One-to-One mentorship programme |21 October 2020

The Mahé groups in souvenir photographs (Photo source: Ministry of Family Affairs)

First group of mentors complete training

The first group of ‘mentors’ under the one-to-one mentorship programme have received their certificate after successfully completing their foundation training.

The group of 13 mentors from Mahé and 10 mentors from Praslin comprise active and retired people from various backgrounds ranging from social work, counselling, sociology, psychology, teaching, health profession, and other areas of capacity or experience in community work. 

In her remarks at the certificate presentation ceremony, the Minister for Family Affairs, Mitcy Larue, reiterated that the programme is to equip families going through social deficits with life hacks to better manage their household, namely budget management especially during this difficult period, as well as parenting skills, among others. 

“As mentors, you are also helping social workers with the extensive workload they have and I take this opportunity to call upon humanitarians to come forward and give their time to those in need,” she added.

The coordinators of this programme, Family Affairs advisor Beryl Naiken and technical advisor in the Poverty Alleviation Department, Nathalie Didon, pointed out that the introduction of the mentorship programme has shed significant light on various key influencing factors that repeatedly place people in vulnerable states.

“This just proves that there is a need for better awareness on matters such as budgeting, parenting, hygiene, virtues, and values that need to be lived rather than talked about or documented,” advisor Naiken said.

It was pointed out that following advisor Naiken’s appearance on television programme Bonzour Sesel mid-July this year, a total of 80 applications were submitted and the selection process is expected to start next month.

Advisor Naiken said that aside from helping families, the programme's objective is equally to strive for mentors that are enrolled for the right reasons and not just for the incentive.

Mentors are allocated to work closely with selected individuals to address the underlying factors that place them in ‘needy’ positions as well as prevent those on borderline from falling into the poverty trap.

The mentors play a key role in assessing and identifying the root cause of the problem and in turn work with the individual at addressing these areas of needs effectively.

The monitoring and assessing procedures are carried out every two weeks by the coordinators.

Contributed by the Ministry of Family Affairs