Beneficiaries of the training from left to right: Jean Paul Bucyibaruta, Milandra Ingabire and Christian Ngendahimana
Jesuit Urumuri Centre is running a training on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the youth, meant to equip them with skills and knowledge on starting businesses and creating job opportunities for their colleagues in an effort to encourage self-sustainability. The training is being run at the premises of the Centre and is being facilitated by experts in the fields of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Launched on the 7th of September 2020, classes begun on the 21st of September 2020 and participants have so far covered the first module titled “Self discovery” in the manual of the program and will this week proceed to the second module; “Self-realization, Innovation Development & Prototyping”.
The module “Self-discovery” includes lessons on discovering the reason of one’s existence and purpose in life, that is the general direction towards which one is moving in life. This is also termed the “holy life assignment” given by God which all need to realize with the help of change agents known as “Scripture transforms” taken from the word of God. These change agents help to change one’s self image in order to be able to work with others in communities for the benefit of the Society in general.
Ingabire Milandra, a beneficiary in this training shared that the “Self discovery” module was beneficial to her as she is now more aware of what she needs to do to achieve her entrepreneurial goals; “We have learnt that one of the most important thing to pay attention to when doing business, is self-image and that this is important because we need each other in society, which requires collaboration with others”
This first module also touches on the idea of business as a calling, where beneficiaries have been taught that God has called each and everyone to create, innovate and contribute to the society. Business is unlike other callings because it is a collective accomplishment which others in society play a role in and help to reach. Jean Paul Bucyibaruta, another beneficiary of this program said that he learnt ways in which to do business but while considering teachings of the bible “Our mentors are facilitating this program in a catchy and fun way. They equated contributing to the country’s development to constructing the kingdom of God, I now know that I can’t reach my business goals without involving my God”
The module is meant to instill courage and confidence in beneficiaries as they discover their true life’s purpose and goals which facilitators did with several teaching methods. Beneficiaries were taught how to present themselves in a brief but attention-grabbing manner with an exercise where they learnt about each other and then made presentations in front of their colleagues. Christian Ngendahimana a beneficiary in this training is optimistic about the rest of the modules in the program’s manual “So far I am able to see the full potential in myself and that I will succeed doing what I love most, I cannot wait to see what else I am yet to learn in this program for the advancement of my skills and knowledge”.
Director of Jesuit Urumuri Centre Fr. Patrice Ndayisenga SJ, stands by the idea of journeying with the youth, creating hope in them and supporting their innovative imagination; these he said, are some of the precious contributions that Jesuit Urumuri Centre considers relevant, timely and effective to validate the worth of today’s youth in sustaining the social and economic gains our time.
Henriette Mushimiyimana
