 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. Solutions to problems are nurtured from the ground up. Cementing change starts from the roots. Today I have Florence Ayo, a final year student of media with me who started a movement to ensure that these changes are made effectively. Florence, tell us about yourself. Tell us about how you started your movement. Thank you so much for this opportunity, Granis. My name is Florence Ayo Nyango, a final year media student at Masena University, the only university at the equator. And I was specialised in public relations and corporate communication. And yes, my founder of GGB Africa. GGB Africa in Poland is Google and Boy Africa. I'm the CIO, Young Captains, co-dinator. I'm a member of a Cattile Youth Program. It's an international organisation. And yes, that's all I can say. It's about Flora. So how did all this become possible? Well, growing up, I've always wanted to be on the forefront in making change in the society. And I've always thought of other many possible ways of how can I be among the top most people in setting pace for change in the society. So I decided, let me do something. Let me come up with an initiative that can spearhead what I really wanted to do in the society. And that's when I tapped into GGB Africa. So talk a little bit about GGB. What do you talk about? What do you empower people to do? Who are your target audience? How do you go about it? So GGB Africa in Poland is Girl, Girl in Boy Africa. You see there's that aspect of girls and boys and also that aspect of girls. So these are people that we want to nurture. We want to make them discover. We want to nurture their talents. We want to nurture that unique thing they have. And then later on, we make them exploit in their final stage in life. So GGB Africa, it's about these girls and boys coming together after all this nurturing and all that brought together. They come and achieve their goals. So when you say, when you see at the end, there is that aspect of Africa. We believe that we want to do this not only in Kenya. We want to do it globally. We are dreaming big that one day we might we travel to Ethiopia. We travel to Gambia. We travel to Zambia and all those countries to make change to the lives of young people. So GGB Africa, we deal with girls and boys between the age of 20, sorry, 10 to 25. 10 to 25 in that there are girls and boys from primary school, from secondary level, also tertiary levels of education. So we mostly focus on getting them in the institutions that is a very central and a safe place to gather. And sometimes during the holiday, we liars with the ministry of education and the chiefs and, you know, these people that are, you know, exactly so that we get them to do or whatever we do, the counseling, the health promotion, so GGB Africa does five main things and our programs are one is health promotion. Second is gender equality. Third is we have business incubation. We have climate change and then we have the aspect of student mentorship. So in health promotion, that is where we have counseling activities. We have the sex education. We have the, you know, sanitary towels to the girls. We have the aspect of mental health, the primary health care. It's just about taking care of the individual's health socially and also physically and all that aspect. And talking about gender equality, we are growing in a society where there are a lot of things people are talking about in terms to women and girls, you know, boys and men. There are a lot of things that are people are talking about who should cook supper, who should cook lunch. But you want to tell them, you know, when you talk about gender equality, not about the kitchen stuff, we are talking about opportunities here. We are telling them that you people, you can work together. Girls and boys can work together. Men and women can work together in this person's career. We have the equal opportunity. You can be a president. You can also be a president. You can be a doctor. No one, no one is limited because of gender. No one is limited or because of, you know, how, you know, how they are, you see how the society has defined them. It is not, it should not be a limit to you. So you can go extra mile. It doesn't matter whether you are wearing a skirt or a trouser. You can go extra mile, achieve your dreams and all that. The aspect of climate change, climate change is a very important aspect in that what you tell them is about sensitization. It's more of awareness because it's a modern crisis, you know, because of the human activities that have been going on throughout our, especially in Africa. So we tell them, we tell them the reason why we're having a problem with the reason why we have to clean our markets, the reason why we have to take care of our environments. Why are we planting trees? We are telling them as early as 12, as early as 10 so that they know, you know, when you don't do this during your time, during your generation, you people will be having a problem in food with water. You will be living a very horrible life. So when you tell them this, they're also growing up in their mind, thinking of other innovative ways of trying to curb the situation, you know, and which we try not to talk about student mentorship. In student mentorship, we are talking about what we do is student leadership capacity building where that one is meant for leaders. And then you also have career guidance, you know, when they were there in primary and high school, they really want to know what, what do I want to do for me to become a doctor? What do I want to do? You know, what should I do for me to embark on this and this course? So we also do that and also life skill coaching. We also guide them about this life skill, you know, the critical thinking and all these how to make your decisions as you transform, as you transform from a child to an adult, you know? So I think I've mentioned all. Yeah, yeah. So GDB Africa, we are, you know, centered in making these children transform into a whole. We are about excellence. It's about the, you know, when you talk about excellence, it doesn't mean getting an A or getting a B. It's about transforming as a whole. Like you are confident, you know, somebody has identified something in you, you know, that is about discovering it as naturally and now has given you a platform to exploit. So you go outside there, a whole person, very confident and apologetic, you go for whatever thing that you want to achieve. And that is the generation that you want. And it's only if we, if we can succeed in mentoring these young people, even our leadership will be transformed up there. They will say, no, we don't want corruption. And then they stand up, they will not just be making noise on Twitter, but they'll be action oriented generation because they know, you know, we want to, somebody nurtured us and we are here. Now we also want to nurture a certain generation that will say no to all these things that we see happening in the country. And there's nothing being done about it. Or if there's something that is being done, it's only to a certain percentage because you're scared of guffinia thing. So you want to, that is the kind of generation that Google and boy Africa wants to raise. In short, a generation that is no longer timid or afraid. So take us through the journey. How did you start? Who did you approach? And yeah, how did you go along with it? And how the journey has been so far? Wow. The journey has been very, very interesting. Very interesting. I started it as a, as, as, as an initiative called the Golgal, Golgal, Golgal initiative. And then after that, that's when I transformed to Golgal in boy Africa. So when you went to, when I was going to the villages around, I took you to the girls alone, I felt that I was not, I was, I was not helping out. I was creating more of a problem than, than, than, than a solution because there is no way you're going to empower these girls alone. And you're not teaching the men how to live with empowered women. How is that going to happen? Like you already when you're secluding these girls, you're telling, you're walking in the neighborhood and telling people that, you know, I want girls, they're doing this one for girls alone. You're doing this one for girls alone. What, what message are you trying to pass to those boys that are, you know, that, that they don't matter? No, no, no. Yes. I decided to like, let us do this thing in unison. Let us bring the girls and boys together so that we share. We see, we see where we've gone wrong. We see how do we need to, to move on. We share all these things in a collective manner in, in all these genders together. So that's why I brought in the aspect of boys. So when I was trying to come up with this GGB Africa, transforming from Golgal to it, I didn't approach so many people. I just approached my God and told God, you see, this is the idea that you've brought into me and I don't know how to go about it. So guide me through. And the people that I approached, they came through and I thank God we are here. I think that's all I can say about it. Okay. So what is bad you to start it? Well, um, growing up, I, this, this time I was in nursery school, you know, I was brought up in Masseno in the Pateline, Nairobi. So when I went to Shago, I was taken to a nursery school and those people speak some language, they don't understand, it was glue up. So I go to school the whole day and then come back and my mom will ask me, my phone's on an issue and then I say it's kuski or anything. So it went like that for some time. And then the aspect of I was daring, there's a time when I was from school and I just, I just, something just told me you can do this, just, just do it. And then there was a lorry that was coming and I just, I just wanted to be a little bit, I don't know what you call that, mysterious. So I stood on the road and then I just wanted to see what they could do if they could, you know, pass with me or what were they going to do. So I did that. So I had somebody saying, I was young, I had some woman saying that this lady, this is a very confident and daring lady. So, you know, at that time I didn't know what she was saying, but when I was growing up, I found it, people tell me I'm rude, people tell me Kimbelemele, I was that and I'm still that, even in forum, you will hate me, but I will not care because I really want to achieve what I want to. So that really inspired me and I was my number one supporter. You will tell me something, I'll feel bad, but I'll go ahead and say, this is what I want to achieve, this is for me. So I really believed that if I wanted to make a change in society, I could not go to any other platform because when you go to somebody else's platform, they tell you, you know, you're still a student, you're still here, we can't give you a chance to talk, we cannot do this. You know, at that time there were not these many NGOs to give you all that platform. So I said, well, I'm equally, I build, whatever somebody can do, I can do, I can do all things through Christ to strengthen me. So that idea, it kicked in and I'm like, how do I go about it? And yes, here we are. So my inspiration is about the future. What will I live? What legacy will I live after I'm gone? How do I want my children to behave? How do I want my society to behave? How do I want to impact them? Do I want to impact them positively, negatively? So now I want to impact them positively, I have to behave in a certain manner. I have to come up with something, something that will leave behind, something that other generations will come after I'm gone. At least they'll have something to identify with, something to help them, something to also impact the lives of other people. So that's why I came up with GDP Africa. That is so interesting because actually, if you were to share 5% of the mentality about the future that you have to most of the youth around who would have a very, very significant change in the long run. So you're still a student and mentorship and innovative ideas take a lot of time and a lot of planning. So how do you balance the two? It has not been easy and then because even if you check our social media handles, you'll see we don't do activities, you know, let me say timely. We'll take time to do our activities because of that aspect of balancing with studies. So it has not been easy and because you also have to perform. Sometimes your parent doesn't even know what you're doing because they tell you when they get the degree first. You know, our parents believe in getting the degree first before exploring what you want to do. But you're telling yourself, I cannot wait. I want to do this. So you multitask. So when you're multitasking, if you're not careful, the other side might suffer. So it takes grace for you to balance it but you can see one side was suffering and that is the initiative. So I had to take up the what I'm a student right now. So I'm to give my education, all the attention, all the focus it needs. And after that, that's when when you had some some some some space in the weekend, in between the weekends and all that, we do the activities. But when I'm done with school, it will be gbf. Okay. And I will I'll want us to discuss about the qualities of someone taking the initiative to do such work. Like what qualities can do I need or do someone who is out there who is inspired by your movement? What qualities do they need to have such a movement going? Passion is everything. Passion is everything even in in workplace in everything that you want to achieve. Passion is everything. We have to be consistent. We have to be what exactly do you what exactly do you want to achieve at the end of it? Do you want to get in because you don't have anything else to do? Do you want to get in because you want to pass time or you want to we want to be used on social media? You know, that is the question that I ask young people because for me, I was like, I really wanted to be a journalist. I really wanted to be, you know, to be a news anchor someday and look at me now or specialize in public relations. But you know, like somebody was asking me, so if I offer you a job in public relations right now, and then we do organization, which one would you go for? I'm like, wait, PR can wait. I'll do PR in GGB Africa. Yeah, I'll do all those aspects of media in GGB Africa. This is why this is why do I say so? Because I really have the passion in what I'm doing. I believe in it. So we want for you to go extra mile or for you to join this initiative or for you to start something like this. Passion is key. And understanding what exactly do you want to achieve and what problem are you solving? So you have to be specific and you have to answer those questions first. So passion and what else? Like I said, you have to be passionate. You have to know why am I getting myself into this? You know, it's about sacrifice. Can you sacrifice your family? Can you sacrifice your career? Can you sacrifice your time? Will you do this even without social media? Will you impact the lives of people without social media? Without posting that I went to, you know, to this place to give out sanitary towels? Will you do it if nobody was going to watch you? Will you do it when nobody was there to fund it? Will you do it when everyone is like, what are you doing? Will you still do it? So it's about, it is just something, there is something that is triggering you to do this, you know. So it's about hard work, consistency, you know, knowing what exactly you want to do, why are you doing it, you know. And it narrowing all these qualities and narrowing down to your passion because passion will now channel all these things. Yeah, so and you, you, you, this is not a one-man initiative group, right? Yes. So do you have friends, families, or a community backing you up? Yes, I have friends, I have a community, I have serious individuals for backing me up and their students and some of them are new students. Like now that I'm, when I did the mega event at Masino University, I had a lot of some of the lecturers at Masino University trying to hold my hand and telling me they could support me. We have the likes of Dr. Rabari, we have the likes of Dr. Iteng, we have the likes of Dr. Neuro, we have the likes of a lot, the list is endless. So those are people who are at least, I call them as a, I call them my community, that they are to help me. And also the people that we started with the journey since 2020 when I was forming this initiative, they are there to, you know, to help me out because, you know, GGB Africa, we don't have funders, we are doing business from our pockets, imagine students sacrificing their pocket money so that we could go in the village somewhere to impact our life because we are not from rich families, we are struggling, you understand a comrade's life, a student's life. So somebody is sacrificing something from the little pocket money they get so that they impact at least one life. That is so impressive. So those are the kind of people we have in the group. Yes. And what about the challenges? What challenges do you encounter? Do you even encounter challenges? That is, and what are they and how do you encounter them and manoeuvre through them? Yeah, challenges are part of life and part of personal. And yes, sometimes as an individual, you get so tired, you go somewhere. And then like, at the time I wanted to do an event at some institution and they are asking me, who is the patron? Are you, they looked at me and like, who is the patron of this thing? I'm like, I wanted us to tell them, which generation are you in? Like, where are you from? Right now, even somebody at the age of 18 can be a CEO, somebody can be, why would you need somebody bigger or somebody at, you know, at a certain age to lead a certain initiative? So there are those people, there are those people who look at you at like, you cannot do this, but you're not even part, you know, you know, they, those big people, they're such kind of people. Yeah. And there are those also who tell you, like, attacking by an umbrella, that those who tell you attacking by an umbrella, that those who sometimes you just feel so tired, you're like, I want to do this mission, but I don't have funds, or you go to somebody, they tell you, no, wait for us, we'll, you know, we'll come back to you, then they don't, you do an event, somebody tells you, I'll connect you to these, and this person, I'll connect you to this person at the moment's promises. And then when you do a follow up, oh, nothing happens. And sometimes these are student-led organizations, and most of us are students, there's a mission there, we need to go to a certain institution, we need to do an event, people are so busy with classes, so you're like, what do I do now? So you have to convince them, at least try, take your time, you know, it's a lot in finance, it's also a very big challenge, that's why I cannot lie, money is everything, we need money to move, we need money to do things, we need money to put smiles on these people's faces, and we don't have that at the moment. So we are writing paper proposals to people, at least they could fund our activities, because we are not stopping, we are not stopping. And talking about funding, another challenge that we have, we have, as GGB Africa, we have some of the co-founders actually developed three innovations that when funded, we just lack capital, that when funded can go a long way in providing funds for the initiative. We'll even end up having an office of ourselves, because these are business ideas, we talked about business incubation. So this business incubation is where we encourage these young girls, young girls in boys, at tertiary levels of education, that is polytechnics, at events and colleges and universities, so that when they have an innovative idea, we bring them experts where they can pitch to, and then we get people who can sponsor them. So actually we have, but we don't have sponsors who can't sponsor us. So yeah. But if you've been standing since 2020, that makes a very big statement. Yeah, it makes a very big statement, but the only problem that we have is how often do we do activities. Yes, we got there since that, but as much as we are there, but we do not do our activities in a manner that we really like, because of the student thing, the limitations with funds, and when you want people to come on board, some of them are school first, and when you say school first because you're in school, and then we do this on the next day. Yeah, yeah. In regards to your initiative, your organization, what is the beauty of starting transformation from the ground? You will all agree with me when I say a foundation is very key. You know, when you want to build a house, you really concentrate on the foundation of it, right? When you, a foundation is everything in life. So there is no way, I was talking to some of our team members, we're just having a discussion, I was telling them, people are saying right now that young people don't want agriculture, that it's a dirty job. But when they come in the panelist, when they come in the panelist, when they come in the society, they tell us, who do they showcase? You look at most people right now, most young people, they are actually, they're wanting to be MCs, you know, they want to be politicians, because they know the bigger, the bigger spoon is there, because that is what the society has installed us. Since you are young, you see those, our mamas dancing to the politicians. So we think that is the best. But look at agriculture. Agriculture is depicted as something very, you know, very dirty. So yeah, that is how they started it. So there's no way at the university level to come and tell me, do agriculture. Yet, at the primary level, you are telling me, you know, you are giving even examples of people who are doing agriculture the way they are not people in the society, they are not respected people in the society. So the transformation we are doing, I told you that GDP Africa, we are aimed at transforming this gulf. So it is the key thing we are focusing on is the foundation. We are building a very strong foundation, a very strong foundation. We are telling them, you know what, you can create something out of yourself. You don't need to be a doctor to be announced when there is something extraordinary you can do in your life. So that is where we are focusing on this 10 to 10 to 12 to the upper ages. You know, at this age, that is when you are at 10 or 12. That's when you discover yourself. You discover something in you. And you know, some people even in the village, they don't have the platform to discover themselves. So when you talk to them and you know, you look at a child doing something, you know, you know, crafting something, see this child is talented. So how can we help her? You meant that you don't kill it and tell her that there are no finances, you might, you get away. So we try and connect them with other people. So that is what we are doing. It's about the after you give them that strong foundation, my dear, they will, they will go all out to achieve whatever they want to achieve. After just, it's about just discovering, you know, discovering what can I do differently. Even if it is this, the teachers were gifted. They're gifted teachers, right? Yeah, they're gifted engineers. They're gifted, you know, a lot of people, apart from the coaching part of, apart from the education part of it, that those people are just gifted. So it just about a little bit of nourishment that, you know, they're given and then they explore and become very big people. Yeah. Yeah. So that is what it is. You have mentioned something very important about finding that thing that helps you come up, not blaming yourself, believing in yourself. That's what you said. And there's this aspect where someone might look at you and I'm like, God, Florence has done so much, but I haven't done that. I am not doing enough like Florence has. What can you tell such people? Well, I want to tell everybody that we are different. We are able differently. We are gifted differently. Sure. What you can do, I cannot do it. What I can do, sometimes you cannot do it. But there are a few cases where you can do similar things. So don't look, that is about comparing yourself with other people. And this one is not only in our youthful generation. We carry on with it. You look at yourself and you're like, oh, Granny is a 21 and she's doing all this. Stop it. That is a very negative energy, you know. And people get blessed at different times. Even the given God says that at his own time, he'll make it happen. So there is no way you can start looking at other young people and saying, because Granny is doing this and I'm not doing that now, I'm a bad one. I cannot do it. No, we are able differently and everybody, what we need to do, just identify that unique thing you can do, that unique thing that you can go all out, that unique thing that you can die tapping into spaces to have it grow, to having it thrive and do it. But let us stop this competition thing. A lot has happened. Even in social media, I look at the likes of Azead and all that. Azead is 22 and you're looking at yourself at 25 and you're like, oh my God, you'll even make it. So we are able to do this. That aspect, she's good in social media. You are good in agriculture. Another person is good in politics. Another one is good in mentorship. Another one is good in media. Another one is good in engineering. So we are all unique people. We are all able differently. And that is the society we want. So when I go to, when I need something, we'll need an expert from the field of agriculture, I can get somebody. When I need somebody, and then we nurture, we use this energy to nurture these young people. We tell them you can make it at 22. You can also make it at 40. And all of you are still humans and all of you have achieved your dreams. So it doesn't matter whatever somebody else is doing and you're not doing. It is about, have you given up? When you give up, it's done. So it's about the drive. What do you want to achieve? What is it at the end of it all? So don't look at what somebody else is doing with that, the eyes of, I cannot do this because she's doing that. I cannot do this because of her. So I think that's all. Yeah. Wow, wow, wow. I have loved her. I have loved her. I'm not sure if you've loved, but I'm very sure you can, you can understand what she's saying. You're able differently. You're gifted differently. You don't have to be me so that you can make a change in the society. You only have to be yourself. You only have to do it for yourself. You're not mine in any, any aspect because you have a unique thing in yourself. You have something that you bring out into the society. Identify it, nurture it and make it your passion to transform the society to where you want it to be. This has been Youth in Action. I am Nyong'ueso Grenis.