Mtendere Library

Entrepreneurship is a basic tool that every youth needs when their academic journey or career path is uncertain.

Most students, especially those from poor economic backgrounds, struggle monetarily to stick on the academic journey. Some struggles include finding money to; process university applications, getting transportation to a resource center, or covering upkeep costs.

Here is a tool you can use to face such circumstances: small scale business.

Start a business, especially a food business because it is always running consistently. Learn how to make meat pies, samosa, fritters, or meatballs. Find a local person, friend, or a market lady to teach you (probably for a small fee), or else learn from a youtube video [You can learn a lot from Youtube!]. After that, start dropping them at nearby shops at a wholesale price so that the shops can sell your product, and take a percentage profit out of it. Start with 10 or 20 of them. If you give a shop the product at $0.8, they may sell it at $1.

If you’re not a very busy person [or not shy doing business], you can even retail the products by yourself. Walk door to door in a business center, like in town. You’ll be surprised that business people are the best customers! You may not need to sell openly like a street vendor, because it’s illegal in most places. Cover your product well, and only open it when you’re inside a customer’s office or shop. And, look descent! Be formal, meaning, be in your business casual attire, whether you’re a retailer or wholesaler.

To guarantee the success of the product, do a good research of prices, so that you don’t sell too expensive (which may chase away customers), or too cheap (which may hurt your profits). To get the price right, go around shops and compare prices with comparable products. If I am making samosa, I should compare it with how much others sell samosa. If the quality of your product is a little lower than comparable goods, just sell a little cheaper [It doesn’t hurt in the long run].

Other great products to give you quick cash are honey, clothes, and fruits. If the customer is willing to know you better, feel free to explain why you’re doing the business. Even after a degree, if you don’t have any ways to get money, do a small scale business. It’s way better than begging, and you learn vital business lessons from it.

This excerpt is built on my experience. Don’t feel shy doing business, feel proud!

Skills for a resilient Youth!

image credit: NCR Global

Did you know: There's a day designated by the UN to encourage the youth to celebrate their academic, technical, and entrepreneurial skills. That day is called the World Youth Skills Day, and it is on July 15.

World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) was set after observing how the youth face so much unemployment and under-employment across the globe. Africa, whose majority population is Under 24 years of age, unemployment combined with poor academic resources hits the African youth the hardest.

More than any year, 2020, should be the year to strongly commemorate this day. According to UNESCO, more than 70% of youths have been affected by school closure, due to COVID-19. Obviously, Africa, with the least distribution of the internet, school closure has forced many students into their homes without alternatives to progress their academic schedule.

This 5-day post series is going to put out positive stories of various youth’s abilities in order to encourage the youth around the globe to remain positive, and learn about their fellow youth who were successful by demonstrating curiosity, persistence, determination, and entrepreneurship, even in unfavorable social-economic environments.

Skills for a resilient Youth!

Than any other time in history, online schooling has been proven as the critical cornerstone of global education. Students from all over the world are engaged in all types and sizes of classrooms, while they are in their homes, and their lecturers don't have to strain their voices to be heard.

As this dimension of education is even getting stronger (by improving interaction and reducing internet glitches), it is becoming obvious that even when the world returns to normal, online education will remain powerful, and capable of resolving some challenges that in-person education can't, like instant global connection.

However, it is saddening that, with the current global pandemic, there are millions of kids, the youth, and people in general, who can't access school anymore, till further notice. Some don't even know that their colleagues around the globe did not go for a break because of a pandemic. For their colleagues, what changed is a classroom, but the syllabus, school calendar, lectures, and lecturers are still intact.

It's unfortunate that this has just been another component of education that can only be accessed based on the merit of geographic location, and economic background.

It's gradual, but we, as Mtedere Library, hope internet, computers, and computer literacy can reach everyone.

Malawi, as a place where Mtendere Library operates, our vision is to contribute to computer literacy, which is a critical basis of increasing the reach of online education in Malawi.