Catching up to her dreams: A short story

Mari-Lisa is a young professional from Nairobi, Kenya and goes by the name Lisa. She is 26 years old and has a background in communications, youth development and psychology. Lisa is also a talented vocal musician.

A short look into the journey of a young Kenyan girl catching up with her dreams

1,000 feet in the air, traveling 7,350 miles away from my homeland, my concrete jungle odyssey begun. Excitement bubbling in me like a fizzy ginger ale, expectations higher than ever, I had to keep pinching myself to ascertain I am not dreaming! Coming to New York and working for the United Nations have been life-long dreams of mine. For the both of these to come true simultaneously had me floating on cloud nine.

I am Lisa Njenga and I am an African Union Youth Volunteer seconded to Generation Unlimited (GenU) and I work on youth engagement. I moved to the Big Apple fresh out of Addis Ababa, never having been to the United States of America. I am the first African Union Youth Volunteer to be deployed outside of Africa and as such, I had no idea what to expect because the cohorts that came before me did not have advise I could relate with. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I stepped into the concrete jungle ready to take the world by storm. My duties as a youth engagement officer entail supporting the development of youth engagement action plans at a global and continental level to ensure the meaningful participation of young people in all the work GenU does and implementing this. The unique and most exciting thing about this partnership is the commitment to lending a voice to the youth to take a front seat in steering the direction GenU takes!

My journey into the world of youth work begins with 19-year-old Lisa. I have always been a noise maker: in school, at home, with my friends – I always have something to say. The situations I encountered as a young person allowed me to identify this as a strength and channel it into something meaningful. This was first translated through a club I started – “Young Mommas” – which set out to raise awareness about the stigma perpetrated against young mothers and to support neglected young mothers through peer counselling and soft-skills building to potentially integrate them back into society. This highly resonated with me because I got pregnant when I was 19. The stigma from my peers, my community and society were unbearable, which was all made worse by the fact that my partner at the time did not want to be involved. I fell into depression, turning to social media with anonymous accounts to vent about my struggles as a young mother and the ridiculous stigma that is not often coupled with the appropriate ‘sexual reproductive rights’ awareness. I met many other young mothers online and subsequently offline which grew my club into something more.

A few years after founding Young Mommas, I started an "African Union Youth Club" in my university in Nairobi (USIU-A) to promote pan-Africanism and to act as a platform to air innovative ideas on how to improve the socio-political and economic climate of the country and continent. We worked to showcase community organizations with causes such as providing sanitary towels to young girls or selling bead work created by an autistic community trying to earn a living. We also gave presentations on topics such as the importance of pan-Africanism and volunteerism. The club is ongoing under new leadership and I continue to act as an adviser to the younger people currently involved.

After graduating, I began working with UN Women as a consultant under the project African Girls Can Code, which set out to equip young African girls with digital literacy, coding and personal development skills. This experience was heartwarming, and witnessing the transformation of the young girls during the two weeks reaffirmed my passion for working with and for young people. My greatest take-away was the importance of soft skills to compliment the technical skills that are taught. All this to say that I never thought I would get to where I am today – I simply continued to make my voice heard and make sure that I bring as many young people with me as I can to do the same. It took me a few applications, but I eventually got selected to be an African Union Youth Volunteer, which has only opened more doors for me and that’s also why I am here. I have no doubt that with conviction, hard work and a lot more noise-making, the sky won’t be my limit and the same applies to any young person with a dream.

"The purpose of life is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." – Ralph Waldo Emerson