 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. Leadership has taken a significant turn over the years. And the youths, y'all know we the youths, are no longer the leaders of tomorrow. Erastas or Sikoya has followed through for a better generation to come. Erastas, give us a backstory about yourself. Thank you. Thank you for that question. My name is Erastas, I am a graduate of Masayna University. I'm an M.A.C. in agronomy, in agriculture and sciences. And hoping to enroll in my PhD in the next two or three months. That is what I'm hoping to. And we run a master key program initiative for the last two years now. That's what we've been doing. Yes. So what is master key? Master key is a mentorship program that we began to ensure that we are bringing on board young youths. These are teens from 12, 13 years and young and early youths who are up to 35 and also young couples. So we bring them on board, we help them to have an all-round life. Because as the word signifies, master key, we need them anytime they're coming outside this corporate world, they are able to open any door and they can do many and mighty things. Because we believe that youths, they have the power regardless of the challenges that they are facing. But if somebody stands out and helps them to stand, then they are able to open any door with the master key. And so what prompted the decision to venture into the mentorship? The main reason why we decided with my other team members, personally I'm the vice president of master key. With my president who is not around now and our general secretary, we decided that in 2020 when we had COVID come in everybody was whining and people were not able to stand up for anything. We realized that most of our young men and women saw the teenagers and the youths had a lot of idle time. They are not in school, at home they have nothing to do and as much as parents were out there looking for something to put on the table, the young men and women were out there, loitering and wasting a lot of time. Then this thought came in our mind, an idle mind. Is the devil's watch. We didn't want that to come out into our young men and women whom we stay with. Then we said no, we need to make them busy, we need to enable them to get something to do. And so we began training them on several issues concerning their lives. Yes, some of the issues maybe I can mention, one of them being leadership in teens. We have identity crisis, not knowing who they are, so we are enabling them to know who they are so that they may come up. We have issues of relationships, you know, they are in that adolescence age and they really, they are struggling. What is the right decision to make? So we are enabling them to make the right decision. After all and finally, we also wanted them to know God. Because allow me quote, Psalms 127, the first one. The scripture says that unless the Lord builds the house, those who are building it, they live in vain. And unless the Lord watches over the city, them who are staying awake, they stay awake in vain. And we also wanted them, as they take this journey as young men from the teenager, and even as they go into adulthood, they know that they are doing, we are not doing it alone. We are the mighty God who will help us through. Okay. And so how long has the journey been and how has it been doing? With the small steps that we have made, we have seen a lot of, a lot of change in the small group that we have, that we have been mentoring. You know, like recently after my graduation, after my MSc graduation, one of the young mothers in Marseille came running unto me and she was saying, my first born has just reached 13 years old. And I know you are a good father. And I said, wow, I just got married the other day. How am I going to be a father? Then he said, he is now a teenie. I want to put him into your hands. And I realized this thing that we have just begun recently, it has these fruits because I didn't know people are watching. And so I said, this is what we are going to do. Yes. Wow. Interesting. So you are a father, but at a very young age. I'm a father. At a very young age. I'm glad. Yeah. So who are your target audience and how do you get to them? Yes. As I mentioned earlier, our target audience is the youths who are between 13 to 35 because that is the critical age that we as young men and women need to make critical decisions in our life, which are going to impact us in the next 10. 10 decades, if God will give us up to 100 years to live. Then we realize that these teenagers who are in high schools, others are in primary, we need to reach them. We have college students, we have university and Tivet students that we need to reach out. Then we have this other neglected, isolated group. This group called the dropouts. Sometimes it's not because of their doing, it's their undoes that happens in their life, that they are in that position. So when they drop out of school, most of us, they tend to neglect them, or we call them names, but I realize that they have potential. Our system in Kenya, our education system, will see that any successful person should get an A or a B in that matter. But I was reading another book last year, why A students work for C students. Then I realized we have some C students and even E students who can do well better than the A students. Then we said, this group, we also need to reach them. Then finally, the young couples, and I'm happy that I'm one of them. And I'm standing there to say, we have a lot to learn. We have a lot to learn. Those are our. So 13 to 35 is such a big range. So how do you categorize your mentorship? As much as it's a big and a vast range of years. As I've said, most of the young youths, between 13 and 19 years, they are teens. Most of them are high school. They are in high school or either they are in first year in college. People who really don't know who they are, they are struggling a lot with identity crisis. And most of their programs, we carry them over the holidays when they are at home. And sometimes we visit schools. We visit schools because as I said, we've just started. So at least we have visited two schools so far. We are hoping to be visiting more than five schools in every term. So that as we meet them at home when they are on holiday, we also meet them at school when they are in session. And then we have this from 1920 to now 35. Most of them are now adults. They know their careers. They know where they're heading to. They are pursuing their professionals. And what we do with them is we ensure that whatever line that they have chosen, we help them to arise. We help them to be there and say, this is what I want to do. This is where I want to arise. And as we do that, we have some who are planning for their wedding. And they are planning for their marriage. And we also help them as young couples so that they may not make the decisions alone. Because in our board of governance, we have like our president is slightly above 35. And so he helps us alone in matters of counseling the young couples. And we see that as a class. So we don't have them all together unless we're having an AGM which we had the first one last year. And we are hoping the next one is going to be so better. So only during the AGM that we pull them together and we celebrate what we've been doing. Nice. So what is the response of the community to your operation or to your project? All right. Most of the people have been telling me that erasas you choose the wrong course. Yes. Because you can't be in agriculture and you're so passionate about human beings. You're supposed to be passionate about plants. You know, one of the persons who has been telling me that over and over again is my mom. And I told her mom, these things are possible. I love, I really love doing the agriculture because I young to have that people should have food on the table. But again, in that venture, I realized that we have people who are having other challenges outside there that we can help. And not just people, young, bright, energetic, strong, and mighty people that our nation doesn't recognize. That our parents may not recognize because whatsoever young man thinks when he tells the parent, the parent may think, and we decided that no, as we are doing this, I told them, mom, this one should happen. And some of my friends, they told me, you should quit this career and go and do HR and go and do presentations, you know. And I said, no, I'm seeking here, but I'll be doing this because of the love that I have. And just to bring you back slightly, I've really been, I was in a tough situation when I was a teenager. I had no one to guide me through this life. I had no one to tell me that this is who you are. You know, I am dark, unless I smile, you might not see me. And you know, with that, people are calling me names. And thank God my body is now coming up slightly. I was small, then my head was bigger. So people are calling me lollipop. You know, with that, and sometimes you are in school, people call you lollipop. You feel like you are down. You can't do anything. So nobody was there to help me until I came to Sena University in second year. I met one person who told me one thing. He asked me, you can do it. My mind changed. Then I said, from then, I'm going to affect the community. So as much as my line of career is not in accord with what I'm doing in mentorship, but I believe that this is what God has me and wants me to do. I think I'll do it until even I'm 60. And I believe that the society will be transformed. Because if you want to see change, then you need to be the change. So I really don't want any young man around me, with me, who wants to work with me to suffer the way I suffered with the incidents and the small things that I didn't do. I must congratulate you for going through it and standing strong. Speaking of careers, being an agricultural scientist, it requires a lot of field work. But mentorship now in Italian is very important. So how do you find the balance between the two? We have nine members on our board. And being the vice president, we always give a lot of planning. As we plan, we plan with them. And anytime we put our calendar on board, so that we know at this particular time when we are having this group, maybe you're having the teenagers, or maybe we're having young couples, we have two or three people who are available. And sometimes we invite other people who are well-versed with the topics that we want to do. Like when we want to talk about leadership. We'll check around some of the leaders within our environment. Then we bring them together with our two or three board of governance members that they will help through. So as I go in the field, sometimes it helps me to connect with other people who can help us to mentor. Sometimes I mentor young men when we are in the field. Because I'm there, I'm teaching them how to apply the fertilizer. I'm teaching them how to collect data when you're in the field. But I realize that there is something missing with this young person. There have been training others who are not in my field of cooperation. So I take that opportunity and I train them as much as they are not our members. So it has not been that hard for us as we begin. And I believe it's going to be the same as our members continue to increase. Speaking of operation, what is your area of operation? Where do you have your offices? Our physical offices are in Maseno. Maseno market just near Maseno University. That's where our physical offices are. That is where we began this program. And we believe that the whole of western region, in the Nyanza region and in the western part of this country, we are going to reach these people. That is our plan in the next five years. Right now we are two years, but we believe in the next five years we will be reaching the whole western area. Yes, right now we are in Maseno. Are there any challenges that you have encountered since you started? Yes. And how did you maneuver through them? Thank you. One of the biggest challenges that we had, sometimes you see there is a need in a young man and when you invite them, sometimes you will find some resistance. They really want to know exactly what you do. But them who have been coming at the first call, they really found a lot of good than what they expected. Then as they come over, we realize that they helped us to pass the message to others and even to the parents. Because we need to have a lot of trust. So with the teenagers, we need to have trust with their parents for them to be language that this team is good for our child or for our son or daughter. And more so daughters. And you know, in our team we only have two ladies. And most of the time women are the ones who do the outreach, a lot of the outreach. So when our parent is thinking now my daughter needs to go here, they have to get that trust. But now we use some referees from our previous or our own students to tell them this can happen. And we have the ability to take care of your children. And they are okay. So that is one of the challenges that we've been facing. But now hitting the second year, 2021 it was much, but right now it's changing. Because we've been telling them we have done this. Look at so and so. They were here and right now they are here. So we believe that as we continue it's becoming easier and easier. The second challenge is about finances. Sometimes we need to move. We need to move from place to place. And maybe we've not reached that capacity to take care of maybe a lot of people. Maybe travelling, you see, and sometimes facilitating other people when we call them on board to come and help us. But with that we've decided that we will do what we can now. So that as we continue we are thinking can we get other partners who will come and help us which more. Because again I'll refer to the scriptures. It says that the harvest is much. It's much, but the labourers there are few. So we are asking God that He's going to open doors as we have His master key. I know models are going to be opened. That's what I can say for now. So tell us about your dreams for this project going forward. Our dream is to have young people who are all around, young people who have a thick skin, young people who can arise even during challenges. I was reading a book the other day and I got something interesting. It was saying that tough people do last, but tough times never lasts. So we want to have a generation of young people who will be tough during tough times because tough times will always be shorter. But when we are tough, when I am tough, when you are tough, we are going to take our community in a different level. We are going to take our nation into the next level. We are going to take our world and our globe into the next level when we get there. I would love to talk about the young couple. As we have seen all over the news, most of the marriages are breaking. How do you get to address that? Breaking your marriage sometimes is our own doing because as I said earlier, you need to be tough for you to sustain your marriage. But when our young girls and our young boys are going to get right information, they are going to get right directions, they are going to get right mentorship from the right people from the beginning. As young as 13 years, then they will have a clear mind. They will know that this is what I am working with. And so we want to enable and we want to enrich and uplift our young men and women that in our relationships, as it was in the old, when you get married, you stick there. And thank God, our mothers will like to whip us and they will direct you, you are here, you are not going anywhere. Now the society is broken. Everybody has their own choices. My dress, my choice, my food, my choice. You can't direct me. Who I work with, who I love. I was watching another movie called If Loving You is Wrong. This person was just loving anybody and asking, is it wrong? No, it's wrong. What you love means. God gave you one and you will enjoy it for the next 10, 20 and up to 50 years. Wow. That is what we need to know. It's a choice that you make to love. It's a choice. When you choose that I'm going to do this and I'm going to love this person and we are going to get married. It's a choice that you make from the beginning. And all the young men and all the young women should understand that that is a precious gift. But you don't need to throw it away for five minutes to waste 50 years. Okay, thank you. And how can one reach you or your organization? When you want to reach us you can, if it's possible, possibly we can use our general secretary's phone number because it's an office number. They can get us any time. With our social media, we just began last week. We are starting to work on our social media on Facebook. We've just started to create the websites. They are running soon. We're bringing them on board. But if anyone's to reach us, maybe to contact us, you have a team that we can come and we want them to be mentored. Are they teenagers? Are they youths? Are they young couples? So you can contact us or meet us on 0703 279921. That is the contact of our secretary general. You can find us there as we continue upgrading our other social media channels. Interesting. So what is your call to the community? I will say that we have young men who are mightier than they think they are. But they only need a person. They only need an organization. They only need an institution to hold their hand. Because if you want to go fast, then go alone. But if you want to go far, then have a person to hold your hand. And these young men who have the ability to do mighty things, they need this one person. They need this institution. They need this organization to hold their hand. And we can start anyway. We can start wherever we are. That one person, we can be the change that we want. We can be the change that we want those people to be. These young men, they need us. Parents who are out there. Sometimes we cannot connect well with our children because their language is much different from yours. I think it's because of the generation of gap and the change of the world system right now. What was there ten years ago cannot work right now. But we can find out people of the same age who are like-minded and they can improve our young men. They can bring them from one level to another. Let me finish with this. Young men and women who are out there, you are out there and you have your MSc and you say you cannot reach to a Form 2. You cannot reach to a Class 8. You have a PhD and you think God gave you that to go and flourish and to go and just enjoy yourself alone. We live for each other. That is the call that we have. I need to help you. You need to help me. Do not brag outside there. Come down here. And as we help each other arise, as we help these young men and women arise, then the Lord who is in heaven will arise. When you are down. Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate your words. I appreciate your call to young people because they are mighty. And that is really true. You are mighty. And because of that, do not go alone. As He has said, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, have someone to hold your hand. In whichever field of operation you have, look for someone of like-minded, of like languages and go far with them. Choose things that you can do together with the same agenda, with the same objective, Namta and Ambali. Now I would like to call you a Ph.D. to see what is going to happen. Because as He has said, you need me, I need you. This has been Youth in Action. I am Yangueso Grenis. This is the way to do it.