 By Pius Musyoki, YASA co-founder
Youth and Success Association is a National Non-Profit and Non-Political Organization started and run by Kenyan youths. The organization(YASA) empowers the youth, women and Person’s with Disability through Mentorship, Entrepreneurship, and Training among other Initiatives that promote their wellbeing and nurture Leadership.
The organization was started 3 years ago by Joel Muli, Pius Musyoki, Sheila Atieno and Eddie Wachira. Our Main Motivation of starting this organization was to create an entity where young people can get inspiration, guidance and mentor-ship from other young individuals who have succeeded. Â Over the years we have come up with different programs to empower the youth in different ways. They include:
- Youth & Success Magazine
Youth and Success Magazine is printed quarterly and distributed freely to Universities, Colleges, and other Institutions of higher learning, youth Community Based Organization, and County Government offices among other Youth Centers. The Magazine is a tool we use to provide the youths with the information and also captures their contribution towards empowering each other.
- Youth Conferences and Forums
Youth and Success Association holds quarterly conferences and forums to empower youth in entrepreneurship and employability skills. YASA held four conferences in 2016 in the Counties of Kajiado, Kiambu, Machakos and Nairobi. We have a conference for young entrepreneurs which will be held at the Nairobi City Hall on the 21st of April 2017.
- YASA Farmers Market
In Conjunction with Greenspan Mall, we have a farmers market at the Greenspan Mall Nairobi every first and last weekend of the month. The Market is a great platform for young agri-entrepreneurs to sell their produce to the public.
Our greatest achievement has been our Entrepreneurship and Employ-ability Conferences. Over 10,000 youth in different counties have benefited from this program, over 300 youth have been able to exhibit and sell their businesses in these forums and 10 youth have gotten funding and incubation for their businesses.
Creating awareness about our programs and forums has been through our Social Media pages. Our Social Media pages are:
Currently, our biggest challenge has been getting capital to fund our programs, most public and private companies do not prefer working with start-ups. They Prefer working with organization which they have a history of business with or organizations with a track record.
The Kenyan government, however has helped us in overcoming such challenges; for example, during our first Forum at Machakos County, the county government gave us the Machakos Peoples’ Park to use as a venue for the youth Forum.
We as the founders of YASA gain satisfaction from seeing how young people are impacted by our programmes and develop themselves in their respective fields.
Our Contacts