Passionate Mentors Inspire Groundbreaking Leaders
This month, Mai Soli is proud to shine a spotlight on our mentors! As we round out Women’s History Month, we’d like to honor these amazing people who have exceeded our expectations the past few months.
Using hands-on education, mentorship, and field application, our Girls’ Empowerment Program is the first step to eliminating child marriage. Our partnership with local universities allows us to recruit talented, passionate students to act as mentors for the Mai Soli Girls. Our goal is to provide these young girls with respected role models who will help them pave their way to excellence. Each mentor is able to provide guidance to ten girls during the year, a small enough group to make it easy for the girls to feel comfortable with one another. Together, we want to ensure our mentors can form a strong support network for these girls. These mentors serve as an anchor for girls who might lack a stable support system at home.
We make mentorship a critical component of the program by having them teach the curriculum directly to the girls. They all engaged passionately with the content during orientation, not afraid to ask questions along the way. No matter what their background was, they never hesitated to learn and support each other. Asked to explain the difference between stereotypes and stigmas, these young women drew on their own experiences and came up with some superb examples to illustrate their points:
“I wear the hijab for myself and so many people used to blame my family for thinking that I was forced to wear one. My choice is mine and mine alone and that says something about the implicit bias that we all have towards one another.”
~ A Class of 2022 Mentor
Among the many true, raw stories recounted, this was just one. The mentors we had were very vulnerable and open to learning from each other, as well as being open-minded to each other’s experiences. It’s not enough to simply say “It’ll be okay” to someone who is going through a tough time. Being an effective mentor goes beyond that. Mentors need to be able to actively listen, care, and demonstrate empathy, as well as to be able to connect with other people and foster trust. This is exactly what each of these talented young women are capable of. When leaders from all corners are brought together, they can create a more sustainable and equitable world. Together, they are catalysts for change.
