A youth mentorship program that found success in Ghana has migrated to the Forest Lake area along with its founder.
Inala’s Bright Setor Dogbey relocated to Australia from the west African country in 2017 to further his education and provide his family with more opportunities.
In Ghana, Mr Dogbey founded a program to encourage young people to stay in school and support them to survive through impoverished conditions, called the Hope Restoration Network (HRN).
In Queensland, Mr Dogbey saw an opportunity to provide the program in Inala and set up an Australian branch of the HRN in 2018.
“I am coming from the deprived part of Ghana, and the challenges of being the first person from my community and my family to go to school inspired me to restore hope back to my brothers and sisters who are losing in that space,” Mr Dogbey said.
Every Saturday since January, a youth mentorship program has run at Inala’s Community Centre.
Mr Dogbey said the sessions were “more or less like a brainstorm” and focused on topics of culture, personal development, career advancement, and digital empowerment.
“It’s an opportunity that we try to open to everybody. It’s not only for one section of community, but everybody is invited to be part of the program,” Mr Dogbey said.
The majority of HRN’s work is done in Ghana and Kenya through outreach programs. Earlier this month, Mr Dogbey and his team travelled to Ghana to speak with young people about the challenges they’re facing, particularly online.
“The outreach programs are running in collaboration with the Ghanaian government, so we visit government schools because we are trying our best to instill this program into the academic curriculum.
“Our digital empowerment program basically is to empower or equip these students with media literacy skills, coding, graphic design, and to be responsible digitally.
“Because when we look at the [online] space in Africa, misinformation is driving the youths astray.”
The digital empowerment program is also being run at HRN in Inala, as digital literacy and responsibility online are issues also affecting young Australians.
Currently, HRN is searching for volunteers to assist with the youth mentorship program, Mr Dogbey said.
“We are seeking volunteers who would love to be mentors from university organisations to come and hold their hands and tailor their path towards their respective career that they are they want to choose.”
