"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you(Bob Proctor)."
The enGendering Mentorship (e-GEM) project is about developing a mentorship program for young female students at Maseno University in Kenya. Many young girls from poor households in Kenya face considerable challenges with a significant impact on their future lives. Each year, many female students drop out of education, because of financial issues, early marriages, and a range of other problems. But mainly, because of a lack of proper guidance. Therefore, Maseno University wanted to have a structured mentorship program in place that focuses on young female students, particularly those from weak socioeconomic households. The aim of this mentorship program will be to prevent these girls from dropping out of education and to support them to fulfill their potential.
In May, the Centre for International Cooperation (CIS-VU) together with Maseno University and LakeHub organised an interactive workshop in which the first building stones of the mentorship program were developed. The workshop consisted of multiple sessions in which the participants defined the framework of the mentorship program, establishing a shared understanding of effective mentoring practice. After the end of the workshop, multiple participants shared that they are looking forward to the next steps, which was a good sign that the workshop was successful!
The e-GEM project is an OKP-TMT project, funded by Nuffic.