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Ia time when everyone is able to generate a sustainable and meaningful income using their skills, talents, qualifications or experience. A time when unemployment is cut to single digits. This is possible, but only through collaborated intentional efforts towards youth empowerment. The hope of such a time rose again like a phoenix this past Tuesday, when an initiative to empower youth start-ups called Youth Business Shower was launched. The year of the Eswatini youth was undoubtedly boosted as businesses and organisations have been given a stern call to action to support youth start-up businesses during next month’s first-ever business shower.
The question is; will many this time heed the call? The question should be, why should they not heed the call? The concept is all about participating in a project that will, in the day, not only mentor, sharpen and prepare start-ups for the business world but, most importantly, fund them. Access to finance has been the biggest hindrance to youth starting businesses, and as much as significant initiatives like the Youth Revolving Fund (YRF) have been setup, the youth still need much more. The youth need seamless processes as they are an instant generation. The bulk of paperwork to access a loan is a substantial difference for young people. While it is understandable why financial institutions have set all these requirements to minimise risk, they also need to be shared with young people
MAGINE
Wwe say this, most often than not we are searching for something, some truth, something that has a promising sense of liberation. A perceived truth if you may. Over time I have learnt that people respond very differently to situations that affect their lives. And that there are so many meanings and interpretations that people may have of their experiences which is what they call truth, or the perceived version of it.
It is very significant to learn this one thing about anyone we encounter. Everyone wants to be understood, and by understood, I mean comprehend the meanings they attach to words and to their actions. This is in the same vein, as in when someone has done something hurtful or painful, the questions that lingers in our hearts will be a why?
It is that the meanings and interpretations that they have attached to their lives and what their lives mean needs to be known and understood.
HEN The youth need seamless processes as they are an instant generation. The bulk of paperwork to access a loan is a substantial difference for young people.(Courtesy
in a youth-friendly language. Anyways back to today’s topic.
The launch of the innovative concept was held this past Tuesday, supported by the Republic of China (Taiwan) and FINCORP. Being at the event as well, I was impressed by the creativity behind the concept from Junior Achievement(JA) Eswatini.
YOUTH
The Youth Business Shower, to be held from June 19 to 23 in Manzini, is aimed at exposing young people to solutions to challenges that they grapple with on a dayto-day basis, which are: Coming up with a viable business plan, securing markets for their products, access to finance, business plan presentation and many more. The Youth Business Shower will provide renewed energy for young entrepreneurs to continue to make their communities Otherwise we run the risk of perceiving them wrongly and making very high expectations that they might not meet. What do I mean by no stones unturned, I am not referring to an endless search of fact-finding on the unpleasant actions of others. I’m referring to getting to know someone.
COMPREHEND
Quite honestly, we may not really understand who a person is, until we get to comprehend how that person interprets certain actions and what those actions mean to them. I believe so many people have missed that part about their a place where young people thrive. It was explained at the launch that this aspect of the week would take two days, whereupon on the third day, the youth will present their business plan, where each partner will contribute seed capital to viable businesses.
24; 13-35 SEED
The seed capitals will be monitored by JA, where winners will be mentored for impact assessments. This is where it makes the most sense. Aftercare is crucial in business because funding alone will not create sustainable businesses. But then putting in this component makes it a project that companies must raise their heads and consider.
In line with exposing and empowering the youth, the business shower event will run alone as an expo, where partners
loved one’s communication. Most people are hurt because we never understand what certain things mean to them and maybe we also lack the sensitivity to probe further and ask the relevant questions or simply observe.
Yet, I believe for us to be begin to hear and understand each other it will be upon how much we unpack the meanings that they attach to our actions. If for instance someone desires happiness and they express that need, however, their interpretation and the meaning attached to this happiness is unknown, until we request of it, least we assume that this person’s happiness can be expressed through a picnic.
After his resurrection, in
Jesus appears to two disciples who are walking to Emmaus which was about 11 kilometers from Jerusalem. The disciples couldn’t recognise Him and they told Him all the stories of what had happened to Him yet they couldn’t recognise Him until he sat down to eat, He took some bread, blessed it and broke it, at once they knew who he was, but he disappeared. The disciples recognised Him because they knew the meaning and interpretations Jesus attached to breaking bread. They knew what it meant to Him. It was this one thing that opened their eyes to seeing the truth about Him. This then drives me to this point. Knowing someone
Luke
will have stalls where information and product displays will be done. Once again a brilliant initiative because we deserve a youth mall or business centre, where we can visit and support young people one day, all in one place. At this expo, the youth businesses will also be on display, where they will have opportunities to network and find partnerships to advance their trade. The last day of the business shower and expo will see all sponsoring partners award seed capital. The youngsters who would have made their presentations and convinced the partners that a seed capital of up to E10 000 and more is worth an investment to improve their businesses for more sustained future growth would be awarded. Partners will be able to present their portion of their commitment to the event and the business honoured.
BELIEVED
What can E10 000 do for a business? For a while, I believed this was a very small amount for a start-up. I looked at the costs of starting a business in Eswatini, including registration and renting an office and a trading licence, and they usually would skyrocket past the E10 000. But at the event, one young lady from Nhlangano testified that the E10 000 she got from a JA/UNICEF programme took her to a path where she is making a monthly turnover of E50 000. She manufactures and sells cleaning materials. Therefore, no amount is too small for young people to kick-start their business dreams. So that shows just how much the youth is passionate about business and delivering. Hence all youth need is support. JA noted this in their presentation, stating that starting a business is challenging, but it’s an achievable challenge. JA agrees that one of the biggest challenges for young people
is really knowing what certain things mean to them, that means you can recognise the person through understanding the meanings they attach to something and how significant that something is to them.
We don’t really know someone until we recognise their meanings and interpretations of things. It’s easier to single out someone based on the meaning they attach to something. Whatever it is, and however significant it can be.
VALUE
Once you know someone you may realise that the consciousness of one’s inner value is anchored in higher things and in spiritual things not in their circumstances, their past or where they are going. The consciousness of someone’s value is not rooted in their shortcomings and failures, but it is anchored in who they were created to become. This is because when a person hurt for some reason, or if they are frustrated by something they can easily forget who they are. And pain and misfortunes which can be interpreted ever so varyingly have a weird tendency of robbing of people their sense of value and awakening from slumber happens once they have come to the realisation that the value that we attached to ourselves is not rooted in what we have been through. Leaving no stones in is finding finance because, often, young entrepreneurs don’t have a credit history or assets they can use for security. The youth will improve their chances of funding if they have a good business plan that will sell their idea to the funder. That is where such concepts and events come into play.
As a programme director at the event, due to my role in youth mentorship, I also witnessed the handover of E400 000 into the Youth Business Shower from the Republic of China (Taiwan). This is part of the 2023 funding for JA Eswatini from Taiwan. Taiwan has managed to release at least E11 million to support various initiatives to assist the youth of Eswatini over the years.
While FINCORP also supported the shower with E300 000. That E700 000 has paved the way for all organisations to contribute to youth development. It would be heartwarming and impressive to see almost all organisations pump in at least the E10 000 seed capital for the youth. That would be a game-changer to the unemployment situation in the country. As JA notes, operating in the space of young entrepreneurs and experiencing the resilience being amassed in pursuing their dreams, a need to create an opportunity for young people to start their businesses with seed capital, which ensures the growth and revival of the economy through empowering youth businesses, was crucial. Hence the business shower.
The question is not whether industries will support this new superbly brilliant initiative, but rather why would they not support a concept aimed at changing the country’s socio-economic landscape and fighting youth unemployment. We await to see them sit and be counted and are confident they will raise their hands and invest in the country’s present and future.
our lives means we also have to find the source of our value and meaning for our lives. Because our value and what we believe of ourselves is anchored in a place higher than our consciousness. There are so many stories in the Bible that depicts a removal of a layer of blindness, and some of those carrying one message, that as long as we do not acknowledge and see our value for who we really are, we will continue to live like we are still in blindness.
A Jewish man who was among those who were abducted by the Nazi in Austria was in a concentration camp, with others. The circumstances brought sadness and depression in a lot of them who most often than not opted for suicide. In his deepest spiritual source he found that, inasmuch as they had suffered a great loss and literally lost everything. To a point some men had even lost their sense of being and had begun to associate themselves with an inferiority complex, their value was anchored in a prayer of peace. Their value was anchored as a human being was not found in the circumstances that had brought their calamity but in God. For him, this brought a deeper meaning and an interpretation that changed the way he viewed their challenges. I believe that as fleeting as our lives may be, we owe ourselves the truth about it.