From The Mouths of Babes

My daughter Mayah, just came from school and found me looking at the blank screen knackering my brain. She observed that I was struggling on what to write. So I ask her what she thinks I should write on joy.

She starts by defining joy which is making others happy and being happy from it. And you can get it by spending time with your family, your nieces and nephews.

I am thinking this is enough of a post right? That is all we need, I do not need to say more. It reminds me of a song she sang to me the other day.

Joy is something when you give it away, you end up having more

It’s just like a magic penny, you put it in your pocket and you don’t have any

But when you give it away, you end up having more

Find your people and spend time with them. Those people that bring you happiness and your joy will be multiplied.

Sharing Knowledge for Joy

In the last few days I have had the honor of sitting with girls and young women in Dandora, where I grew up. We were marking Menstrual Hygiene Day with some of the high school girls we work with. I had a session that started with requests for me to dance. I have two left feet, so I was just laughing my heart out, as I was being taught how to bust some few moves.

I had so much fun.

We discussed menstruation and key takeaways were that mothers are helping girls more now to transition to teenage hood, which is really awesome. There is less period stigma and friends in their schools are helping each other through their questions and concerns on periods.

It was so refreshing to be part of this.

We also discussed the different menstrual hygiene products that are available such as; sanitary towels both disposable and reusable; tampons and they were seeing this for the first time and menstrual cups that they got to hear of for the first time. I know there is even a menstrual disc and we did not even get to this. It is always interesting to see all the work we are yet to do in our community. Just when you think you have done it all, the work is just starting. We did give them a hygiene pack my team and I from Positive Young Women Voices.

This definitely gave me joy.

Another meeting was an intimate gathering that I was part of. This group of young women who are part of our different projects were being trained on table banking and they started right away. Seeing young women thinking of some of the ways they can make money or how to grow money gives me joy. Brains were rewired and I hope they keep the same pace and surprise us and themselves one day.

Mayah is right. When you give joy, it boomerangs right back to you. You are even more happier than you would if you did not share it. It is not always money that people need; skills, time, shared experiences, knowledge, laughs and stories, investing in people’s growth goes a major long way.