to, you can find copies at all major bookstores. For more information about the books and the movie, you can also see the Who Moved My Cheese? website.

Say Cheese!!

Introducing this year's mentors!

Senior Mentors

Sophia Aboagye

 David Agbenyega is a Project Officer at Ghana Opportunity Network.He hates  mangoes and always has a tie in his bag. He is a proud Akora (alumni of Achimota  School).

Sampson Akligoh works in the Research department at Databank as an Economic Analyst.He thinks English football is boring and supports Barcelona. He enjoys riding bicycles in parks.

Adobea Akuffo

Dorothy L. Ametefe is an Equity Analyst who works in the Research department of Databank. She loves to socialise with people from different cultures and backgrounds and enjoys classical and jazz music.

Abena Asamoah-Okyere

Priscilla Asibey

Kofi Baidoo

Abena Biritwum is a Financial Analyst working in the Corporate Finance department of Databank.

Sally Debrah

Thomas Esso

Bismark Gyekye

Selasie Kwashie is in charge of Operations for DUES Desk. He believes that work should be done regardless of circumstances, and he doesn't give up on tasks assigned either by himself or as a result of job demands.

Joshua Mensah

Wilhelm Nyako describes himself as friendly and dynamic. He works in the Research department at GMet (Ghana Meteorological Agency) as an Assistant Meteorologist. He is also a private tutor.

Ben Opia-Mensah

 Alieu Senghore works as the Assistant Vice President of Databank's Corporate Finance  department. He was previously a financial analyst. He enjoys reading autobiographies, financial journals and history and political books. He is a football fan who plays once in a while.

Aba Tetteh is a Systems Administrator at Dwadifo Adanfo, a microfinance company in Kaneshie. She likes to try anything out for the fun of it, so long as it doesn't go against her Christian beliefs.

Junior Mentors

Bernard Agyeman

Jeffrey Akoamah

Philip Alimo studies Business Administration at Ashesi University College. He is also a practicing sports journalist, analyst and presenter at GBC (Ghana Broadcasting Corporation). He says one hundred years from now, it will not matter what car he drove, what kind of house he lived in, how much money he had in his bank account or what his clothes looked like; but the world will be a little better because he was important in the life of a youth.

Nana Ama Andoh

Jimmy Appiahene

Francis Arthur is studying HND Accountancy at Accra Polytechnic. He is in his final year. He is an Arsenal fan and is entrepreneurial minded.

Kofi Awuku-Sao is an energetic and motivated prodigy. He believes in integrity, humility, Christ-like leadership and excellence. He has a flair for reading and writing. He is passionate about the plight of the under-privileged in the society and seeks to work together with like-minded people to develop Africa. Kofi is currently a studying Business Administration at the University of Ghana. He hopes to redefine the insurance industry in Ghana and the skyline of West Africa, and enjoys playing basketball, meeting new people and sharing ideas.
Alberta Boateng

Clarissa Botchwey is currently studying English. She likes having fun, but she takes her work seriously.

Emmanuel Buabeng

Thomas Ewusi

Felix Fosu
Bridget Gbesemete

Gladys Gaisie is currently in her final year at Methodist University. She studies Accounting. She describes herself as a smart lady who gets along with everyone.

Rebecca Inkumsah is a Junior at Ashesi University College who aspires to be an International Financial Analyst and is a lot of fun to talk to. She loves to meet new people since she has grown up with the idea that 'variety is the spice of life'. She is always eager to meet and learn from new people. "AND don't forger guys", she says, "success is the ability to go from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm".

Mahmoud Jajah

Albert Kodjoe is studying Banking and Finance with Economics. He is a proactive person who is always looking for means by which to improve himself.

Paulina Kumah is at the end of her third year at Valley View University. She is studying Business Administration (Accounting). Paulina got involved with the YLMP because she loves kids and young people. She believes that to have the best future, a good foundation must be built from a young age. She loves Maths and Economics... and Jesus too!

Falilatu Lawal is in her third year at the University of Ghana, studying Political Science. Falilatu is a firm believer in hard work. She enjoys meeting new people and loves banku.

Ruth Lodo is studying Accounting at Methodist University. She's in her final year. She is always ready to learn new things and is happy to help others achieve their goals.

Russell Mensah

Nana Yaw Nketia

Peter Nomo

Peace Vidger

Godfred Nyaku

Nathaniel Oduro

Nana Akua Oppong

Nicholas Osuteye

Kwabena Owusu-Adjei
Francis Tetteh
Rachel Tutuani 
Deborah Sarpong

Kenneth Richardson  is a final year student at Regent University College, and can't believe he's about to finish. Two people he'll like to share a table with are Kwame Nkrumah and Sir Alex Ferguson. He thinks bungee jumping is a really cool sport and that there isn't much to it. is in his penultimate year at the University of Ghana. He is studying Political Science. He likes integrity, research, and learning about investment.

Thelma Owusu-Abrokwa studies French and Psychology at the University of Ghana. She loves singing in choirs. is currently in his final year at Ashesi University College. He supports Arsenal FC, and his favourite personality is Sir Winston Churchill. 

Anthony Tawiah is a student/entrepreneur in his final year at Regent University College. He is studying Management with Computing. He is a passionate young person who has resolved not to be a victim of the system but to be part of a solution to create a positive impact on his generation. He lives as "a pilgrim not in control, a steward not an owner, and a soldier without security".

Samson Tingbani studies at the University of Ghana. He is an AIESECer, and is guided by the words "Live in the future but do not forget the past as those who forget the past are bound to repeat their mistakes".

 

YLMP Projects

This year, our mentees are addressing three Issue Focus areas. To tackle them, there are three campaign groups; the Clean Up, Library, and Fundraising Campaigns.

Each Campaign has six mentor groups assigned to it - they work together to bring about positive changes in each. Updates about their progress will be posted periodically, so keep a look out for those!

We are also aiming to introduce a Student Impact Group (SIG) at Kinbu. The students who make up this group will collectively address any issues they face as students. Although they will need to be supervised by a member of staff, control over what and how events happen will be largely up to the students. This should be instrumental in providing students with hands-on experience on leadership, and will also empower them to take take the initiative to impact their situations in the way that they see fit.

About Us

The Young Leader’s Mentorship Programme (or YLMP) is an initiative of Databank Foundation, the corporate social responsibility department of Databank. Established in November 2009, the YLMP incorporates Databank’s core principle of leadership. The focus is developing leadership in the youth; the YLMP aims to build young leaders who are committed to transforming Africa into a premier continent.

Databank Foundation realises that there is an abundance of potential within the youth of Ghana that is being neither stimulated nor encouraged. There is a great amount of talent and ability that is being wasted due to a lack of investment in the youth. It is imperative to nurture and develop young talent as the youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow. Poverty significantly hinders the development of youth in Ghana, as does lack of guidance and inferiority complexes. There is a pressing need to address these problems and send youth on their way to become the great people they are capable of being.

This is where the YLMP comes in. Mentoring is a feasible, highly flexible solution to address all of the aforementioned issues. It can provide young people with role models to look up to, and help them to discover, draw out and develop their potential. It is hoped that by the end of the Programme, mentees would have been encouraged to dream big, and be empowered to make achieving these dreams a long term reality. Once inferiority complexes start melting away, the youth can truly begin to realise and live out the full extent of their potential. The YLMP intends to create and shape future leaders who are not only competent, but totally committed to development and forward movement both as a nation and a continent.

The YLMP has eighteen mentor groups in total. Each mentor group is led by one senior mentor – the majority of whom are young professionals here at Databank, but who also come from organisations elsewhere. Each senior mentor has two junior mentors under them. All junior mentors are either young professionals or current university students in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year (first year university students are not eligible for participation in the YLMP). Each group has between three and eight mentees from Kinbu Secondary School. Senior mentors directly mentor their junior mentors, and indirectly mentor the mentees (Kinbu students) through their junior mentors (they are required to have at least 8 hours of one-to-one contact a term with mentees). You can view mentor profiles here.

The YLMP itself is divided into two parts that operate simultaneously. The first addresses the mentoring process itself, where mentors meet their mentees and examine various life issues. Mentees have both one-on-one sessions with their mentors and mini seminars to take part in together with all mentees. The second part of the YLMP revolves around three Issue Focuses, where six mentor groups work collaboratively in ‘campaign groups’ in order to address certain issues at Kinbu. We are trying to introduce and encourage a culture of philanthropy among mentees; in subsequent Programmes the Issue Focus will move in a more community-based direction.

For more information, you can see the Databank Foundation's website (coming soon!), or visit the YLMP group on Facebook.

Welcome!

Hello, and a very warm welcome to the Young Leaders Mentorship Programme blog!

We wanted to give everyone a chance to get involved and be able to follow what we’re doing as we do it; and so the YLMP blog was born. On here, you'll be able to find updates on YLMP projects as well as articles relating to leadership, mentoring and development - especially those relating to Ghana and Africa in general.

We want this blog to be as interactive as possible, I don't want to talk at you. If you're reading, please do let me know you're out there. You're always welcome to share any thoughts, comments, suggestions, critiques or anything else. You can use the comments feature, or if you have any articles you would like to see posted here, you are more than welcome to send them to infoylmp@gmail.com, and I will review and post them as appropriate. You don't have to be directly connected to the Programme to share your thoughts - we'd love to hear from everyone. Spread the word!

Odoley Oddoye
Databank Foundation Intern


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