MY ONLINE MENTORING EXPERIENCE

In November 2014 I joined the East Africa Women's Mentoring Network that envisions providing emerging women leaders in sub-Saharan Africa with access to experienced mentors who can provide active support for professional and personal development related to gender, family planning and reproductive health and many other relevant health issues pertaining to women. The Leadership Management and Governance project of Management Sciences for Health aimed to front the values of inspired leadership, sound management and transparent governance at all levels of the health system.

This project’s main focus was women and focusing on women is important because Reproductive health issues affect more women and thus the need to have more women into leadership in the Reproductive Health programmes and policy positions since they are more likely to appreciate and address these issues. As a mentee I was matched with an experienced mentor from Kenya and we worked around so many issues ranging from personal development, professional and leadership development as well as family planning/ reproductive health goals. This program helped me dig deep into the issues affecting women on a community, regional and global landscape.

The LMG mentoring program provided a confidential platform(chronus) for mentees to realize their leadership potential by facilitating relationships with mentors, who act as role models, share knowledge and opportunities, and provide guidance around a variety of health issues. Mentoring is learning through a relationship that is designed to be an interactive process between individuals of differing levels of experience and expertise. I gained a broad amount of knowledge and experience through sharing with my mentor. After one year, I was matched with another mentor and this cultivated the values of accountability and transparency as I had to follow through the action template and goals. I developed lots of new knowledge and insights and later with a fellow mentee we managed to initiate a community based FP/RH program.

Later I joined another organisation that gave me the platform to put my reproductive health knowledge and skills to use. I conceptualized a project on stories of change which was aimed at improving youth sexual RH using a human rights approach and digital story telling. It was successful as it attracted some seed funding worth $1000 from The Pollination Project and it is evolving as I discover new dimensions in youth sexual and RH programs.

Today I am an accomplished reproductive health champion and I have been doing a course on International Womens Health and Human Rights to help me fully understand the various issues surrounding women in the global market place. And I cannot forget to mention that through one of our mentors on the forum I was introduced to World Pulse and I am glad I am on the platform sharing and encouraging sisters worldwide and learning from their stories of change and development.