Empowering the younger generation

Entrepreneurship and growth is the key to growth in Africa.

It is important that we open the door of entrepreneurship to the new generation, the teenagers and the youth in our community.

This is how we do it -  combining teaching with mentoring....

Fabric accessories from Old T-shirt

Most of us have our old T-shirts at home and we either throw them away or give them out. Those old T-shirts are made from cotton and can be converted to necklaces or scarves and lots more.

 

Materials needed

Old t-shirt (or new one if you like)

Tape rule

Scissors

Needle and thread (you will be needing the long hand sewing needle)

Anything to embellish it

Steps

1.      Take the T-shirt and place on a flat surface like a work table of the floor.

2.      Measure the width or length of the T-shirt and your neck length.

3.      Cut the t-shirt in strips. You will have to cut 2 sizes. 8 short ones and 18 long ones. Then cut for short strips that are much thinner in width than the rest. Also cut 2 wider short strips. This will be used to cover the joining areas.

4.      Arrange the long and short strips together and place separately.

5.      Thread the needle with a colour

that matches the colour of the t-shirt. Take the long strips by one end and the short ones by another end and join together by sewing them with your needle and thread. (Ensure you sew together firmly.)

6.      Do same for the other side.  Take the thing short strips and sew on one side of the necklace but don’t sew the other end so that one end is free and extends down like a sort of embellishment.

7.      Now what is left is to cover up the joining sections on both sides of the necklace. Take one of the wider short strips place it round the joining so that it meets at the back of the necklace. Then sew together ensuring that the area where you sewed the long and short strips together is perfectly covered. Do same for the other side.

8.      And so you have it!

9.      Check mine in the picture below………………..Enjoy!

Ankara craft training

2015 is gradually coming to an end. Don't end the year without having a skill.
Learn ankara craft!
The cost of the tuition for each craft is as follows (please note that trainees will have to buy their own materials and tools);
1. Wallets (male & female) 5k per design of wallet
2. Clutch 5k per design of clutch
4. Hand bags (sewing and non-sew) 8k per design of handbag
5. Bow tie (bonus craft if you do all the others)
6. Hair pieces (3 designs 5k)
7. Belts (male & female) 5k
8. Costume jewellery (necklace, earrings, and bangles) 15k for 3 set designs
9. Slippers (female) 15k

Weekend and weekday training available.
Please contact Mariam Campbell 08177165365 (calls, text or whatsapp), 7F679ED8 (BBM Pin) or email purehoneykreativiti@gmail.com.

Some say we lack Leaders...............

Some say we lack leaders
Others say we lack followership
 Some have gone as far as saying
Leadership is a result of the followership

Nigeria does not lack leaders
 Nigeria lacks a leader with a vision
We lack a leader who can see beyond his stomach
We lack a leader who can see beyond the need of his situation

Nigeria used to be a giant
But the need for today has put its tomorrow in jeopardy
Now everybody, leaders and followers
 Do not want to see beyond today as they fear for tomorrow

 Even the WORD asks us to WRITE the vision
Visions are never for today
They are for tomorrow
 A tomorrow that is far into the future

Nigerians need to begin its search for a visionary Leader
 A leader like Joseph who saw tomorrow
Because of it he didn't allow today to suck him in
His vision made him the first Prime minister ever

Nigeria needs a leader like Nehemiah
 He saw the desolation of his land
But he also saw the greatness of a better tomorrow
 He fought for and worked for that tomorrow

Nigerians need a leader that is not afraid to champion a cause for change
 A leader like Elijah
 He challenged the prophets of Baal and the whole of Israel
He made them see that God reigns over all

Nigeria does not lack leaders
We have leaders
 They are not just the type we need
What we have is a shadow of leadership

 We need leaders with vision
 Leaders who can run with said vision
Leaders who see a great Nigeria
Leaders willing and ready to build that greatness at all cost!

This is what we need
This kind of leadership is what we deserve
It is the leadership that ensures that followers "follow"
 Nigerians must demand for their right!

 ~Mariam Campbell 2015

Dreams Can Come True!

On Tuesday I saw a girl in uniform (don't get me wrong, I see students in uniform everyday) but this one hit a chord. Why? It did because as I looked at her I remembered I was that small (she was very small!) and at that age I had so many dreams. My mind was and still is very imaginative and has the ability to dream far into the future. I would pen all my ideas and save them. Recently I looked at some and wondered to myself, “did I do that?”

Some of my dreams I have been able to run with and bring to reality. I remembered back in the late 1980s that anytime I watched ‘Youth Scene’ that popular program on NTA I would tell myself I would be able to meet with the anchor of the program. Today I can safely say that I have fulfilled that dream or part of it. I used to tell myself I would never work for anyone, well maybe I worked for someone for a while but today I work for no one but myself and my clients. I remember also saying that I would grow up to take care of my parents, a lot of use wish for this but few can actually say they do. I am grateful to God that he has given me the grace to fulfill this dream. I still have so much and so many dreams that are yet to be made a reality and so many that are already a reality. I write for a living, a passion I get satisfaction from. I talk for a living a dream that is a reality. But I still have a long way to go and if God has brought me this far, I am very sure he will take me to the very end of the road. Let us all remember that dreams can come true. All we need is the power to be able to run with our dreams!

Dreams of a little girl

On Tuesday I saw a girl in uniform (don't get me wrong, I see students in uniform everyday) but this one hit a chord. Why? It did because as I looked at her I remembered I was that small (she was very small!) and at that age I had so many dreams. My mind was and still is very imaginative and has the ability to dream far into the future. I would pen all my ideas and save them. Recently I looked at some and wondered to myself, “did I do that?” Some of my dreams I have been able to run with and bring to reality.

I remembered back in the late 1980s that anytime I watched ‘Youth Scene’ that popular program on NTA2 Channel 5, I would tell myself I would be able to meet with the anchor of the program. Today I can safely say that I have fulfilled that dream or part of it as the anchor then is my mentor today. I used to tell myself I would never work for anyone, well maybe I worked for someone for a while but today I work for no one but myself and my clients. I remember also saying that I would grow up to take care of my parents, a lot of us wish for this but few can actually say they do.

I am grateful to God that he has given me the grace to fulfill this dream. I still have so much and so many dreams that are yet to be made a reality and so many that are already a reality. I write for a living, a passion I get satisfaction from. I talk for a living a dream that is a reality. But I still have a long way to go and if God has brought me this far, I am very sure he will take me to the very end of the road.

Let us all remember that dreams can come true. All we need is the power to be able to run with our dreams! There is a quote I love so much from the good book (the bible) and it says “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time." Habakkuk 2:2-3 MSG. I like it a lot because it refers to our dreams (vision) as something that points to what is coming and not that will be at the right time.

As I looked as that little girl as small as she was, I remembered that I was that small and now I have grown (still growing). I realised that time waits for no one and its what we make of our life now and how well we invest in our future that will determine how fast we rise to the challenges that life deals out to us.

What money cannot buy............

This week I came across a very beautiful woman who was nicely dressed. If she did not open her mouth to speak you would actually pray to have such a beautiful woman as wife. But when she opened her mouth to speak I almost cried. All I ended up doing was pray and pray. Today going back home I saw her again and I realized it is impossible to value sanity until we actually see those who have lost it. Beautiful people who are in a world of their own not knowing or recognizing life as we see it. Place much more value on the little things please because they matter. Little things like the ability to swallow, smell, feel, go to the loo, bath yourself, reason, etc are daily miracles and gifts from our maker who gives us a tune-up each day before we wake up. Wake up count your toes, fingers, speak and hear, touch and feel, brush your teeth and take your bath, go to the loo and do tha' thing. Open your eyes and behold the beauty of a new day! Recognize your siblings, husband, children, and home. Money will buy you cloths but not the skin to put it on, money will buy you shoes but not the feet its worn on, money will buy you books but not the eyes to read or mind to understand, money will buy you food but not the tongue to taste or the mouth to eat, money will buy you perfumes but not the nose to smell it, money will buy you a lot of things but then money will never buy you those things that we take for granted and which we sleep with and wake up having. That is not the end of it. Very few people who have an abundance of money do not have that which you wake up with; peace in your heart and home, joy that runs deep and a happiness that cannot be bought. The ability to think and create is a miracle, a special gift that everyone should have but not everyone does. We say common sense is not common, but do we know that money will not buy common sense? The ability to think and differentiate wrong from right, the ability to chose right in itself is a gift that we need not take for granted. Why? There are a lot of people out there who would love to be able to think straight and make the right choice but then they just end up making the wrong choices every step of the way. When we were asked to "count our blessings and name them one by one", the author of the song did not mean those things which we have worked for and bought with our hard earned money; those things that money can buy. The actual fact is that he meant those things which no amount of money can buy; those things that we wake up each day taking for granted. Our senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, feel, or organs - the beating heart, functioning lungs, working kidney, our spleen, pancrease, bladder, brain; our limbs, even our natural clothing - our skin. Its so beautiful to have them and to have them working perfectly without any external use or aid. Learn to value those things in your life that money cannot buy, they matter a lot and the value of it cannot be quantified. God has made a perfect machine in us, one that cannot be replicated, duplicated or disengaged. That in itself is a miracle!