Shhh... It's 'The Secret'

As you may or may not be aware, we have a mini seminar coming up on 'The Power of Positive Thinking'. It will be hosted by K. B. Nyantekyi Owusu, and will draw on ideas from Rhonda Byrne's book, The Secret. As always, I will update you on how it goes, but before then I thought I'd give you a (very) brief run down on the book.

It was written at a time when Rhonda Byrne was going through a difficult personal struggle. She was reading The Science of Getting Rich when she first caught a glimpse of 'the secret'. Two years and plenty of research later, The Secret was published in November 2006. Of course, I can't tell you what 'the secret' is (it's a secret, duh!) but according to Rhonda Byrne, it has been used (and even abused) for centuries. Allegedly, knowing the secret and applying it properly can change your life.


If you have followed this blog for a while, you might have noticed that this review is a little more subdued than the rest. This is because I am not sure that this book sits well with me as a Christian. I have not read it myself but judging from what I've read to write this review, I feel that it should be approached with caution.

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Information for mentors: This mini seminar is for mentees, but you're more than welcome to come along. Aside from providing you with useful information, it will give you an opportunity to meet up with your mentees and discuss the Leadership & Change cheat sheet with them. The deadline for the appraisal form is on the 17th of May, so it might be a good idea to use this day to start working on that also. Remember, there must be at least two mentors present at any given time when meeting mentees, so please work this out among yourselves.

We've been reading...

Africa's emerging powerhouse
ONE Blog -- There was a quiet victory last week for an emerging powerhouse in Africa’s development. The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is a critical resource for the continent. It’s funded by—and for—Africa with additional assistance from outside donors and it has been playing an increasingly important role financing some of Africa’s most critical needs both for poverty reduction and for economic growth such as infrastructure, the private sector and governance...

Cell phones cut maternal deaths
IRIN Africa -- Cell phones have cut dramatically the number of women dying during childbirth in Amensie village in south-central Ghana, according to local health officials. Health and aid workers say while other improvements in primary healthcare in Amensie - as part of the Millennium Villages project - have contributed to the drop, the availability of cell phones has been pivotal...

Yes Africa Can: Success stories from a dynamic continent
World Bank -- The economic landscape of Sub-Saharan Africa has changed dramatically since the mid-1990s, with stagnation giving way to dynamism in a broad swath of countries. Aggregate GDP growth climbed from less than 2.5 percent in the 1990s to around six percent in 2003–07. The region has also begun to make headway on poverty reduction and on achieving the Millennium Development Goals...

Ex-Mentor: Sharpton is Obama's link to the streets
NY Times -- The Rev. Al Sharpton is a ''lightning rod'' for President Barack Obama on inner city streets, Obama's former Harvard mentor and friend said Saturday at a forum in Harlem. But Sharpton, who led the event, told The Associated Press that America's first black president "has to work both for us and for others," and that if Obama were to push a race-based agenda, "that would only organize the right against him"...

YLMP says goodbye to Alieu Senghore

One of our senior mentors, Alieu Senghore, will be leaving us today. He will be going back to The Gambia next week. All at Databank Foundation and the YLMP would like to wish him the very best. Thank you so much for all your hard work Alieu!

Coming soon: YLMP Newsletter

Plans are up and running for the release of the first edition of the YLMP Newsletter! Some members of the YLMP magazine team met up last night to discuss the content, layout, etc. I won't give too much away and spoil it for you, but it promises to be a great publication with contributions from mentors, mentees, and staff at Kinbu.

We're looking at having a first draft of everything by the end of May. The final copy should be finished and printed just before the summer holidays. Watch this space!

How do you know when mentoring works?

The following was compiled by Ann Rolfe, a leading mentoring specialist in Australia. This is what she had to say about mentoring:

Whether you use sophisticated metrics or simply ask participants, it is important to gain feedback on mentoring to evaluate whether the relationships worked, made a difference and contributed worthwhile organisational outcomes. Plan to gather both qualitative and quantitative data before, during and after the mentoring.

Success Indicators - identify what you can measure pre and post mentoring to gauge benefits;
Early Follow-up - check in with people soon after the program launch to ensure that they have made contact and begun the mentoring relationship;
Monitor - stay in touch, build two-way communication, identify any potential problems and resolve them sooner, rather than later;
Mid-point Review - get the group together, face-to-face or via webinar. Workshop what's working well and what could improve. Help them create strategies to gain the most value from their mentoring
Finalé - a final group session gives closure to participants. Make it special and acknowledge their contribution. This is the time to recognise their achievements and take feedback for improvement for future programs. Questionnaires can be used to elicit their evaluation and quantify qualitative input.
Post-program - schedule review of longer-term success indicators at appropriate intervals. Mentoring will show immediate benefits but the greatest gains come from the enduring effect of mentoring.

Mentoring as a one-off event may be indelible for individuals but mentoring imbedded in the culture is the ultimate measure of success. If the benefits of mentoring are to be perpetuated, it is what you do after your mentoring program that will determine if mentoring works.

(SOURCE)

Note: Ann Rolfe's blog has been added to our 'Interesting Blogs' widget on the right hand side.

We've been reading...

This is a new feature inspired by ONE blog's 'What We're Reading' we're introducing so we're able to share a more diverse selection of articles. As well as our usual feature pages, we will regularly (once or twice a week) be posting four article snippets at a time for you to have a look at. Like the articles on feature pages, these articles will address issues on development (especially those covered on the six initial cheat sheets), leadership and mentoring. All our 'We've been reading...' posts can be found under the tag 'Recommended'. Simply click on the title of each snippet to read the whole article.

South Africa: Drinking the fog
NGO News Africa -- Gcinikaya Mpumza, mayor of a small municipality perched high in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, was saddled with a huge problem: more than half the residents did not have access to water. It was a question of money. "We are a rural municipality with insufficient revenue, and providing water with conventional systems [piping it] in most of the areas cost a lot of money," he told IRIN. Then he chanced upon an article about harvesting water from fog by Prof Jana Olivier, a Climatologist at the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Africa...

Kenyan farmer lauds internet as saviour of potato crop
BBC -- Kenyan farmer Zack Matere pulls his mobile out of his pocket holds it up and takes a couple of photos. "It seems they have come back and are digging here again." He is referring to a group of people who have encroached on a water catchment area and are endangering the whole community's water supply. "When they came before, I took photos of what they were doing, posted them on my Facebook page and was able to get assistance. I got in touch with Forest Action Network and they came back to me quickly saying they would help me protect the catchment area"...

White House water makeover
ONE Blog -- One of the world’s most recognizable buildings was given a shocking makeover by WaterAid, an international development organization and End Water Poverty, a global campaign group. The makeover was done to highlight the first ever High Level Meeting on Sanitation and Water happening today in Washington DC. Gone are the immaculate White House lawns, replaced instead with children collecting water from a filthy, garbage-strewn water hole. But this isn’t another world. Fetching contaminated and potentially fatal water is a daily reality for 884 million people...

'Third World' concept no longer relevant
Reuters -- The old concept of "Third World" no longer applies and rich countries cannot impose their will on developing nations that are now major sources of global growth, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday. In a speech setting the stage for World Bank and IMF meetings in Washington next week, where emerging economies will play a bigger role, Zoellick cautioned against falling back into patterns of self-interest. He said the economic progress in developing countries had profound implications for global cooperation, multilateralism and the work of institutions such as the World Bank.

A Library Success Story: 'The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind'

After a discussion between Elinam Adadevoh (YLMP Programme Manager) and Adobea Akuffo (Senior Mentor), I've decided to post an amazing story of a boy who was inspired to do great things by a book in his local library. Here is a short review:

"William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi... a country plagued by AIDS and poverty. Like most people in his village, his family subsisted on the meager crops they could grow, living without the luxuries — consider necessities in the West — of electricity or running water. Already living on the edge, the situation became dire when, in 2002, Malawi experienced the worst famine in 50 years. Struggling to survive, 14-year-old William was forced to drop out of school because his family could not afford the $80-a-year tuition.

Though he was not in a classroom, William continued to think, learn — and dream. Armed with curiosity, determination, and a book he discovered in a nearby library, he embarked on a daring plan — to build a windmill that could bring his family the electricity only two percent of Malawians could afford. Using scrap metal, tractor parts, and blue-gum trees, William forged a crude yet working windmill, an unlikely hand-built contraption that would successfully power four light bulbs and two radios in his family’s compound. Soon, news of his invention spread, attracting interest and offers of help from around the world. Not only did William return to school but he was offered the opportunity to visit wind farms in the United States, much like the ones he hopes to build across Africa.

A moving tale of one boy’s struggle to create a better life, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is William's amazing story — a journey that offers hope for the lives of other Africans — and the whole world, irrefutably demonstrating that one individual can make a difference." (SOURCE)

Kudos to William Kamkwamba for his courage, innovative spirit and determination to see this project through from start to finish. It is encouraging to see that young people are interested in learning, and can (and do) get information from books. It makes the work we're doing at Kinbu seem all the more relevant... who knows how many budding 'Williams' we have amongst us?

You can read an article on this story (including details of how William created water pumps and introduced solar power to his community) here. Aside from the book, a documentary and a Foundation have been created in William's honour.

Databank Foundation and YLMP on allAfrica.com!

Databank Foundation and the YLMP (as well as other Foundation initiatives) have featured in an article on allAfrica.com! You can read excerpts of the article below, or you can read it in full here.

Databank... is poised to address the leadership problem that has plagued the continent, through the... Databank Foundation, by training leaders for the continent's development.

So far, 200 people have been trained through the initiative and challenged to bring success to their fields of endeavour.

Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Executive Chairman of Databank Group, said the Foundation was an initiative to address the leadership crisis which has plagued the continent, in order to develop Africa and to help solve the problems in the identified areas.

Meanwhile, another programme labelled as the Young Leaders Mentorship Programme targets the youth to become part of the solution and not the problem to the challenges facing Ghana.

A pilot project of the mentorship programme is currently being run at the Kinbu Secondary School, which when successful, would be extended to other communities.

Unfortunately, some of the information on the original article was incorrect, but we have sent a comment pointing this out, and hopefully it should be rectified soon.

April 25th: World Malaria Day

I know this is (for the most part) unrelated to the work we do at the YLMP, but I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this coming Sunday (the 25th of April) is World Malaria Day. Living in Ghana, malaria is something that is bound to have affected us all in one way or another at some point, and it would be good to recognise this day and reflect on the work so many people are doing in order to combat this disease.

There's a link below which will take you to the World Malaria Day website. This site is part of a year-round campaign that has been working tirelessly in the arduous fight against malaria. I'd like to encourage you to get involved in any way you can; and if you do, please let us know about it! Either way, try to spread the word about the day as much as possible. Together, we can do more to stamp malaria out.


Clicking on the right hand side of the link will take you to the Roll Back Malaria site. You'll be seeing this logo around on several sites addressing the issue of malaria. And for all you Twitter fans out there, ONE (listed on our 'Interesting Blogs' widget on the right hand side) has launched a twitter campaign to help put a stop to malaria. You can view their Twitter page here.

Student Impact Group: Constitution

A constitution has just been drafted for the Student Impact Group (SIG). This brings us a step closer to empower the body of students to personally address issues that they face in the ways they see fit. We're really excited about this group - not only will it ensure the work and ethos of the YLMP will continue long after the Foundation has left, but it will also help develop a culture of leadership, action and initiative amongst the students as individuals.

We hope to launch the SIG next academic year. Until then, there are still a few details to iron out. Aside from editing the constitution itself, we need to find out more about the current Student Representative Council at Kinbu. We need to assess whether or not it makes sense for these two groups to operate individually or to organise some kind of merger.

I'll update this post with a copy of the draft constitution as soon as possible. Thank you to Mahmoud Jajah, one of our junior mentors, for putting it together.

Update: Clean Up Campaign

A proposal requesting for a donation of bins has been sent to Zoomlion. The initial response was very positive, however we have not received any indication as to how many bins will be provided (and how much, if anything, they will cost). We are expecting to find out within the next week or so. As usual, the plan is to keep you posted, so keep checking back.

It is looking likely that the responsibility for recycling plastic sachets will remain with the canteen lady at Kinbu (she has been doing this for quite a while, and it would be unfair for us to 'take over'). She receives a certain amount of money from a recycling company each time they collect plastic waste from her. At present, she only recycles the plastic she collects from the canteen, so what we want to do is to is to make it easy for her to recycle plastic waste from the whole school compound. We'd arrange for her to receive slightly more than she does for the waste she recycles at present.

SPPC do not provide money in exchange for collecting paper, but instead give free toilet roll. We are still investigating other options for paper recycling. Due to the fact that the volume of recyclable waste Kinbu produces may not yield a significant amount of money (should we find a company that agrees to give money in return for paper), Databank will add their waste paper to the collection.

All revenue from the recycling will go towards a funding an extra Zoomlion collection day. Should there be any left over after this, those funds will go towards a 'Kinbu Fund', which will form a base fund for the SIG to use for their projects.

Update: Library campaign

-- Breaking news -- The budget is in people! At the moment it stands at a hefty sum of GH¢50,567. (!!!)

So. We're going to have to up our fund raising game by several notches. The figure isn't fixed as of yet - there will be a meeting with Mr Tetteh this Friday to verify a few items. We should be able to significantly reduce the final amount by receiving in-kind donations (furniture, tiles etc). Either way though, there is a lot of money to be raised.

The sponsorship letter is now good to go, and has been emailed to all members of the Support Group (formerly the Fundraising Campaign). Should you feel you would like to approach companies or individuals you know personally, you can let me know and I'll send you a copy of the sponsorship letter. Alternatively, you can leave a comment with the name of the company, and this will be communicated to a member of the Support Group.

--Update-->
After having consulted with Mr Tetteh's company, we have agreed on a revised sum of GH¢32,010. It's a bit more manageable, but we're still going to have to pull out all the stops in terms of fundraising!

Mini Seminar: Personal Finance (Photos)

We're getting closer and closer to knowing what the budget will be for renovating the library (see here for information on where we're at so far). In the meantime, these are photos from a Mini Seminar on Personal Finance, which was held on the 12th of February by Asana Pegobelgo.

How to find your Leadership Style

An article on finding your leadership style from wikiHow:

Leadership has about as many definitions as it has people to define it. Once thing, however, is certain - it does not come in a one-size-fits-all package. Leadership styles vary and each is as good as the other, provided that you know your style and are able to draw on its strengths to motivate and lead your team. The ultimate aim is to both understand your own leadership leanings and to draw on the other styles as well.

Steps

1. Think about how you approach leading others. Do you jump right in and show others how it's to be done before standing back and letting them try? Do you stand back and encourage with praise and subtle correction? Or, do you like to be seen in the midst of your team working through things at the same time? Here are three distinct styles that are fairly typical (noting that everyone has overlapping shades of styles and unique approaches):

• Front end leader: This leadership style involves demonstrating how something is done and requesting others to follow the lead. It is a dominant style of leadership.
• Supporting leader: This leadership style involves patiently waiting for others to give things a go, and giving them praise for getting it right and gently redirecting any errors in the process. This is an intuitive, trusting style of leadership.
• Interactive leader: This leadership style involves mucking in with the group and learning together. You learn and err together, while you still take responsibility for showing, guiding, and supporting. This is a sharing style of leadership.

2. Relate your leadership style to your dominant personality traits. Can you see the linkages now? This is not about finding a negative relationship between your personality traits and leadership abilities; rather, it is about informing yourself as to what parts of your personality style you tend to rely on when leading. And if you feel that any of your personality traits might be holding up your full leadership potential, understanding this provides you with the opportunity for improving your leadership skills in weaker areas through training, up-skilling and focusing.

3. Match your leadership style to the job, activity, or project. It makes sense to select leadership opportunities that will benefit the most from your principal leadership style. For example, if you are excellent with a hands-on approach to leadership, you will enjoy work where structure and process matters. If you're a high achiever who stands out the front at all times, you are likely to be a great leader in situations of change and uncertainty, where vision and a thick skin are required all of the time. If you're easygoing and enjoy motivating people through support, you are likely to be better in a setting of professionals, academics, and others who already know their work inside out but need to be brought together skilfully.

Happy Easter!

Just a quick post to say happy Easter from all at the Young Leaders Mentorship Programme. Whether you'll be doing something to mark the occasion or simply taking it easy, we hope that you enjoy it!

We're expecting to hear about the library budget after the break, so be sure to keep checking back for updates.

God bless!