Chat with Margaret Moumou |19 July 2023

Youth Garage! A teenagers retreat

Young people have a very critical role to play in the development, peace and prosperity of humanity and each youth is responsible for improving his or her character through the development of the highest spiritual and moral qualities. In recent years, in our community, we have seen a decline in moral values and even a rise in crime among teenagers. The most recent being a car allegedly stolen by a young man of 16 years old. Are we as adults concerned with this situation? Of course, yes! But are we doing something to prevent our youth from taking the wrong path?

Individually we are all worried about our youth and I personally know some of us dedicating time with our youth. Among them Margret Moumou, former principal of a private school, has set up an organisation to help the youth find inner peace when faced with stressful events.

She holds a Diploma in Education-Secondary from the School of Education (1996), a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Edith Cowan (1999) as well as a post graduate diploma in education from the University of Waikato (2004). She also holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Waikato (2005).

Seychelles NATION had a chat with Ms Moumou who is organising a teenagers’ retreat dubbed ‘Youth Garage!’

Seychelles NATION: What is your company about?

Ms Moumou: Enia Events was set up in 2020 by me. The aim of the company is to organise events that are linked with enhancing the wellness and wellbeing of individuals. The company organises workshops such as stress management, work life balance, self-care, self-awareness.  Enia Events cater for both companies and individuals.  Enia Events also offers coaching services to help clients make sense of their experiences and set positive and achievable goals for themselves.

Seychelles NATION: Ms Moumou please tell us about your programme

Ms Moumou: Youth Garage is a one-day retreat for youth in secondary school. This is the first edition of the retreat which is aimed at providing the participants with a range of information and tools that will allow them to undertake self-reflection as well as visioning for a successful life. Some of the sessions will equip them to better manage their life hence improve their wellbeing. Youth Garage: When we take our car to a garage it comes out better than it went in.  That's the plan with the youth garage to enhance the youths' repertoire of knowledge and skills for a better life. The retreat is for secondary students from S1 to S5, however should a post-secondary student wish to participate we will of course welcome them. The whole programme will take place on Saturday August 19 at Beau Vallon.

Seychelles NATION: Why did you come up with such a programme?

Ms Moumou: The best place to implement change that will last generations is with children and the youth. I believe that we have amazing young people in this country. They are ambitious, they have dreams and they are willing to take brave steps to achieve their goals.  What is needed, that we are trying to bring in, is accurate information for them to use as a basis of decision-making. They also need tools, techniques that they can use in building resilience. At Enia Events we see people in a holistic manner, we look at their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. We want to help young people develop a better sense of who they are in a holistic fashion so that they can love the person that they are and forgive themselves for their shortcomings and take steps, using powerful tools to redress and move forward in life. In future as a second edition, we will treat other topics.

Seychelles NATION: Tell us a little bit about the current struggle we are facing with this age group in Seychelles. What are you proposing and how the community can help?

Ms Moumou: The youth face a struggle of judgement, sadly a good proportion of the society think poorly of our youth. This is very sad because where we place our attention this is where the energy flows and the manifestation occur.  Therefore, if we think bad of our youth, we are in effect cursing them to become bad. I teach the young people to rebuke negative declarations on their life. I teach parents to declare positive and loving things on their children's lives.

There are many challenges in this world that the youth have to deal with that previous generations did not have to. I believe we need to teach our youth to be resilient in the face of challenges; teach them that their social circumstance does not define them, that they can rise above and choose a different path for themselves. We need to teach our youth to dream and then show them how to turn those dreams into reality.  Each youth has a gift, we need to appreciate and love them as beautiful children of the Divine and help them discover and cherish their gift.

Young people have their own wisdom, as adults we need to respect them and acknowledge that we can learn so much from the young people.

Seychelles NATION: Who are the facilitators and what will be the topics?

Ms Moumou: Participants will be entertained by a number of qualified and experienced facilitators – doctors, hypnotherapist, yoga teacher, hairdresser, life coach. We will involve participants in art therapy which will help them assess where they are in their life and where they want to be. Participants will expand their knowledge on personal care such as hair care, skin care, personal hygiene. They will learn about visioning and goal setting for a bright future.  They will learn the tools for stress management. Participants will experience self-love through gentle body movement. They will learn visualisation techniques for manifesting the life they desire. They will also learn about the importance of strengthening their body through physical training.

Seychelles NATION: How much will it cost?

Ms Moumou: The retreat is being supported by Lakaz Kreol Hotel which is owned by John Stravens. Mr Stravens, who has always been passionate about youth education especially in the hotel and tourism industry, has offered the venue and is also sponsoring the catering for the day. This has helped tremendously to bring down the cost of the sessions. Each government secondary school is being offered one free pass for one student. The schools have been informed of the sponsorship.

Parents can contact organisers via telephone or whatsapp 2637749 to register their children.  Registration is R400 per participant.

Vidya Gappy