Success Story

 

A few months ago, 24 year old Musa Hassan Dek felt hopeless and destined to join his friends who had resorted to drug abuse after failing to further their education or find a job after completing high school. These thoughts evaporated when Musa learned about the Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth), which began in 2009.

Musa joined a league of other youth, incorporating themselves into what he describes as “a God sent initiative” to save his life from been ruined by drugs and other dangers.

He immediately joined the project’s free learning scheme known as the Work Readiness Program. This program entails interactive classroom work where learners are taught how to develop and realize their potential and gain skills and knowledge by qualified facilitators and career specialists. They also participate in a career lecture series and service learning activities.

The youth volunteer and give back to the community, through service learning. Activities include cleaning, tree planting and providing support to different organizations.

Musa, who completed high school more than three years ago, was among the first 150 youth to converge at the Kenya National Library Services in Garissa to take part in the service learning activities. Musa has taken this experience with real zeal and zest, beaming with confidence, he has now taken the voluntary community service to a different level by developing a keen interest in the community pay back service, taking up the work in one stride by visiting and helping the children living in the Rescue Centre, the sick people in the main Hospital and sometimes talking to his fellow youth on the importance of making proper use of their free time in giving back to the community.

In the process, he developed a keen interest in community service and began volunteering during the weekends and other free time at the Garissa Child Rescue Centre, assisting the children living at the centre. He embraced this opportunity after his first visit to the centre where he met children abandoned by their parents. These children are orphans or their families are affected by extreme poverty and they are in need of special care and support. However, Musa promptly took up the challenge, developing a strong interest in assisting his community during his spare time.

“I thought of the plight of these young innocent kids who need special care from anyone because their parents had abandoned them or they are orphans. I felt the urge to help in my own personal capacity,” Musa says with a broad grin as he remembers his life before G-YOUTH came to Garissa.

“I was in a mess, between a rock and a hard place and it’s with the grace of God that I am today engaged in a worthy activity for the community instead of just idling in town or taking up drugs and other malpractices,” he adds amid a chuckle.

To set the ball rolling in his effort to make his thinking of a broad and prompt community service realized, Musa has managed to persuade 17 of his colleagues at the Work Readiness Program to set up Garissa Youth Environmental Movement (GYEM,) a team that whose main aim is to make the people of Garissa live in a clean environment. They have adopted the catchy slogan “Let’s Keep Garissa Clean and Green” which Musa says will be a driving force in their committed effort to bring a smile on the faces of the people in Garissa. The boys offer their free cleaning service to whomever wants and whichever institution they believe needs it. They also plant and water trees and educate the larger community of the importance of keeping the environment clean. It’s a journey that has taken them to homes, hospitals, schools and several other public institutions.

As a gesture to Musa that he is a capable leader, the other boys have endorsed him to lead their cause. He does this unwaveringly by laying strategies for them and identifying areas or places that need their intervention.

Despite all of his community service engagement, Musa never misses the interactive Work Readiness lessons at Garissa Teachers Training College that bring together both male and female youth. In this setting, his abilities are easily identifiable with his quick grasp of the activities led by the trainers and his promptness in delivering his assignments.