Self-confidence, communities, and adolescents

• In Event: What’s skills got to do, got to do with it?

Proposal

The need to develop critical skills amongst adolescents has been explored from multiple facets. The focus of this presentation will be about what it really takes to develop self-confidence in young women. This focuses specifically on an exploration of two areas: adolescent girls, and the community members that influence them. It is imperative that practitioners consider the family and community at large in a larger discussion around building self-confidence in youth. The process and participation must be collective and not fall on the shoulders of the young women. Dosage needs to be taken seriously and given adequate attention; it can’t just be one or two trainings, it has to be a long term, multi-layered investment that impacts multiple facets of her life. These include: health, education, family participation, economic stability and social emotional stability. If one of those pieces is absent, she will struggle to develop self-confidence that lasts a lifetime.

This presentation will highlight the approaches and evidence emerging from the work of Komera in rural Rwanda. Komera believes in deep not wide development and focuses on providing holistic and multi-layered support for adolescent girls starting in secondary school through University.

Author

• Margaret Butler, Komera