 at creative economy. How can youths make something out of themselves from the opportunities that are there? And for this, we have a very interesting panel, if I may put it like that. They are the grassroot nest for innovation and change. In abbreviation, it's Greek. So they're creating original movement of youthful grassroot champions of education. And I'll start with, I guess that's right here beside me. That is Samoa Mouai. He's the senior programs officer at Greek. On my far right, the gentleman is Joseph Kisemei. He's an Greek alumni and a Greek youth leadership program. Also, Catherine, Catherine who? Sirveta. Yes, Catherine Sirveta is also an alumni of the Greek alumni and the Greek youth leadership program. Karebouni Sana? Thank you so much. Glad to have you with us. Thank you. So I'll just get a little bit of what you guys do on individual capacities. So let me start with you Sirveta. Thank you so much. Good morning everyone. My name is Catherine Sirveta and I'm an alumnus of the Greek youth leadership program. In fact, I was in the first cohort which took us like a program of one year. So we got to learn a lot through that. I'm also a student currently pursuing my master's in the University of Nairobi in project planning and management. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to Joseph. Yes, thank you. My name is Joseph Kisemei. I hail from Kajado Central. Apparently, I'm a student at the Kenya School of Law waiting for my admission to the bar. But at least I do something. I work in the farm of Mary and company advocates. That farm is based in Kajado Town. Okay. So that is what I do as of now. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Now to you Samuel. You're also the senior programs officer at Greek. So you'll tell us a little bit about Greek as you introduce yourself. Thank you and thank you for having us. My name is Samuel Muai, the senior programs officer at Greek. Greek is an abbreviation of your rightfully put it. Grasusness, Renovations and Change. What we do is we're a regional non-profit organization working across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, but headquartered here in Nairobi. Working under three pillars are girls' education and women empowerment, youth leadership and education, a children learning pillar. So that is who we are in a broad sense. But we have a special, we have a liking and a special focus on youth and how the youth interplay across all other programming areas. Okay. Wonderful. And today, good thing we are talking about the youth and creative economy. So with the youth program that you have, the youth leadership program, we're going to focus on that a little bit. How does that promote creative economy? Instead, let me just ask for someone who's watching and doesn't understand what creative economy is. How would you explain creative economy? Let me go with you, Sireta. For me, I think creative economy is a civic environment for youth. On a personal basis, I think it's all intertwined to culture. Coming from the culture aspect, our ways of living, our values, even the food that we eat. But now, in this 21st century, we get now to be much more innovative. We become more creative and also putting the aspect of technology into it. So for me, I think you have to mix the two, your culture, and now be innovative and put the technology aspect of it. Okay. So it's culture, innovation, and technology. Yeah. That's how I put it myself. Okay. Interesting, right? Look at it. How would you look at it the same way? My understanding of creative economy goes with the aspect of creativity, innovations, to do with intellectual property, the mindset, what someone can actually think can support the economy, like what you can invent in your own ways, what you can create on your own and convert it to be a means of income for that matter. Okay. And maybe you will give us examples as we go on so that we get a clear, even a better understanding of it. To use some more, how is your program promoting creative economy? Thank you. We see the young people as a resource that is readily available but overly underutilized and very creative. I think in the discourse, in the discourse, in the economic discourse, political discourse and so on, young people are eliminated from the processes yet they are very creative. So to answer you is we have a six-month utilization program that seeks to harness the creativity of young people. And for us, creativity plays out in three ways. How can they get upper social mobility? How can they acquire jobs or start entrepreneurship activities? But there's an aspect of creativity that is innate at this in the community. A young person in a community has a lot of what they can do to support their communities. But then they need creativity to identify what it is and then how to address it. So the great utilization program works to help them get upper social mobility but also to identify opportunities within their communities that they can creatively solve using tech or using just basic ingenuity. Okay. Interesting. How does tech, how does tech come in or why does tech need to come in? I think we cannot run away from tech. As fast as we may be, I'll give an example. In our children learning program, for a long time we were not engaging tech. But realize that for education to happen and happen effectively, you must embrace tech. Learning can happen on the phone, you know? Learning can happen using speakers and videos and so on and so forth. So I think if you want to be, you know, a creative, you can never run away from tech. Sure. I agree with that. We're in a tech revolution now. To you, sir. How have you benefited? How would you say the youth leadership program enabled you to be creative? How did you apply the lessons you took? So for us, it was because we were the first cohort, we didn't take the six months training, we did it for one year. So of course, there was a note that recovered from resource mobilization to project planning and management to even work ethics. But now you get to work with your community on that. So by the end of the fellowship, you are required to come up with a project. And it's a must for you to do that. To come up with a project, wherever you are, you need to see a problem and do yourself, create a solution to that problem. So on my side, I come from Kajada West, very much a part of it. It's called a Wasun Kidoni Award. And education there, most of the kids don't do their homework. This is because there is no electricity on that side of the world. We are still like very much interior into it. And then also, some of the parents, poverty is still like devastation. So most of the parents can't afford like buying solar panels for lighting up their houses. So I became innovative. I thought, how can these kids do their homework? So I came up with an initiative. It was called Adapter Lamp Initiative, where I fundraised and bought solar lamps for kids who mostly stayed at the manyata. So I donated these solar lamps, we tested the solar lamp. In fact, if you put it in the manyata, it would light up the whole manyata. So the kid would do the homework. The mother would cook. As in it was, you killed two birds with one stone. So I thought, yeah, this is like really, I have to be innovative because sunlight, of course, it's clean energy. There is no effect, but a bad effect to your health, to anything bad. So, and then also, the kids, in fact, we did a survey or we monitored. And in fact, kids really improved on their education, on their performance. So that was the one thing that it really made me know that indeed I can be innovative and I can address a problem in my community. Wow, amazing. Very interesting. When we think about solving problems, we think of crazy things out of this world. We need to come up with something like Elon Musk, something. But it's the little things, a problem that we see, and then we come up with a solution and it creates a big impact and you have seen results in that. Amazing. And the fact that you went green and the theme for this year is green skills for international youth data. And for you, Joseph, what's your story? Okay. My story is, I can say I am better and visionary from the Greek program. I am an alumina of God too, of Greek leadership program. And our program took approximately six months. And after that program, I was actually made to understand the world that around me. My leadership skills were so sharpened, at least I could actually understand my position and my space back in my community. You know, as young people, we are so much desirous and we are so much innovative. And sometimes maybe you can tap the skills from school, but you don't have the exposure on how you can employ your skills to help the community that you're coming from. So from this program, I've actually been in a position to understand myself first and discover the capabilities and the potential that are within me. And then I was able to actually actualize my understanding and my skills back to the community as a means of doing mobilization, improving and teaching other people, mentoring other young people. So I even have a lot of young people who are actually looking upon me, confining with what I do because of what I've actually learned from the leadership program from Greek and then I transform it back to the community. So I can say, as of now, I am a bit better than how I was before I got into this opportunity. And also I'm very much visionary going forward because I'm much passionate about leadership and this program has actually sharpened my leadership skills. So I can be in a position now at least to prove and also to show a way to our community and also to our people whenever an opportunity presents itself. Wow, amazing. If I started to be a leader and you're leading now. Wow, amazing. So now to you, Samuel, when he speaks about leadership skills, they got sharpened. How do you ensure that this happens when someone gets into the program or our leaders just, you know, some people, I am not a leader. So how do you get the leader out of them? First, to make you very uncomfortable because people tend operating in their comfort zones. Kiseme went to law school, but we took him to teach. Wow. So we make you a very different area and make you very uncomfortable and in the discomfort that you are in, the power in you starts coming out. If you didn't know how to manage a class and now you have 40, 50 children in an after school program, you have to figure out how to maintain them. You see Kiseme is a very calm guy, but now he's with these 30 children in grade three jumping up and down. So the first thing is we do make you very uncomfortable and then that's when we start seeing, you know, the potential that you have. Then now the whole aspect of mentorship comes in because young people lack mentors. They lack people who have walked the path before them. So we align every young person who comes into the program with mentors and this is a person who is trained, blazed in the path you're walking in. So we make you uncomfortable, we train you the theory, but most importantly, we thoroughly mentor you into the space, and let me tell you it could be very small things. It could be as simple as public speaking. It is those small spaces that we now see that this is where you have gaps and then now the mentor comes in and works with you the journey. And for six months, it's transformative. You've seen great results like this year. Absolutely great results and across East Africa. Sereta spoke about innovation. I was speaking to one of them, one of the young people in Arusha, work around Arusha region in Tanzania. And the problem was that animals were coming to eat the wild animals were coming over to eat their domestic animals. So the guy came up with a very simple, innovative, but very creative solution. Just put a light on. Yeah, just have a light on. I saw a light similar to what Sereta was doing. The animals will not come into it. The domestic animals, the economic life will go up and then most importantly, the children have a space to learn. So creative economy can be as simple as you want it to be or as complicated as you want it to be. Yeah, so it's actually simple. You know, sometimes you overthink these things and you have the solutions with us. There's something that they usually say about when you want to to be great, you look for a problem and then you create a solution to it and it makes the world a better place. What would you say? What would I say? Sereta, what would you say? How is creative economy impacting economic and social development? If I can just move away a little bit from education and go into, let's say, arts, design, music. I believe that that too is part of the creative economy. And if I can just give an example with musicians, I can go to my favorite band, these people have created a very good business model for themselves. They go to concerts, not only in Kenya but abroad and everywhere else. And the concerts are usually booked and full. So how does our economy gain from this? Of course money is put into it and this money also comes back to the economy of Kenya. So I believe that even for fashion, a lot of designers, our Kenyan designers, they sell these outfits for a lot of cash and back to our economy, it comes back. So I believe that creative economy, given a chance, it would really go a long way in empowering our economic Kenya. So we need to have, what do we, let me ask you, Joseph, what do we need to have? Do we need to have more programs like this that are centered around youth? Today in the morning, one of my co-hosts was showing me a statistic that half of the population in the world are youth. I'm not sure if it's half, I think so. Yet there's still some problems, a lot of problems, still an employment. So what really needs to be done? Do we need to have more programs centered around the youth? How do we empower youths in this area? Okay, thank you. First of all, we need to understand that there's so much power in the young people. And in most cases, this power is actually not utilized in the sense that it was to be. You find young generations are not fully up to their potentials because maybe they lack space, they are not well-natured, they are no good platforms for them maybe to showcase their potentials. For me, I think much has to be done, especially providing young generation with mentorship programs, for example, for them to be well-mended, for them to be showed the way. Because you see now young people are the most learned people, just to say to maybe to mention, because just as you said, the largest population in the world is actually the youth. So if all the youth, for example, maybe a larger percentage of them are learned, these are people who have just gone to schools, they've acquired different skills, they're very innovative, they have the desire and the courage. Because another thing that you need to know, a young generation, they are very brave, they are very bold and that is why you even see them on the social media, they can tackle issues without fear, they can talk on a point of their interest without fear because they are very bold and they have that capability to speak up for the issues. And what needs to be done actually is we need to support them because there are so many ways they are lucky, there are so many things they need to be supported with. First of all, financial, because you see now someone is creative but they lack the capital, they lack the financial support in order to put their ideas into a reality. Another thing is space. You see now back in the communities, we have very many young talented young girls, very many young talented boys, but they are not well exposed. Their talents are just well kept in the villages because they don't have the space to go and to explore, they don't have the works, and once you have an idea and you've not actualized that idea, then that eventually will be so much fruitful to you and to the community around you. So I think what needs to be done is providing them a space, supporting them and also bringing more programs such as these programs, especially that and build their own economy. Okay, wonderful. You've spoken about the finance bit of it, to be creative, you have an idea, but now you need money to implement it. How do you guys go about it in your own area? How did you get money? Because it's a problem that most innovators usually have, they complain about funding. So do we have another option or what's what avenues are there? Sarah, you can answer that. Personally what I did, I wrote a very good proposal of which proposal was one of the topics that we handled at the youth leadership program. So I wrote a very good proposal, but it did not go through and then now I had to come and fundraise through my family and friends and I was happy that they held my hand, they supported me and yeah, I bought the lamps and I gave them to the kids. Wow. So you went out of your way? Yeah, I had to go in and tell my family and friends now you guys and they came through. I'm happy they came through. So someone is this the gap that we are seeing? Is that where we can do something about it? Because I think it's the only thing that usually limits people who are creative out here and there's also something that I read from the writing you sent us. You said that youths are skilled and energetic, full of energy, of creativity, yet they're disengaged in national and regional discourses and processes. So how should they be engaged and how can we solve this problem of funding? One is to do 12 more similar programs, you know, that brings them together and exposes them to a case that they can use. That is, I think, should be very intentional both at government and on profit space to build skills within the youth. Young people will have the technical skills around design, around IT, but how do they turn their skills into money? I think we really need to be intentional as the government at that level and then understand profit space. So that is one thing I think we need to do. I still believe in the power of mentorship, mentoring young people is a way of helping them walk through some of these gaps that are there because I mentor us so many things to a young person. Let me be proud of myself. Kisemei was my mentor. Now he's wearing a suit, I'm not. Oh, he was your mentor, you're the mentor. Now he's wearing a suit. Okay. When I go to meet Kisemei in Kajedo, I feel very intimidated. So I think having people trailblazed to really, you know, very intentionally not hold young people. You'll have programs, but then what is the end goal of the programs? Will they graduate after six months or whichever months then go and hang in the space? What do you do with them in the entirety of the process? So we have program years, but then what is the entirety of the process looking like? How do you unhaul them? How do you help them navigate the spaces that you know, probably as a mentor, you know how to do? Okay. So you make, you ease in the process for them. Sure. For this program, how do people get into it? Give us the details and what are the modules like? Yeah. It's an application process. We just closed on the 28th of last month and we had eight, 94 applications. Wow, that's a lot. A lot of applications. And this is for the second court. For the first court, we had a thousand and three and sixty-four applicants. So what that tells us is we have to be planning for these opportunities. Yes. Yeah. People are looking for such. Yeah. So after you apply, we take you through a thorough interview process because as we interview, we're also training you to tackle interviews and become creative and ask interview questions for your own, you know, spaces. So after three prognetic days, the first one where you write towards, I mean, there's a questionnaire issue, then we call you for an unknown interview, then there's another type of interview with leadership. So it is a very rigorous process to get in. So it's an application process. What do you look for in an interview just to give our viewers a leakage over the next summer? I think it's creativity. Creativity. Creativity is at the score the highest points. And it doesn't really matter much, you know, the degree or whatever, but how creative are you as a young person? That's where the most marks lie. Are you creative to use what you have, what is in your space to then solve challenges in your space? You know, when you tell young people there's a garbage issue, let's say in Madari, they'll tell you, you have to bring in trucks to clean Madari and do. Is that really creative? So we look, creativity is a very important element and resilience because we'll put you through fire. So you need to know that they're prepared for that, they can stand it. You need to withstand it and then just, you know, the service to the community is very important for us. And when, imagine out of the eight ninety-four applications, we can only take seventy-five. Oh my. So we keep asking ourselves what happened to the eight hundred plus and we left another close to nine hundred plus in the last call. The past one, yeah. So speaking of what Kisemiah was saying, we need more such programs. Young people are coming out, are yearning for them, but who is willing to unhaul them? Greek and itself cannot hold the entire East African space. How can other players come into this space? And for the seventy-five, it's all of them from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Imagine. Wow. I feel you need to see at most places. Because only, you know, Kenya's a lot of jobs. Kenya's over five hundred and some people, you know, Kenya's a lot of dressing. And imagine out of the five hundred applications, Kenya could only take, I think, fifty or forty, forty-five. Because they have to go to their peers. So we do two courts of seventy-five, seventy-five, making it one fifty a year. But we get applications close to maybe over two thousand. So it keeps us awake at night. What do we do with these other young people? It's very hard to reject them. And let me tell you, they're very creative and they're very resilient, but you can only accommodate one fifty per year for now. Okay. What about the modules? So we start, we call it in-out. We start with a topic that people are very, you know, sensitive about. And that's mental health. So the first topic is mental health, because young people, and people generally have issues. So we start mental health. Then as you do your mental health first module, we align with this. There are standby psychiatrists who, if you need more, they'll be with you through the program. These are available on call to work with you. So we start with mental health, then self-awareness, then project planning and management, entrepreneurship, an issue that we are finding young people are struggling with these issues around networking. You know, how do you go into a space and get to know you, and get your number, and then use this as a network to build on? There'll be spaces and there'll be no sub. And there's a minister there. And opportunity. Just by there. So networking is a key element of that. And then career preparedness and growth, because we realized somebody can have a degree, but they don't know how to write a CV. They can have a degree and they come to an interview 45 minutes late and no topologies. And I work with them at times, you know, they come and they can take tea and leave it on the table and feel nothing. And that was an interview. They just take the table and leave it for you to figure it out. So it's trying to make it very practical for them. But one thing I need to mention is that all of them are assigned to grassroots organizations. So that it's just, it's not just a theological training. As I was doing a program, she was attached to an organization in Kajedo West, right? Then Kisemei was in Kajedo Central. So all of them across South Africa, we give them a space to expressly acquire a case and then we'll help them. All right. So the next cohort will be next year? Yes, the next cohort, there's a cohort which is starting on 1st September. We have a graduation on the 30th of August, then the next cohort kicks in all the way to February next year. So anybody who's interested, look out Greek Africa on social media and on our website, we'll put up the applications around November. Please apply early. It's on a rolling basis. Greek Africa. Z-R-I-C, Space Africa. Okay. That's where you get all the details. All right. As we come to a close of this, I want to know, you take, why youths need to, okay, not really get to the program, they know why they need to get in the program, why they need to get into the creative economy space now. Let me start with you. Okay. I can say the youths need actually to engage themselves meaningfully to this creative economy. And the reason is as to why you see, for example, 5% of the 5.3, in fact, 5.3% of the Kenyan GDP is actually contributed by creativeness and all the other issues around creativeness. You see now, there are no job opportunities for all of us and we are talented and we are educated and God has given us different talents as well as gifts and skills that we can use to at least to provide better and better. So I think the reason why youths need to engage themselves is because there are more opportunities in the creative industry. You find maybe someone now, like, for example, Kenya, Kenya actually sends maybe Kenya engages in a transaction of selling things like corporates, trademarks, patents, to other jurisdiction. And then, in that regard, Kenya earns money as a way of a transaction with other jurisdiction. So now, if we have more innovative people, more creative people, actually, into this industry, then it will create another space for employment for another very big percentage of people who are not employed. So we will not be in a position only to look for jobs in the county government. Neither will we actually trust things so much the national government for job opportunities because we will actually be in getting food through our own innovations, creativeness, and we will actually even support the government in coming up with other ways of solving other issues. Amazing. For you, Catherine, how would you advise the youth to leverage on technology? I think right now technology is, I think I can say everything. You can do a lot with your phone. You can do a lot with your laptop. Instead of video gaming, maybe for example, your young girl or young man at the, anyway, maybe at the village setup or at a town setup, at the city setup. There's a lot to just come. I think what we need to do as youths, become creative, and now just think, how can I put, for example, my talent into a business idea, have a clear vision of what you want. And also, you need to know who is supposed to help me, who can I partner with. You know, have that clearly. And I think when you think, when you do, so just think, have a business idea, work towards it, create a very good business model. And I think your talent, your art, your fashion design, a lot of youths, I think what we are lacking or we are missing a point as youths is, we just want to work at an office. You don't want to hands on deck, you know. You just want to be there with a computer, go at an office, eight to five, and then you're good. But now I know for a fact that many fashion designers, they really do a lot. They wake up very early in the morning, they go sleep late at night. But by the end of it, when they see something that they have created, that they have innovated, they feel fulfillment. And to even top it all, you get to get good money. So our youths, let's think harder. Let's try put these ideas into business models. And I think by the end of it, we'll create job opportunities for ourselves. Okay, I love it. You have an idea, put it as a business model and then implement it. Amazing. Finally, some more as we close up. The program is centered towards giving back to the community. Why is this important for a youth out there? I mean, I can create something for myself and make money. Why do I need to give back to the community? And what would you want to say as a final word as you close? Thank you so much. That's a question I get a lot. Why should I? And ask what should you not? This is your community. I mean, it builds a lot in you beyond giving back. It teaches you the value of citizenship. It teaches you resilience. So look at it as a way of also acquiring skills. So please give back. It's a question I get a lot. Why should I? I think for us to change a lot of things, we have to do that. And my final word would be, come out young people. Be aggressive. Some of the applicants we have have applied for five times and now they're getting in. Don't give up on the first failure. And I always say when you have to fail, please fail forward. Dust yourself up. These appointments will be there, but you have to soldier on other young people. We cannot, I mean young people cannot give up and say it's over for us. Then what? You have to keep moving. We have to keep moving. Okay. Thank you. What's your social media handle once again? So it's at Greek Africa for the organization, across all platforms on Twitter and Facebook. We are still having the young people set for up as an Instagram page. So it's still in this home. And TikTok too. The teaching allowed to dance. So forgive us for the dance tells you to see on that. We're on a learning journey. Forgive you. We are very understanding people. Thank you very much guys for coming on board and sharing with us, you know, experience and great insights. I'm sure our youth out there is motivated and it's bad to do something because you have done it and you have seen it through. So this has been sport and tech discussion on creative economy with Samuel Minor, a senior programs officer at Greek. Greek is grassrootsness for innovation and change. You can get them on social media at Greek Africa. Greek is G R I C space and then Africa. We also had Catherine Saretta and Joseph Kiseme. They're both alumni of Greek youth leadership program. I hope you've taken something from this interesting conversation. We're going to take a short break and then we'll be back with youth and lifestyle. Stay with us.