HerStory Podcast Series
HerStory Podcast Series
Episode 31: Meet YCI’s HerStart partner, Ministry of Youth Zanzibar
In this episode, Shafreen Bagha, HerStart Program and Partnerships Fellow, speaks with Sheila Mwiny Makungu from the Ministry of Youth Zanzibar, one of YCI’s HerStart partners in Tanzania.
Sheila shares how the ministry empowers young people in Zanzibar through training in leadership, entrepreneurship and vocational skills. She highlights the challenges faced by youth, such as socioeconomic disparities and lack of resources, and how the center addresses these issues by providing essential tools and connecting youth with supportive stakeholders. Sheila also shares how HerStart has offered new skills and knowledge to support young entrepreneurs, especially women, through training and funding.
Welcome to Youth Challenge International's Hair Start Hair Story podcast series. Youth Challenge International, OYCI launched the Hair Start Innovate the Future program in 2020. As part of our initiative to advance women's equality globally, our goal is to provide 10,000 women in Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda with the resources and supports they need to successfully launch and grow their social businesses. We are sharing real stories of young women who are leading change in their communities. Y C's , hair Start Innovate. The Future program is funded in , passed by the government of Canada to progress Canada's feminist International assistance policy. Learn more@y.org or hair start.org .
Speaker 2:Habu . My name is Shaf and I'm the program and partnerships fellow at YCI Youth Challenge International in Zanzibar, Tanzania. I have been here for almost three months now and I've had the privilege to work with fellow partner organizations throughout my placement. I've been working with the Ministry of Youth and today seated here with me is Sheila, the center coordinator at the Ministry of Youth Training Center, Vallejo , who is single handedly managing the center and providing life skills, training to youth to empower them to make positive life changes. Thank you so much Sheila, for joining me today. Could you please start us off with a bit of introduction about yourself?
Speaker 3:Okay. Like you said, Sheila is a manager of Youth training center that is founded <inaudible> West District Ofia . She coordinates all the center programs and personnel with eight years of experience in managing youth socioeconomic programs and Project. Sheila is also a beginner entrepreneur in natural cosmetics, still learning and slowly practicing. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . That's great . She's a graduate , uh, from University of Center Augustine , um, once a branch . Um , I'm public relation and marketing , uh, by professional. Yes, that's
Speaker 2:All . So, Sheila, thank you so much for telling me a bit more about yourself. I wanted to ask , um, what inspires you?
Speaker 3:Okay. What is inspires me is a woman who is independent, who believe in herself, who is compassionate and also like believing in herself who is not distracted by the external and internal force . I mean also like listening to what he wants , um, following his per , I mean her passion and also her talents.
Speaker 2:What is your career aspiration?
Speaker 3:Well, my career aspiration is to become a compassionate and influential team, lead leader up , empowering my team to achieve their goals as well as my clients, which are the youth here, as well as foster collaboration work environment with other youth stakeholders.
Speaker 2:You said you have experience for about eight years, so is that how long you've been working with the Ministry of Youth for
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly. With different youth programs, youth empowering programs.
Speaker 2:So could you tell me a bit more about the Ministry of Youth Training Center and what exactly it is that you do over here?
Speaker 3:Actually, the main , when we talk about the Ministry of Youth is a ministry where it , it is called a Ministry of Information, youth Culture and Sports . And within the ministry there's a Department of Youth Development and within the Department of Youth Development there , there's where you find the center, the Youth training center that the one that I managed . When you talk about , uh, department of Youth, the main work is coordinate all youth empowering and social wellbeing programs that are concerning all youth in Zanzibar. And when you talk about , um, about the center, it's where there's a programs , uh, some few program, especially practical theoretical program that are provided for the youth to improve their empower , I mean to improve their , their socioeconomic pro um , wellbeing.
Speaker 2:Could you , um, gimme an example of a few activities that the center engages the youth in?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Actually here we engage , uh, in providing, like I said, theoretical and practical , um, trainings where we provide like leadership trainings , uh, entrepreneurship trainings, as well as um, uh, employability skills training and also , uh, life skills training. But we also practicing in providing some few practical over vocational training like tailoring and , uh, aluminum workshop as well as , um, uh, shooting as well as , um, stage and hold the call .
Speaker 2:That seems like a very , uh, well-rounded program. Now that I know a bit more about what the Ministry of Youth Training Center is all about, can I ask you what motivated you to join this cause ?
Speaker 3:Okay. This course is all about the government working with the community, considering my, my, I mean my professional as a public relation where like , um, I'm dealing like , um, to establish a relationship between the government and the community as well as I'm , I'm part of the community and I've seen a lot of problems in the community that the youth are the victims or faced by the youth. Where now I have , I am in the position of assisting or helping the youth to achieve their socioeconomic goals. And I am using this right or this space to make sure that I'm doing everything to at least assist somehow with different program that are this , like that we are creating in this center. Uh , by collaborating with different stakeholders.
Speaker 2:How has a Her Start program contributed to the success of the Ministry of Youth?
Speaker 3:Actually with the Her start , there's uh , like more than two programs, but um , I was engaged in two program program where they provided fellows, the ministries who are coming , uh, from other countries with an extension knowledge, providing us with different knowledge and new skills. Also providing , uh, with development of different , uh, socioeconomic empowering youth programs, but also , um, as well as they have this part where they're providing entrepreneurship skills to the girls who are al already engaged in different businesses. I understand they're small scale unskilled where they're providing skill to like, to improve their , um, their businesses as well as to to acquire , um, more profit and fund.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to hear that the fellows have been a positive impact throughout the programs at the Ministry of Youth. How does the ministry of youth contribute to developing social entrepreneurship skills in youth?
Speaker 3:By providing skills of , uh, we understand that most of the youth here practicing traditional ways of , um, of the entrepreneurship, but as also , uh, as well as we are providing tools equipments to, to simplify their work as well as we are like collaborating and connecting them with other youth stakeholders that are providing different programs and socioeconomic programs and also tools.
Speaker 2:What would you say is the breakdown and the demographic of the training programs?
Speaker 3:Actually it is eng we , we work for all the youth, but especially out of school youth. So it's like we're engaging everyone. We , we , we are not leaving anybody behind . We're engaging the , the , the girls, the boys, also women, but we have to be like , uh, age four , 15 to 35 . That is how , uh, policy is guiding us.
Speaker 2:Do you find that there are challenges between people from different socioeconomic circumstances?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they are challenge because some of them, they're , like I said , they're coming from , um, poor families. Some , um, youth are with disabilities . Some youth , uh, lack confidence and trusting them themselves. So it's like you find it , uh, it's so challenging to put all these people together and give them the same training. So you , it's like you have to really go slow for some other people or some youth and you don't have to be like very strict and providing the same to everybody because these people, like, they're coming from different backgrounds, social background. So it's like you really have to like go really slowly considering their, their, I mean their nature. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> and how they were nurtured.
Speaker 2:What are the factors that foster success versus failure post training programs?
Speaker 3:Um, actually fund you find most of them that they don't have , uh, set a fund to start their businesses, but you find some of them they don't have , um, land . And for those who want to are like , um, they don't have space also to practice their business. Like the , the one who graduated from aluminum , aluminum workshop, they don't have a space to practices or to like manage or to establish their businesses. They don't have enough , uh, set fund , but they do , they don't have enough tools. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Yes. So you find them. It's really, it's really challenging, but we do have some few boys, I mean, some few youth who , uh, have already started their businesses. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> ,
Speaker 2:You guys have done so much great work already. Mm-Hmm , <affirmative> . And I wanted to ask, what are your plans for the future? So what is your vision?
Speaker 3:My , uh, vision is for , uh, uh, center to provide more, more of the more trending, I mean trainings to provide with the youth that they need. And also we want it to be very busy where everybody wants to be here to , to learn different theological and , um, vocational trainings program here. And we wanted to be like, we want to go , we , we want to be another branch around here because we see, like, we found this place is very peacefully and friendly for the youth.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Um , well thank you so much. You know , that concludes the questions I have for you today. I just wanted to take this moment to appreciate your time and the work that you have done with the , um, ministry of Youth . Thank you so much, Vallejo Center and um, have a great day. Thank
Speaker 3:You.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us today and learning about how you challenge International has partnered with young women to advance gender equality globally and creates a social entrepreneurship ecosystem with the positive impact for all. If you enjoy this hairstyle, innovate the Future podcast episode, please subscribe and share our episodes on social media. A special thanks to the fellows that volunteer their time in Ghana, Tanzania, and Uganda, who help create these episodes. Y Cs has that innovate. The future and fellowship programs are funded through the government of Canada's volunteer corporation program, providing skilled Canadians opportunities to volunteer with global partners and advance Canada's feminist international assistance policy. Join us and thousands of young people around the globe creating a better future together. Learn more at y org or .
