ELIZABETH MASITSA

Elizabeth is a Learning and Development Coordinator who develops training content, coordinates and facilitates training and coaching sessions for the employees at Bidhaa Sasa. Elizabeth believes that training is a continuous process not only key to the operational excellence of the organisation, but is a pillar for the personal and professional development of every individual.

“Laughter is the best medicine”

Q: Tell us a few things about you! Your background, your childhood and early beginnings!

I attended an all-girls Catholic school from the age of six to eighteen. I believe this played a big part in shaping the person I am now. I learned the value of spirituality, developed my love for reading and formed life-long friendships

As a child, I loved to read everything from Enid Byton to Meg Cabbot to the Twilight series. For me, books have always been a gateway to another world. I stayed up all night reading on several occasions. My first love as a child, though, was math. Math has always been enjoyable to me, whether it was calculus, binary arithmetic or accounting, I always enjoyed the challenge.

Q: What are some of the key challenges in your society currently?

At the moment, the country is plagued with corruption scandals, high unemployment rates, a deteriorating economy and a high cost of living. There's a distinct sense of despair in the air.

When surrounded by so much anguish it is hard to visualize a future to look forward to. There are however individuals and groups who are working hard to shed light on the injustices happening around us and a lot of people who are using their platforms to spread joy.

Every day I make a point to look for something to be grateful for.

Q: Share with us some of the hurdles that you had to overcome in your life so far? How did you handle them?

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 2020. Amid the stress and isolation of the pandemic, I had to navigate this while also struggling with my physical health. It took me a long time to fully understand what it means to live with Bipolar Disorder and to find community in the mental health space.

This took its toll on my relationships and my work, but with time I was able to take control of my narrative. I've learned how to live a life I love thanks to healthy routines, therapy, medication, and, most importantly, community support.

Q: Why is the role of a mentor important for you?

While I was at school and when I began my career as a technical trainer, I was quite lost and overwhelmed. Technology Education was relatively new in the country and it is a field that is male-dominated. I had no idea what my professional career would look like. I didn’t know where to start. Everything was new to me, and I didn't know anyone in the industry from whom I might seek advice.

That is why it is so important to have mentors who can serve as guides both in the professional and personal realms and as sounding boards for ideas that could turn into beautiful innovations.

Q: Do you have a lesson that life has taught you and you would like to share?  

Forgive yourself for the decisions you made in the past. Someone recently told me “You made the best decisions with the information you had at the time.”

I want to be my biggest cheerleader, which is difficult to do if I am also my biggest critic. If I can speak with kindness to my friends and family, I can speak with kindness to myself.

Q: Name a project, a foundation or a person in your country that you think is doing great work in helping improve other people's lives! 

The Rainbow Room Foundation was founded by Sophia and Pauline Wanyonyi. One of the Foundation's activities is a literacy program for students in public primary schools in Bungoma County, which is located in rural Western Kenya. The programme promotes reading culture among children while also assisting them with their arithmetic skills and broadening their understanding of their county. This programme provides a safe location for youngsters to spend their Saturdays and school holidays, keeping them engaged and out of trouble.

The Foundation also includes a teen mentorship programme for girls who are out of high school to help them navigate life as they enter adulthood. The goal of this programme is to mentor and coach girls in order to help them make informed decisions and reduce teen pregnancy in Bungoma County.

I admire Sophia and Pauline's commitment to improving the well-being of the community in their home county.

Q: What are some of the challenges that women in your country face and what efforts are being made towards gender equality?

The high cost of sanitary products makes them inaccessible to a large part of the population. It’s an issue that has been tabled in parliament but has been put on the back-burner for a long time.

There are numerous groups that hold sanitary towel drives and offer reusable sanitary towels to girls in schools and women in low-income communities. Earlier this year, a Senator took a bold step to bring this issue to the notice of her colleagues and it at least opened the dialogue about why this is such an important issue.

Q: Share with us a motto you live by.

We laugh so we don’t cry.

A lot of terrible things happen around us every day. It’s easy to become cynical and lose your sense of empathy, so whenever possible I try to find the light side of things. I also have a bookmarked folder with links to “dad jokes” and bad puns to help me laugh during the darker days.

I am an advocate for a good cry whenever you need to but it is also important to have tools to self-soothe readily available.

Q: If you had all the money needed to launch the project of your dreams, can you describe what you would do?

I would like to start an initiative that brings more awareness to the importance of having positive mental health practices at work. Providing organisations and individuals with information and tools to create an environment where they can talk openly about mental health, making resources like workbooks, therapy and support groups affordable and readily available to those in need.

I would like to be able to encourage a more active role for both staff and management through training and implementing employee mental health programmes within organisations in Kenya.