To mark the 8th month anniversary of our partnership with Ethiopia’s first youth agribusiness incubator blueMoon, we travelled to Ethiopia on 14th September to hold a Mentor and Entrepreneur Refresher Session and blueMoon-Mowgli Jam at the Addis Garage.
“Mentoring is about building confidence in your mentee so he/she can believe in their potential” Kathleen Bury, CEO Mowgli Mentoring
To kick the trip off, Dr. Eleni Gabre — Madhin, Founder of blueMoon hosted an ecosystem focused FireSide chat with our CEO, Kathleen Bury to learn more about her journey to date, the importance of mentoring in her life and the unique Mowgli Mentoring Experience.
“If I had my way, I would train parents as mentors. We need to start empowering and unlocking potential earlier in life.” Kathleen Bury
A key component of our European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) accredited syllabus is to provide on-going capacity building, support, supervision and monitoring of the mentoring relationships. It gives the mentors and entrepreneurs to reconnect and support each other as a peer group, identify and address any challenges they may be having in their relationships and realign and re-energise themselves for the following months of the structured and supported mentoring relationship.
To further support the deepening of self-awareness, which is a core component of mentoring, mentors and entrepreneurs were given the opportunity to reflect on their journey, vision and values, personally and with their peers.
#MowgliJam
#Mentoring lessons learnt "I learnt to let the process take place by actively listening & empowering my mentees to make their own decisions" pic.twitter.com/Xr0jx3c8wC
— The Human Edge (@TheHumanEdgeOrg) September 16, 2017
We like to have a good time and to celebrate the power of mentoring! Through a fantastic panel, led by Mowgli Lead Facilitator, Mustapha Koriba and consisting of blueMoon-Mowgli Entrepreneurs, Mentors, Leadership Development Specialist Tsion Asmare, and Mowgli’s CEO Kathleen Bury, we explored the panel’s mentoring journey so far and its impact on their personal and professional lives.
We couldn’t agree more with Tsion’s quote below:
“Mentoring is like being a mid-wife. All the work is done by the person delivering the baby, a midwife is by your side to guide you and motive you” Tsion Asmare
Following on from this, local entrepreneur, Samrawit Fikru, Co-Founder & CEO of the taxi-hailing service RIDE, closed the session with a brief speech on her mentoring journey leaving us to spend the rest of the evening networking.
And finally a group picture to end a fantastic high-energy day; M is for MENTORING and Mowgli — how would you do your M?
