 Welcome back to why in the morning and if it's Tuesday it's entrepreneurship Tuesday at white woofer for channel Is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Ashira is where you can find me across all my social in this particular session. We dive into an interview that looks at innovative Activities that young people can get into to actually change Challenges that are there in the society. It's all about matters pertaining the rotor act club in studio I am joined with none other than Josephine. Okay, she's a very young lady Josephine Achar she is the president of the rotor act club that is KU chapter How are you doing? I'm doing fine. How did you survive yesterday without IG? It was terrible. I realized late that the social media platforms are not actually working so I just kept calm and then it was a bit late. So it was Okay, it was okay. Just before you do. Can you survive a day without your phone like being on social media? Yes, if I'm busy, I can survive without my phone. What is the one thing that you can't leave the house without? Well food Okay, that's a different story because most people are interactive for me Can't stay a day without my phone. That is just being honest So I've interacted with a couple of my friends and everyone and their phone is always one thing they can do without I guess you You know different So Karibu Sanna, so we'll be talking about significance of youth involvement in community development projects and His rotor act for person who is getting to interact with this name for the first time What does it mean and what does it entail? Okay, so rotor act is basically a youth Program that is run by dedicated and committed youths of 18 years and older. So We are and under the umbrella of Rotary International So ours is a rotor act KU chapter. So basically what we do as rotor actors We engage the community in different activities We nurture skills and talents Among the youth in the community Additionally, we also we also help through the Opportunities that are there for developing projects in the communities majorly to assist the youths and Other individuals in society. Okay. We'll talk about Projects or different activities that you actually do in the community. What are we looking at? Different activities in the community. Yes Okay, we we have Various areas of focus we do focus on environment so some of the environmental activities that we do we do plant trees It's an It's it's a country thing. So we engage in tree planting activities Mostly and that's one of our major areas of focus as rotor act Kenyatta University So others include education best projects. We help the needy Communities to access books and stationery for just to encourage encourage the reading culture Yes, and then we also develop communities through other community service projects like visiting children's homes Visiting homes for the elderly. So yes, we also invite Speakers that is for professional and leadership Development among our now our members they in they they get to attend various Talks about various topics in general We talk about different platform that you guys are offering. I've had nice things that such as leadership skills Professional skills and the seminars that you bring people to talk mentors that is do you guys also have a space whereby you? Like you handle the issue of an employment because the majority of people you interact with that the young people Okay, yes for the and unemployment is such a problem in our country. I think Yes, it is. So Rotoract we came up with various platforms for creation of jobs we did these are rotakazi Platform it's a website that enables young individuals to access job opportunities In that a website They are different jobs that are being announced each and every time so You know youths get to engage in such platforms to look for jobs and we also do other trainings other creativity and innovation trainings so from there like Members or rather youths who are involved can get in touch with the various professionals to do whatever they want in a certain field so Majorly the members will tell us what they feel like they need like the trainings they need then we'll invite professionals to come and Educators on what's supposed to be done here and who is eligible to be part of you guys Okay, Rotoract Anyone can join Rotoract Provided you are 18 years and older so We just encourage Dedicated and passionate individuals to join Rotoract because at the end of it all it's all Goes back to what you you are interested in doing because if you are not passionate in doing whatever you want to do or You are not passionate to join a group based program so It won't be really possible if you get to join the the club You've been to I just think I'm sure you've been to that could be so many young people Who's a young person that is but for me where you're seated. Yeah What is it like to as a young person just you know Because we always your money-minded most of us because we are told we are done with school We're trying to get probably employment that is nothing is coming by but what is so important about young people? Just getting involved when it comes to matters pertaining youth development Okay, well in terms of community development that is Are you saying in terms of like individuals getting out of yes, how impactful is it on a personal level? okay, well getting to Organizations such as such as rotor act and rotary You get to experience a lot of things you get to meet a lot of people so meeting a lot of people entail developing more skills in in terms of your career or what you want to do or rather you can also be innovative enough or Adventurers enough in other fields. You see like it's it's not just limited to what you are doing. So Rotor act is quite impactful in terms of youths getting out of school It's always a great deal, you know transitioning from From campus life now to now outside the world. So you see Once you're there like at least you are open-minded on About any opportunity that can come along so I think Innovation is one of the things that our members get from The club after after after campus. So through that you can do other things many many things I feel like it also builds your capacity Yeah, when you speak about matters, but any innovation it open ups your mind to just be creative more being over creative person Yeah, yeah, that's true cause I see Getting to learn in your area of area of let me say career-wise. So That's a bit limiting. Let me say so because You know, you can do many other things apart from your career Yeah, the capacity is always there if you are open-minded enough to Realize that yeah, what are the factors that actually influencing young people to just you know, be part of this particular Program because it's very rare for Especially in the generation y2z as they call us We just we are mostly Thinking of other things apart from just community development Factors that are influencing young people to get into this sector of community development Okay, well Let me say in particular no program so People are motivated when they see other youths making impacts Making effective impacts in significant impacts in the community Like youths youths would want to get involved. That's one thing about the youths. They they like getting involved. So The youths are also creative and innovative so they'll try they'll tend to look for opportunities that Help them to you know, increase their capacity in doing whatever they want to do so I think inspiration is one of the factors that really motivate the youth especially Those between now the ages of 18 and 30 you see so They think by being inspired. They are Actually they can actually get to be part of the program the youth development and community development Program, right? And how do you guys raise our finances to just run these particular different programs and activities that you guys are involved in Okay now for Rotoract Kenyatta University We we have fundraising projects We normally have Rotary Yeah, so Rotary year starts in July 1st and ends in June Now the the next year June 30th so between June 30th and July we we plan our activities so fundraising is one of the Activities that we plan to Engage in so what we do we We do projects to fundraise for our Our activities Sometimes we engage in cow wash Projects so from cow wash we get some little finer, I mean little fans to to sustain our projects And also we get funds from well-wishers whenever we have such activities like donations To different organizations like children's home home for the elderly or For the people living with disabilities. Yes, okay? You're the president of the Rotary Club back in KU. So what does what does your What is your title like? Comprised of what do you do on a daily basis? Just to govern your members that is Okay As a president of Rotoract KU I'm also a student. Okay, I Need I know like I need to plan my days activities because I have to you know Manage now the projects and not to tell you because I also have a board so my board helps me organize activities of the day or of Maybe the next the next activities that we are supposed to have and also mobilizing youths especially during this period is also a challenge. So I get members. I mean board members to help me through the mobilizing and through engaging the youths generally because we need a Great number to join us So we have to go an extra mile getting members to join us members who are passionate Who are interested in joining us? All right, and for how long have you guys been in operation? Rotoract KU University or yes, yes, okay Rotoract in general started in 1968 But the KU chapter We have it started in 1934 so It has been a while couple of decades So what a couple of achievement stories that you guys have gathered as From where you seated as they had and also having members which how many are they 20 or more than 20? well Currently we have About 210 members. Okay, so what are the challenge? No, sorry before you get to challenges the achievement stories that you guys have gathered within the time frame that you've been in existence Okay, well Rotoract Kenyatta University, we call ourselves the great and mighty Rotoract KU Through the program We've been able to engage more youths to join us because You know getting getting young young people, you know, it's it's quite a challenge So we've been able to get a large number of group that can help us run our projects And also we we do mentorship programs again The membership programs we do we have Okay, we normally have rotary then we have Rotoract then we have interact So interact at those people from high school level. So we have to high school Under interact. I mean under the Rotoract KU. We have The state house girls and we also have up a hill so Through mentorship programs. We also engage them. You see now we engage them from From a lower level Yeah, all right and couple of challenges that you'll face As the president or as the club as a club that is Let me say we have quite a challenge especially in you know to organize projects and you know to For them to be successful. It needs quite a lot. It needs a lot of engagement. So Especially during this period we've encountered a number of engagement Problems like with the youths because you find that other people are at home So you see we have to like have other people come on board to help us with all these arrangements so Engagement is has been I think the the main challenge for the club You early on before you even got on the air You have your conversation of the impact of COVID-19 and now it has influence affected that is Your activities some of the activities that you guys used to do. So how was the pandemic actually like? Not made a hindrance of you guys Looking into critical issues such as you know when it comes to addressing Problems in community development that you guys used to do before the pandemic Okay The main the main challenge Okay, you know before the pandemic we used to like have physical meetings in school that is so After the pandemic, I mean during this whole period We've not had a physical meeting with our members. So we normally do virtual meetings and No, it's just to say yesterday's WhatsApp Instagram thing didn't work the black out Okay, it's work like so well with us because we were to have meeting I mean a virtual meeting. Okay, so I think Working with people who are committed and dedicated and they know what they are doing. It's a Great thing because you want to be like really following up on people You see if you have this group of individuals that want to do what they want to be supervised They don't need to be supervised. They know actually they'll tell you by there. We are supposed to do this So I think it's a it was a great One having them because if we had like people people who just want to join, you know We have also groups who just want to join okay labs for maybe official reasons Formality So you see it wouldn't have really worked because Then we couldn't have managed a lot of projects. Okay. So just when it's for someone who's watching this conversation And they would like to be part of you. How can they reach out to you and keep the conversation going? well We have social media platforms give us the social media your comrades Okay, we have we are on Twitter as RC Kenyatta University The same to Instagram RC KU Kenyatta University and the same to Facebook RC KU Kenyatta University So you can reach us through our social media handles. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much Just fin for creating time to be with us talking about matter pertaining rotor acts for someone who's finding out about it today I'm so sure they have lands a couple of things and if they would love to you know No more and be part of rotor acts make sure you reach out to just fin HR also their social media handles She has given them out. So we were talking about significance of youth involvement in community development projects I try to fulfill a channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle as she So you can find me across almost social. So remember stay tuned. We have so much coming your way and Yes, the hashtag to use is hashtag and the pretty shit is there. We'll be right back