UoN Economic Student delivers mentorship programs

Messry Lung’atso, a fourth-year student pursuing Bachelor of Economics degree and The winner of Beauty of Africa International Pageant (BAIP) 2022 has been at the forefront of running mentorship programs. She has brought together people to help improve society through mentorship and several other activities.

She won the prestigious pageant in September 2022 that was held in Abuja Nigeria. Messry has taken on mentorship to the youth and teenagers as her pet project. Every pageant queen is expected to run projects and come up with programs that are beneficial to society. She has teamed up with other students of Economics at University of Nairobi to help mentor children in primary and secondary school. This has been instrumental as many school going children from less privileged backgrounds lack proper mentorship especially on matters university courses, careers, finances and growth. Messry and her team have consistently worked to see that many children across Kenya get access to proper mentorship.

She has been able to visit a number of schools across the country particularly those in the rural and informal areas. On the 31st of March 2023, together with a team of youth, they held a mentorship session at Mukuyu Primary in Ruiru prisons. This also involved a food and pad drive. The boys were mentored with young men from the university and the girls got candid mentorship from Messry and other young ladies. This was crucial as the demographic of the kids was ages between 12-14, an important stage in development. A child specialist was also available to help decode information on hygiene, consent, and importance of education to the children. In October 2022 during The International Day of The Girl Child, Messry held a programme at Saint Elizabeth Mumias Girls’ Highschool. Taking on critical conversations regarding growth as a young woman and navigating through it with grace. This was also to empower the girls to stay in school and pursue education further. This came after several cases of teen girls dropping out of school due to unwanted pregnancies was reported in Kakamega county, Messry’s home county. Using mentorship as a means to reach out to school going girls in a bid to keep them in school. In attendance was the Kakamega county women representative and many other female professionals that the girls could learn from.

Environmental concern has been an emerging issue and Messry has used her space to mentor others about conservation. She has run several tree planting sessions in schools. Her target audience is school going children and the youth as she says it the best age to give the right information. She has teamed up with other organizations Like the Darren Hart Foundation which is also run by a student at The University of Nairobi. Together, they organize clean up sessions, garbage collection and tree planting. They recently helped clean Nairobi River in Nairobi West, Clean up areas in Langata constituency and several others. Messry has travelled to Nakuru county for the same reason, mentorship and talks on conservation of the environment where she was hosted at Menengai highschool.

The Department of Economics plays a great part in promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR). We encourage our students to play active roles in giving back to the society in avenues like mentorship, environmental conservation campaigns among others. We congratulate Messry Lung’atso for leading by example and encourage other students of Economics to take up some of these activities and help improve our nation.

Messry insists that we should all show up in our individual capacities to improve our society. Whatever cause we choose to work with, we can make a difference in the long run and therefore have a better community for us and generations to come.