Achidri Allan, the youth coordinator at Amani Sasa, an organization working with urban refugees, says that men are left to figure out the world themselves, unlike girls who get mentored on navigating through life.
The youth enthusiast who works with the Young Men At Risk explained that the term refers to young men influenced by drugs or gangs who get into the activities due to a lack of mentors speaking in their lives.
Achidri explained that as a man from a family of 4 other boys, his parents just like many today are too busy to mentor their children.
“Society has molded the man to go and figure out life himself because he is a man unlike the girls and in the end, turn out as non-masculine men,” he said.
According to him, Masculinity is inculcated through mentorship, such as the programs at Urban Refugees that try to restore and teach youth to conduct themselves as men. To him, these teach the youth manhood values without them having to be so hard on themselves.
“We always tell our young men to celebrate their masculinity. What makes men are beyond their physical appearance, how wide their chests are and the biceps do not matter but the care that they give with their hearts,” he explained.
Achidri, a certified business coach, helps the youths learn survival skills that they practice earning a living after the mentorship from the organization.
“At Zamani Sasa, we empower the youth with skills such as videography, photography, and audio production, among other survival skills. We realized that after giving them startup capital and housing, they would want to come back for the program after months of the collapse of their businesses. That’s how we came up with the street business school,” he narrated.
The Street Business School is a six-month program that teaches entrepreneurship skills to the youths to transform their lives. “We teach basic saving and financial management,” he explained.
The youth enthusiast works with vulnerable groups of people, such as young mums at risk, with youths aged 15 -30 years.
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