2024 Youth Spaces Cohort: Crazy Cashless People
The ball is now in play! The 2024 GHE Youth Spaces cohort kicked off last weekend, with a session held at INES in Musanze. 27 participants met in a classroom on its beautiful campus with a golden statue of St John Paul II in the centre and with sweet sounds of birds chirping from the trees, promising great things.
This year’s coordinator is Jean Paul Tuyishime, whom we met many years ago in Kigali when he was a community organiser of a pottery-making Batwa group. He attended the 2018 bootcamp and has been a Gorilla Highlands man ever since. His qualifications: a BBA in Business Administration, youth work and employment with Gasabo District’s department of research and development.
JP feels that with his background and with expert collaboration he can deliver a full package — and on Sunday he proved it! He introduced everyone to the program concept and explained our expectations.
The youthful half-circle in front of JP got first-hand information about the climate crisis and recommendations on how to live more sustainably. But most importantly, they learned from the testimonies of men who had built careers by turning ideas to tangible businesses.
Serge Shema, the CEO of Wildlife Conservation Initiative, shared how proper treatment of nature makes people pay attention to your actions. He told the audience that he started his nature conserving journey with no money and that some neighbours had considered him a bit crazy for doing so. Now he is a strong businessman with six staff!
Maxime Kabanda, the winner of Youth Spaces in 2023, spoke about his disappointment when his partner pocketed the seed money they had received. Still, through hard work and determination he continued and even expanded his quinoa production project, knowing that your passion counts more than your finances. His story intrigued the listeners so much that JP had to eventually cut the Q&A session short, in the interest of time.
Finally, youngsters shared their creative plans for conservation, social justice and sustainable living through group discussions and idea development exercises. They will come together again on 1 June 2024, and keep their brilliant business/project balls rolling.
