Global Mentor Walk

IkamvaYouth Gauteng branches participated in the Global Mentorship Walk that took place at the Voortrekker Monument Park in Tshwane to commemorate International Women’s day on Saturday the 11th of March 2017.  The mentorship walk brought together girls and women from the region, including 11 Grade 12s from Mamelodi branch, 8 from Grade 12s from Ivory Park and 8 Grade 12s from Ebony Park.  

The walk was coordinated by Hadithi Media as local organisers of this global initiative, a Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk. This initiative comprised 132 walks which took place in 61 Countries around the world.  The intention was to create an accessible platform for dialogue between mentor and mentee, whilst creating visibility around women leadership and mentorship, with the theme: Her Story, Your Story, Shared Stories. Importantly this day served to motivate women of different ages to voice their stories through writing and taking visuals of of their stories.

 The day started at 8am, with registration and breakfast. Rehema Isa gave an overview of their organisation and why it is important for them to host such an event and what is the desired outcome they are looking for at the end of the programme. Rehema Isa further introduced the stakeholders and the roles they played towards making that day a success. Stakeholders that took part  in the event were the US Embassy,The Passionate Professionals, Thadithi media as well as IkamvaYouth.Mamelodi intern Naledi was given an opportunity to explain what IkamvaYouth is and give a brief background about our organisation and why I think the event is relevant to our organisation.

Our Mamelodi branch intern, Naledi said “one of the things that stood out for me was that the event turned out well in terms of the interaction between learners and mentors as they all understood how the program and the purpose was.  There was a paradigm shift as women of different generations established good relationships . The walk was quite fun as we had different topics to discuss amongst our pairs and shared some of our experiences and ambitions in life like how to tackle some of the obstacles that some of the mentors had gone through and how they made it work for them even if they were experiencing some challenges; this was one of the activities that were quite motivating because you got to realize that people had faced the same challenges you had and you needn’t be be hard on yourself, instead you should  stay on course and keep your eye on the ball. We were grouped into teams of 3 which consisted of one mentor and two mentees. Amongst the topics that we discussed were academics; our well-being; how we cope under pressure; where we see ourselves in the future and what we expect from our mentors.”

Towards the end of the programme a collective feedback session in the respective teams was conducted and the teams were also given the opportunity to shoot videos that will be posted on  social media and their website talking about their experience about the event.

The objectives of raising awareness about mentoring as a key tool for personal, professional and business development were achieved and the event brought together women professionals and emerging women in mentoring partnerships, creating a lasting network of role models for the mentees.

The benefits of women’s mentorship are numerous. It establishes camaraderie; creates gender-friendly environments; promotes a stronger environment for women’s success and expands horizons for further personal growth as women explore innovative leadership strategies.

IkamvaYouth’s mentoring programme enables Grade 12 learners to access post-school opportunities.  Although the career guidance workshops increase learners’ awareness of post-school opportunities and ways to access them, IkamvaYouth learners need one-on-one support from a mentor to help them make the transition from secondary to tertiary education.  The mentoring programme ensures that every Ikamvanite accesses tertiary education and/or employment once they matriculate.