Givology - give to learn, learn to give

Resty is a student in Educate!’s Socially Responsible Leadership Course that focuses on the entrepreneurial and leadership skills students need to find solutions to poverty, violence, disease and environmental degradation. Educate! trains teachers who become mentors to their students (like Resty), building powerful relationships that give youth the confidence to lead change. The mentor also facilitates the Educate! Social Entrepreneurship Club that gives students like Resty practical business skills while aiming to solve a community need. The amount requested covers the cost of training, salary and transportation for the Educate! mentor, as well as all materials/handouts/textbooks provided in the Socially Responsible Leadership Course.

Resty’s tense eyes tell one part of her life’s story. She lost her parents to the HIV/AIDs scourge at a tender age and had to live with her grandparents. Her grandfather took to the bottle and left it to her frail grandmother to fend for the family. Hard times have turned her into a tough young girl.

Her entrepreneurial mind and ambition tell the other part of her story. She strongly believes that entrepreneurship is not only the breakthrough for her family’s difficulties, but for the community at large. She draws up micro business plans for each idea that pops into her mind. Other girls in her school look up to her leadership skills.

Her Educate! mentor James Katumba says of Resty “it is moving to hear her business ambitions and how she relates it back to her medical career dream”.

As part of her school’s Educate! Social Entrepreneurship Club (SEC), Resty has helped to kick start a pig rearing project. Utilising land donated by the school, the SEC members plan to distribute piglets to vulnerable members of the community, training them in the upkeep of animal rearing and ensuring a sustainable income for their families.

In Resty’s own words, Educate!’s Socially Responsible Leadership Course “is an empowering lifebuoy, and I’m going to make the most out of it for myself, my family and my community”.