Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) Kenya Youth Leadership Program (YLP) Journey So Far
The journey began mid last year 2017. I saw this advert of the DOT Kenya Youth Leadership Program (YLP) in one of my whatsApp groups (SwahiliBox community whatsApp group) I applied for the DOT Kenya YLP where there were two tracks either; Social Innovator track and the Community Leadership track. I decided to apply to the Community Leadership track and after a month I received an email that my application had gone through; I was excited to start the journey as a youth leader.
After two weeks we were called to the induction at DOT Kenya offices. During the first day of induction it was nice to meet youth from various parts of the country who were yearning to change their communities.
We were first taken through how the program would run and enrolled to the online courses. We were also informed that there would be seed funding for the top social innovators within the YLP. After two weeks we were called to the first face-to-face training Compelling Vision for Change. This training was for personal development as we learnt to recognize our passion, skills and strengths.
The good thing about the DOT YLP is that most of the modules are online, which makes learning interesting.
After two months, we were called to the second face-to-face, which was Human Centered Design (HCD). We learnt about creating solutions for our communities through the HCD process which is customer centered and modeling our product/services using the Social Impact Canvas.
My utmost gratitude goes to our wonderful facilitators at DOT Kenya Peterson Macharia, Ann Nderitu, Petronila Ogola, Assumpta Lishenga and Judy Muriuki. They make learning easy, involving and fun.
Thereafter, we were divided into two tracks; Community Leaders and Social Innovators. I joined the community leadership track where we were called for a three-week in-house training at Emeli hotel in Nairobi. Wait! Did I say training…? Well it was a fun-filled learning experience where we gained tools, knowledge and networks which we are going to transfer to our communities.
Being part of DOT Kenya has changed me a lot, I have been able to expand my network and my skills, I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank DOT Kenya for impacting youth and transforming communities in Kenya.
Hats off to DOT Kenya!
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