Mentoring: Our Lapses, Our Fear.

Our fear was confirmed on Wednesday, 1st of January, 2014..when one of our Mentors called in to share with us her endeavors to reaching her past Mentee and present Project25 Mentee.

In 2010/2011, Lateefat was paired with a dedicated Mentor and Friend of RSN. Lateefat aspired to study Accounting at the University. She truly was a lovely girl full of aspiration, although she had her shortcomings and deficiencies in some core subjects. Lateefat was eager to have a Mentor, maybe someone she could chat with, a

The mentoring program lasted for some 6-9months. And, Lateefat was paired with a young professional lady and graduate of Accounting from the University of Lagos. However, there was a lapse which we failed to manage as an organization. We failed to find a Mentor replacement for Lateefat...when her Mentor lost her job and could not maintain a mentoring relationship with her any longer. "I could remember she would call me so often, but because of my loss of job, I was not keen to answering her phonecall" Said Her Mentor. Now, calling her today after a long while ..."I was shocked to learn from her that she was married and have a One year old child, already" she said further.

Lateefat got pregnant probably some few months after graduation from High School and she just had to marry the guy who got her in the family way. She sees this as her destiny, with her career hope dashed and other aspirations lost to the wind. :(

Her Mentor could not help it, she felt 'guity'...maybe if only she had picked her calls then, or maybe if only she had spent some more time with her."

Understandably, who would not feel this way, already. Everyone got a issue to face. This is Life. And, we appreciate every Mentor for the commitment for it takes an extra-ordinary grace to be a dedicated youth mentor.

It's really unfortunate, it feels pretty bad to realize how soon the expectations of some girls in rural communities and areas are cut short due to early pregnancies, early marriage and lack of proper training and care.

Let us learn never to underestimate the power of positive influence and close mentoring.. Let us learn to use every opportunity we've got to INSPIRE a Child and A Girl-Child. Remembering that Girls Are More Vulnerable...They Are More Vulnerable. Let's Continually Reach Out To Them, Who Knows Maybe We Could Rescue Some More LATEEFATs out there. They Need Us Awful..

#Project25
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN