Inside Shasha: Amplifying Voices
January 2022
Dear Reader,
If you are reading this, you’ve made it to the end of January 2022. There is no doubt that over the past 2 years, instead of being more outward-facing, we have been forced by circumstances to look within. This January, I made an intentional decision to try and reclaim space and time — to reconnect with friends, family, and nature. I have taken every opportunity to go for coffee, take a walk or just enjoy the outdoors. Through all of this, I have been reminded that life is simply better with and around others…
As the year progresses, we hope to use Inside Shasha, as a medium to reinforce that spirit of togetherness by sharing the voices of people in our network. At Shasha Network, we’ve had to introspect and think about the impact we hope to create in the world. More importantly, we’ve had to reimagine how we can empower young people to achieve their full potential and uplift their communities. Towards the end of 2021, we reached out to our supporters and partnered with them to embark on a journey aimed at training 200 young women across Africa with career readiness and soft skills.
We’re excited to have welcomed the first 50 scholars this January and we look forward to recruiting the next 150 in the next few months. We hope that these young leaders are connected to a community that can rally behind them and ensures they thrive in the post-pandemic world. You will get to learn more about their stories through this platform.
Thank you to all our supporters for making the 100 Young Women Initiative possible. We look forward to embarking on this journey with you.
Best regards,
Farai Munjoma
Founder & CEO
Alumni Reflections: Bringing Soft Skills to High School students
During my first year of high school, we got a lot of assessment tests, and during the half-term break, there was a report sent back to our parents. I was heavily invested in my school work and my report could show it. I had an ‘A’ in almost every subject and to me, that’s what mattered. My mother went on to read the comments and was quite concerned with one from my Science teacher, “These are excellent grades, however, she needs to improve how she collaborates with others; which is one of the key aspects of my class.” I can still imagine the shock on my face because I had aced her class. What had teamwork to do with anything?
What are soft skills?
In general, soft skills are abilities that influence how one works and interacts with other people. Some may also refer to them as non-technical skills and because of that, they are believed to be something difficult to teach anyone. Examples of these are creativity, problem-solving, teamwork, critical thinking, and effective communication just to mention a few. At face value, these may be more personality traits as some people are naturally creative and have good communication skills and if one does not strive to learn them earlier on in their life, they may be difficult to learn.
Most people only become aware of the importance of soft skills when they reach university. Assuming there is a good education system, the first time you will hear of soft skills could be in a workplace if your previous educational background didn’t prfioritize them. This indicates that there is a gap between the skills which could have been both cultivated from a tender environment to ensure people are not ‘robots’ in a sense. Knowing the technical skills involved in your field but lacking soft skills that help you interact with your team in a conducive manner will lead to disconnects and delays in work being done. With all of this, my teacher’s comment began to make sense and I found the importance of why these skills are necessary.
Why are they important?
If the world is to produce more compassionate and self-aware human beings, it needs to start from the schools where students’ mindsets can be moulded. These skills are the foundation of building good relations in the workplace and in personal lives. They make it easier to form relationships, create trust, dependability, and lead teams which are all very vital in each individual’s life. The modern workplace is interpersonal and soft skills such as active listening, collaboration, and communication. These are all crucial for organizations in an increasingly competitive world. Unless young people get introduced to these early on, these skills may be more difficult to learn at work than they would have been in high school.
How can soft skills be implemented in high school?
By implementing sporting and cultural activities, high schools promote teamwork and help you think of someone else other than yourself before making decisions that affect everyone. They also show you how things can be less exciting and next to impossible if you work alone. “I am too small a number to achieve greatness”. By having a perfect club president system, students gain some experience in leadership which will be important in the working environment.
Resources will always be key in anything being taught in school. In most schools especially in third world countries, teacher to learner ratio is 1:70. This makes it is close to impossible for the teachers to know what their pupils lack as they are too busy trying to teach the syllabus content, leaving very little energy to get to know whether Betty is good at teamwork or not. This is where programs such as Shasha could be useful in meeting this gap and supporting the students to learn soft skills.
The world around us today requires us to be more aware of the people around us, their emotions, and their mental health. If my science teacher hadn’t made me aware of my shortfalls in working with a team, I might have remained oblivious to the impotence of having to work with others and I don’t know what type of human being that would have made me.
Valerie Lobo is a Media and Communications Intern at Shasha Network. An aspiring human rights advocate who has led Pad Drive, Participated in Yale Young African Scholars and Model United Nations. She recently graduated from Hillcrest high school in Zimbabwe.
Mentor Experience: Jan Flemming from Young Enterprise Scotland Coach
Shasha Network partnered with Young Enterprise Scotland to mentor and have a cultural exchange program tailor made for Scottish and African students. Our scholars had the opportunity to go through a 6 month long mentorship relationship, where they connected with their mentor at least once a month. Over this period we’ve had our scholars grow significantly, and here is what one of our mentors Jan Flemming had to say:
I chose to volunteer as a Mentor for the Shasha Network as I am passionate about helping young people and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share my knowledge and experience. I have worked in education for 20 years and in business for 5 years.
Taking part in this opportunity, as a Mentor for the Shasha Network has been an enjoyable experience. It has been beneficial to me as it has allowed me to Mentor enthusiastic and bright young people. Seeing them flourish has been very rewarding.
I have seen tremendous growth in my Mentees. They have identified their strengths and improved upon their weaknesses. Their confidence has grown, and they have sought out new opportunities to improve their skillset and experience. They can include these newly learned skills and experiences in their applications for further education and job applications.
A good Mentee is willing to try and to work hard when required. They are enthusiastic about their self and professional improvement. They are willing to try new things and go out with their comfort zone and build on their confidence and skills to do well in school and beyond.
I would highly recommend being a Mentor through the Shasha Network as it brings great joy and satisfaction into your life. Seeing the young people flourish and knowing that your guidance has assisted in that achievement is truly rewarding.
We look forward to welcoming more mentors this year. If you are interested in speaking to our scholars or co-creating career development content with us, please send us at an email at education@shashanetwork.com
Wishing you a wonderful month of February!
