Heroes Day (Mashujaa Day) Well Celebrated.

Every 20th October Kenyans celebrates heroes' day also known as Mashujaa day to collectively honour all those who contributed towards the struggle for Kenya's independence and continues to positively contribute in the nations development and honour in different spaces in the post independent Kenya. It was a great honour to host the first skill up session for the girls under the umbrella of She Can - I am a sHERO at Wilsen Initiative (Wi). Read more https://wilsenx.blogspot.com/2022/09/she-can-im-shero-project-under-wilsen.html

The Skill Up Session - 20th October 2022 During the Celebration of Heroes Day (Mashujaa Day).

 A total of 20 girls between the ages of 13 and 15 who plays football attended the session. Our main aim is to inspire, connect and educate (ICE model) girls on how they can live a more responsible lifestyle despite the many challenges faced by young girls living in underserved communities. Short Profile of our Speakers / facilitators Our great facilitators / speakers during the session were; 

Kate Syprine who is a mentor at Dream Program and ex-footballer. Read more of her story https://wilsenx.blogspot.com/2011/09/unknown-heroes.html?m=1 

Esther Mazira, She Can - I am a sHERO co-founder and Data Analyst

 Grace Mbaye Training coordinator and Mentor at Digital Divide Data (DDD).

General Overview Of The Session 

The speakers / facilitators were able to share their insightful journeys from education, career, football for development, personal development just to mention but a few. There was also a special hour that we called (GT = Girls Talk) whereby our speakers / facilitators were able to openly discuss issues that surrounds the girl child and gave insights on how to mitigate the same. 

Some of the main highlights during the discussion were for example;

•  Early teen pregnancy.
• Menstral hygiene, self esteem
• Self awareness
• Open talk. 

 Parents Meeting 

To wrap the day we also hosted a parents and guardians meeting in collaboration with Gudush Soccer Academy. We took the parents through some key points on what we do, what we aspire to achieve and also how they can be one of our support pillars towards the development of children that are engaged in our activities that cut across on and off the football field. 

Appreciation

I take this opportunity to thank everyone who made the day a big success and I look forward to hosting this type of events for both the girl and boy child Even though we might aspire to do more, all our activities are subject to availability of resource and required support and currently we sponsor the activities from our own contribution and support from our friends network. If all is in place we would like to hold this even on a quarterly basis whilst providing sanitary towels and other personal essentials to the girls during the session. We believe by that will enable them stay in school and avoid be luade into other distractive activities. 

 Call To Action

 I invite all my friends, wishers and anyone who wants us to collaborate in this journey to help our sisters pursue their dreams by taking the appropriate steps starting now. 

 "I believe in a society were both the boy and girl child are provided with the right platform and resources to work alone based on special need and also recognize the importance collaboration towards creating a society that wouldn't discriminate any gender. This is a society that will ensure a conducive environment for everyone be what they want to be regardless of their gender" - Wilson Masaka, Youth and Social Entrepreneur

 The Wi-Experience - The Story of Self and Us.

 It is easy think of what you do for yourself and a bit challenging to think of what you can do for others and do together based on values. Wilsen philosophy is based on the three pillars with the overriding theory are YOU towards development as follows; 

1.  What can you do for yourself to become better and not bitter ? (Your story) 
2. What can you do for others (Your Aspirations or Vision Beyond Self) 
3. How can you combine effort together with others to create the change that you wish to see? ( Collaboration and Togetherness). 

 Lastly among many thing that Wilsen initiative (Wi) does we also offer pro-bono services to emerging youth led initiatives that are less than 1 year since inception of their ideas. Part of what we offer in this package are as follows; 

1.  Setting the right organization culture. 
2. Resource mobilization 
3. Training and mentorship Among others! 

Here are some of the highlights of the day in pictures!