James Mutua became a mentor by accident. He had come to the Ulimbwende community centre in Ongata Rongai to drop off some stationery donated by his employer, a mid-size logistics firm in Industrial Area. He stayed for three hours. That was in 2019. He has not really left since.

Every Saturday morning, James sits in a circle of six to eight young men between the ages of 15 and 22. They talk about whatever is on the table: exam pressure, girls, unemployment, the way their fathers speak to them, the way they wish they could speak to their own fathers. James rarely gives advice. He mostly asks questions.

Why Mentorship is Hard to Measure

Development organisations love metrics. Enrolment numbers. Test scores. Incomes. These are important. But mentorship resists this logic. How do you quantify the moment a young man decides not to join a gang because, for the first time in his life, an adult who was not obligated to care about him chose to anyway?

We have tried. Over the past three years, we have tracked 68 young people who participate in structured mentorship through Ulimbwende. Among them, 54 are currently enrolled in school or a vocational programme. 11 have started small businesses. 6 have become peer mentors themselves.

These numbers are encouraging. But they do not capture David, who at 17 was on the edge of something dark, and who at 19 is studying electrical engineering and calls James every Sunday. Numbers do not capture that.

What Makes a Good Mentor

We have learned, sometimes painfully, that good intentions are not enough. A mentor who disappears after three sessions does more damage than no mentor at all. Consistency is the whole thing. The young people we work with have experienced enough inconsistency. They do not need another adult who shows up in a wave of enthusiasm and then gets busy.

Our mentors commit to at least one year. They attend a half-day orientation. They check in with a programme coordinator monthly. And they are allowed, even encouraged, to be human: to say when they are tired, when they do not know the answer, when they are also figuring things out.

"I do not mentor because I have everything sorted," James told a group of potential mentors at a recruitment session last month. "I mentor because I did not have anyone sitting in that chair for me, and I know how much I needed it."

Join the Circle

We are recruiting mentors for our next cohort, starting in August. You do not need to be a professional. You need to be consistent, curious, and willing to show up. If that is you, we would like to meet you.