John is a young man whom we met in one of our needs assessment in Benue State, Nigeria, a few years back. Asked what his dream career in the future is, John replied “I will like to be a Doctor”.
John comes from a home where the breadwinner is a farmer with only primary education. Our worry is that John has no one to talk to about his future choices and options. John is happy to discuss his career plans, alongside other issues that relate to his development and growth as a young man, with a caring adult who is willing to offer the necessary guide/support. In this needs assessment, we met many like John who would like to be engineers, footballers and future leaders.
To address the needs of John and those in his position, we came up with this developmental initiative, the TAI youth mentoring initiative. Under this mentoring scheme, TAI connects young people like John with caring adults who are happy to mentor and offer him the much need guide. What we do in TAI is to provide the right atmosphere for this interaction to take place. In so doing, we offer John (and those in his unique position) the opportunity to become their future dreams. Welcome to TAI’s mentoring initiative – “A day in a year”.
“A day in a year” is a novel mentoring initiative from TAI. Our target group include children and young adults. Through this initiative, TAI identify and nurture talents as well as create an avenue for a healthy mix of ideas between our carefully selected mentee/mentor pairs. In this relationship, we require a minimum of an hour of contact between mentor/mentee pairs fortnightly (a total of 24 hours over one year), hence the name “A day in a year”. Our mentoring platform is currently hosted and managed, free of charge, at Roll-W-Ina Blog & Community.
One of the key messages in our mentoring program is giving back. As we identify and nurture the most promising of talents and individuals in local communities where we operate, we also communicate this vital message to our mentees – it is in giving back to the society one belongs to that true change can be attained and sustained.
Who can be a mentor?
Our mentors are professionals and individuals that have made huge strides in different shperes of life and are passionate about youth work. We take pride in the fact that they poses certain qualities that make them unique and able to mentor effectively. Their qualities include, but not limited, to the following
Sincere desire to be personally involved with another person to help him or her achieve personal and career goals;
Ability to communicate with teenagers openly and non-judgmentally;
Strong listening skills;
Ability to establish a relationship based on equal responsibility and respect;
Interest in needs and concerns of persons with internal and external barriers to steady and effective studying;
Practical problem-solving skills and ability to suggest options and alternatives and;
Sensitivity to persons of different educational, economic, cultural or racial backgrounds
Our invaluable mentors also make a minimum of one-year commitment to developing and maintaining a mentor relationship with a teenager or youth. They also subscribe to ongoing mentor training and support sessions. If you are happy to volunteer as a TAI mentor, please complete the form below and we will contact you shortly afterwards.
Thank you for your interest in the TAI mentoring scheme.
Please complete the form below to register your interest to mentor under TAI
[contact-form-7 id=”834″ title=”Mentors Enrolment Form”]