Just a call — Muungano wa Wanavijiji

By Peris Saleh.

Its better knowing something than ignoring it. This is now me; I never wanted to be engaged in community activities or even wanted to be associated with community affairs neither had the slightest idea how they run. I used to just sit at home watch television and that was my daily routine come rain or sunshine just day after day.

One day as I was sited on my door step I saw many people passing, headed in the same direction, then one big woman came over to me and introduced herself as Doris Moseti, a community leader in her own right. She asked me,” Why are you sited on the door way while other youths are going to the chiefs place for a meeting” but I answered am not interested in any meeting or knowing what people are going to do there. She asked me again “are you in any youth group” and I said no.

Doris was very kind to me that she started explaining to me the benefits of being in a youth group.”It’s good for a youth like you to involve yourself in community work through the confines of a youth group and that gives you the prospect of knowing what’s going on in the society “.

Being in a youth group helps one a lot, first by keeping you busy due to the activities they are being done in the group and also you can learn a lot of things from your fellow youth, I saw that was powerful in deed and I needed to try it out, she decided to help me to scout for a group and introduced me to it.

The biggest thing of all she also introduced me to an Organization called MUUNGANO, a movement of the urban poor and there I have learnt a lot of things like: SAVINGS, DATA ENTRIES and now DOCUMENTATION. I really thank Doris for the empowerment she gave me and my colleagues from other informal settlements not even forgetting the federation team for accepting me to work with them.

Truly an attitude can change once, come all youth and join me in this wonderful journey of success.