Nurturing young creative talent

Education should provide young generation with knowledge and an enabling environment for them to develop their potential to the fullest.Talent and skills are also crucial in helping youth get far in life but there has been few opportunities for them to nurture such talents.

Despite the existence of limited opportunities for them, there have been some initiatives dedicated in creating forums that help young teenagers and youth to understand their talents, potentials, ability also personal identities and polish them so that they can be of benefit in the global competitive world.

Such initiatives include the Uwezo Award which has for two years exposed young minds to the whole idea of community and social responsibility.

Last Saturday , secondary school students from Dar es Salaam came together for the launching of this year’s awards which is expected to bring together 50 participants to compete for the award.

Apart from the official launching, student had an opportunity to hear words of encouragement from a number of people who used their talents to make a positive changes both in their lives and that of their community.

Maria Sarungi, a motivator from Compass Communication was one of them. She encouraged students to work hard to ensure that their talents are fully utilised. Giving out her own experience she says a lot of people that she has met both within and outside the country always had a hard time believing that she is a Tanzanian.

“When they see how am capable of doing things outstandingly and daring and even the language I use they get trouble believing that am a Tanzanian, but I am and I also went into a public school at Zanaki and studied from Form One up to Form Six,”

“One thing that helped me back then was my activeness and using the opportunities from the clubs we had in our school. I, together with my fellow students started a number of clubs including Roots and Shoots. We went to the United Nations to talk about the importance of environmental conservations particularly animals,” says Maria.

“This activities boosted my confidence which has helped me to be who I am today, representing my country both within and outside the boundary. I am happy to see how you have been working hard to change your community through creative projects,” she added.

Her advice for the youth was that whatever challenges they are going through they should take it as an opportunity for them to learn something out of it, “Whenever we come across challenges, they help us to learn more and more. I will help connect you with various people who went to the same schools you are today who are currently holding various positions within our society so that they can help you. You shouldn’t have a word impossible in your vocabularies, you need to learn to tell yourself that everything is possible. Start now to have such a positive belief in yourselves and work to find creative solutions for your problems,” Maria stated.

Understanding that a road to success especially when it comes to using a talents to make a living can be a big challenge, Jeff Mduma a musician and activist, who was also one of the guests encouraged the students to never let go of their dreams no matter how hard the road to success is. He said life is like an echo and that what one gives is what will come back to them and that’s why he always says ‘never give up’.

“When I was first starting to nurture my singing and poem writing skills, a lot of people felt like I was just wasting my time. I remember one day one of my teachers saw the poem I wrote and he told me to stop doing stupid things. However, that didn’t discourage me since I continued to do what I loved the most and that has managed to take me into places,” he proudly explained adding

“I went into a number of singing competitions but I wasn’t successful but that didn’t stop me from dreaming big and today my singing talent has taken me into different countries which I would never have thought that one day I would have a chance to visit if I would have given up on my talent,” says Jeff.

He says his talents have seen him performing on various international concerts across Africa and one secret is; he didn’t give up that easily and therefore he advised students not to give up and to use opportunities such as the Uwezo Awards to nurture their talents.

Director of Sports from the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports Yusuph Omary when giving his remarks said he was happy with the initiatives made to support students in utilising their talents.

“I am happy to see all these initiatives and on behalf of the Minister I congratulate you on the initiatives you are taking in nurturing and supporting talents at such an early stage. While we were still young, it was hard for us to do other things outside our class hours. Our parents were very hard on us back then but things are different today for you children. There are lots of opportunities for you to start grooming your talents at such an early age and I encourage you to grab such opportunities,” advised the director.

Noelle Mahuvi, Uwezo Award Project Coordinator said this year they were able to reach out to 50 secondary schools within the Dar es Salaam City as they continue to encourage students to take a step and show their talent.

“Last year we managed to reach out to 20 secondary schools and some of the schools surprised us with their talents because of the projects they did which truly touched the community and at the same time taught them a lot of lessons. We continue to encourage students in this year’s Uwezo Award that they should continue taking steps to show their talents which in one way or the other can’t directly be seen in the class. I believe that as students and youth, you are capable and more than capable and I believe that this year we will achieve big,” Noelle said.