Change begins with education

The Akilah Institute of Women at Kibagabaga invited me on Friday to do a presentation to their students who are undertaking their hospitality course. I was supposed to share my personal experiences as well as insights that could inspire and motivate the seventy young women. But I ended up being myself so much inspired and motivated by their optimism and their quest for knowledge. During our two-hour discussions, we shared a lot on the importance of passion and the need to go beyond one’s limits and sometimes life circumstances. Here below is a summary of the great inspirations I got from these young women. Education is paramount for any developmentI recently read that “Education serves as the means to bring about the desired change in society, to develop a generation of virtuous individuals and thus contribute to the development of good human beings. The fundamental purpose of education is to gain knowledge, inculcate the forms of proper conduct and acquire technical competency”. Education no matter the form it takes serves as the means to develop oneself physically, mentally, economically and socially. It is only through education that we can prepare the youth to compete successfully in the knowledge-based economy we are in now. In other words, if service delivery in Rwanda should improve, it depends, to a large extent, on the effort that is done is offering qualified educational systems to the young generations. The youth can make the difference Youth is that phase of life where dreams are built, hope is kindled and a bright future is foreseen. It is at the stage that we discover our potentials and decide to grab the opportunities offered to us in order to pursue success. Youths look up most at times for role models in the society.Much as it is true that the youth’s value systems are impacted by their interactions with adults, they are also responsible of their personal decision to contribute positively in the society. Young people therefore need to understand that each and every one can make the difference. Investing in the education of the youth should be considered vital by all. One of the other interesting moments shared with the students was the interest they had in The ServiceMag. I was simply impressed and motivated by the fact that they knew the content of every single page of the magazine (was later on told that they use the magazine as a teaching material). The aim of all training is to make people grow. Building capacity in all sectors of our economy is key to the country’s development. Improving on the Rwanda service culture is an individual responsibility Another interesting issue we discussed was on the culture. Many people here blame poor service on “culture”. But when I asked one of the students to define culture, she rightly said that is a set of shared attitudes, values, beliefs, goals, and practices that characterizes a group of people or a society. Based on this definition, we all agreed that because culture was based on habits and practices, it is simply a matter of adopting the right attitudes today. If we all foster new principles and value systems that can help us to begin an “all-new journey” on the path of the “right”’, then we could improve on this “culture”. It is said that things that are repeatedly done become habits. If we all adopt today and everyday daily positive attitudes, this will have a great impact on our society. Promoting these good values and habits once again requires education and sensitization. Before we concluded, the students unanimously took the decision to be catalysts of positive social transformation in Rwanda. The hope of the future lies in the Youth. The youth of Rwanda are the trustees of posterity. The future can really be bright if we all dedicate somehow, somewhere, a bit of energy, time, effort, money and resource in supporting all educational programs for the Rwandan youth. The author is a Customer Service Consultant Contact: sidossou@theservicemag.com