15 Mar 2017

Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development always strives to create opportunities for young people through its personal development programmes.

One of these programmes is the boot camps, which focus on intensive psychological induction to enable the youth to overcome societal desires and ensure discipline. The programme plays a key role in contributing towards a peaceful society built on the virtues of democracy and tolerance.

The fundamental purpose of a boot camp is to prepare young people to become warriors to face tough situations in life.

One of the youths who had the privilege to attend the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) boot camp in 2012, Ms Pearl Tsogang said even though thet camp was surrounded by a lot of negativity from the media it, was not a lost cause because they learnt a great deal of life skills.

Ms Tsogang said she learnt self-discipline, which she considers the number one trait needed to accomplish one’s goals, lead a healthy lifestyle and ultimately, be happy as she is now more capable of dealing with her goal conflicts.

She said the self-discipline she learnt at the boot camp does not allow her choices to be dictated by impulses or feelings, instead she makes informed, rational decisions on a daily basis without feeling overly stressed.

She added that despite what many may think, self-discipline is a learned behaviour to gain better control and helps one to establish good habits, break bad ones and improve control by making simple healthy choices, not emotional ones.

Ms Tsogang said as a freelancer and an entrepreneur, she learnt that one becomes more productive when they use improved time management skills and tools and that such lead to more accomplishments with less effort and time.

noted that she is able to juggle her freelancing job, computer games business and tutoring.

She added that with all the skills she acquired she learnt to work with different kinds of people from different backgrounds. Consequently, she noted team work made her grow professionally.

She said the advantage of attending boot camps was the inspiration and ideas that can result from team discussions because when ideas are shared there is a wider scope for creativity.

She highlighted that teams also bring people together from different backgrounds and levels of experience, which can help in creating optimal solutions.

Another youth who benefited from boot camps in 2012, Mr Onkabetse Oagile said the kills they learned have not only brought change to their lives, but had a major impact in their homes and communities.

Mr Oagile said they learnt various skills including improving social and communication skills, projecting confidence, strengthening self-esteem, building leadership skills, navigating friendships, understanding social cues and inspiring a positive attitude.

He said at the boot camp, he learnt that in order for him to be successful in life, he had to be patient. He added that with the unemployment rate skyrocketing, he learnt that he had to be self-reliant and be a go getter to survive the realities of the modern life.

For his part, policy specialist at the ministry, Mr Lawrence Ookeditse said that in addition to funding youth projects, his ministry also runs programmes for character building.

He noted that some youth had certain competences, but needed character building in for guidance on how to face challenges.

Mr Ookeditse mentioned that before the boot camps were temporarily suspended for evaluation, a lot of success stories had been achieved in collaboration with different stakeholders such as the ministry of education, military, police and others.

He implored parents, communities and the media to play a role in helping and mentoring the youth so they too can ultimately tell successful life stories.

The boot camps will resume in the new financial year.  ENDS