What happens to youth when they lack guidance, counseling and support? They are likely to go astray or learn all behaviors that may mislead them, or even give up on their dreams and talents.
The aim of guidance and counselling is to assist behaviour change, enhance coping skills, boost decision-making, and improve relationships and to motivate one’s potential.
Though it has always been Michelle Malaika Gwiiza’s dream to start a platform that would connect the youth, she thought there was no better time than the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Having interacted with some of my friends, I realised that they were battling silently with depression, anxieties, attempting suicide, and others addicted to drugs, I therefore, initiated a platform known as ‘Lit Teens’ which is powered by Arise Education.
The YouTube show that engages youth to discover their talents, discuss challenges they face and seek solutions, expound on their knowledge by urging each other to read books, and sharpening their morals wasn’t only inspired by the fact that most teenagers were depressed, idle among other issues, and she yearned to offer them space for mentorship.
"Being a children’s book writer, I noticed that I was growing up into a teen and I needed to have a platform with my fellow teens to discuss and share.
Some schools went online immediately and other students were locked home with no hope to go back to school anytime soon. I requested my mother for support to start a platform for fellow teens where we would meet both online and offline and share issues, express ourselves, and speak out about issues affecting us,” she states.
Gwiiza shares that Lit Teens that was established in July 2020 also aimed at promoting reading, writing, storytelling and providing a space for teens to tackle the challenges they face in their daily lives.
All the programs are meant to document and enable the teens to explore, relate and understand their world with the support of fellow teens, and parents.
Gwiiza explains that the platform is structured mainly on four programs, that’s is, ‘the chat’, where the teens choose a topic concerning their lives and talk about it in depth with fellow teenagers and sometimes with their elders to acquire more knowledge.
She adds that another program is, ‘The Showcase’ where teenagers come together and show off their talents and gifts.
Next, she explains that ‘Life in Books,’ which is a program where teens talk to their fellow teens about books that they have read during the course of the week and share what they have learned from them. This is aimed to promote the reading culture among teens.
"Be my Inspiration’ is another program where we connect teens and their peers that have achieved so much at a younger age or other people so that they can be stimulated,” she explains.
Gwiiza points out that the platform has a magic Thursday for former participants of the lit teens who have outgrown the space but with the same objectives, it’s usually the youth aged between 19 and 25 for now.
"We have tackled topics on our social media platforms especially YouTube and Instagram including, but not limited to, technology enhancing culture and values within the teens in the 21 century, making career choices, culture and how the teens can promote it, relationships and the teens, academics, and so forth,” she says.
She looks forward to growing her platform to reach to all schools in Rwanda and beyond, and making it a teenager’s platforms for social change and transformations.
Gwiiza also anticipates starting a Lit Teens magazine that will be an iconic platform for the expression of teens on fashion, culture, education, innovations and talent development.
She also hopes to develop it into a TV Show that will be hosted and run by teens, but also hosting annual teenagers’ conferences for sharing and connecting.