Welcome to our feature spotlighting SAYes mentors.

Meet our mentors and find out about their SAYes journey. We hope you enjoy learning more about us.

 

What is your name?
Fiona

What is/was your role at SAYes? Mentor or Mentee?
Mentor

What year/s were you in the SAYes programme?
From 2020…

How did you hear about SAYes?
Via Gillian Anderson on social media. 

What attracted you to SAYes/What made you sign up?
The fact that I would be trained to do something beneficial for social change. SAYes makes ‘doing good, well’ easy from a practical standpoint. I don’t personally have a lot of spare money to throw at philanthropic causes, but what I do have is some spare time, and an hour a week is very manageable.

What concerns (if any) did you have when thinking about signing up?
That, at 37-years-old, I still wasn’t really a grown-up and wouldn’t have any good advice to offer anyone. But I was soon disabused of the notion that I would be in charge of anyone else’s life choices. It’s not at all about telling mentees what to do, and the training offers excellent guidance on how to be an effective mentor.

What were you hoping to get out of the SAYes programme?
Well, on a selfish level, it’s scientifically proven that doing good improves your own wellbeing, and mentoring with SAYes offered me a guided path to aligning my actions with my values. But ultimately what I’m hoping to get out of it is positive life experiences for my mentees.

Anything else you would like to tell us?
I have great affection for each mentee I have worked with; they have all brought me joy in their own way, and I hope that I have a similarly positive effect in their lives.

Tell us about a story that meant a lot to you (not necessarily SAYes related).When I was a teenager, a girl in my sister’s year at school fell out with her parents and wasn’t welcome at home. My mum invited the girl to live at our house while she reconciled things at home or sorted out a longer-term plan. I learned by example that just because you are not personally experiencing a particular problem, you can still be a part of the solution.

Three things that you’ve learned so far on the programme.Firstly and mainly, the importance of listening: the person who is speaking is probably the person doing the learning. Secondly, the sheer power of consistency and commitment in boosting wellbeing for mentees. Thirdly, that completely different cultural contexts do not have to be a barrier to human connection. As Jo Cox famously said: ‘we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divides us.’

What message would you give new/potential mentors?Mentoring is definitely a serious commitment; you have to be sure you can and will show up every week for your sessions. If you can do that and you fit the criteria, you can trust that SAYes will fully train and support you through the whole process. You will go into mentoring with expert knowledge and the safety net of a Transition Specialist to support you through any tough situations. You will be making a real, positive difference, and your life will be far richer for it.

Find out more about mentoring from around the globe:
https://sayesmentoring.org/sayes-mentoring-uk-get-involved-in-2021/

What is your name?
Mel

What is/was your role at SAYes? Mentor or Mentee?
Mentor

What year/s were you in the SAYes programme?
From 2020…

How did you hear about SAYes?
I bought one of Gillian Anderson’s t-shirts for charity on Instagram! It wasn’t until afterwards that I realised the proceeds were for SAYes. It was at the beginning of the pandemic and I found myself with lots of spare time on my hands and had actively been looking for something that I could get involved with. SAYes seemed like the perfect opportunity.

What attracted you to SAYes/What made you sign up?
The principles and values of SAYes really resonated with me. I had also experienced something similar in my youth and knew just how beneficial and meaningful it could be. I wanted to pay it forward.

What concerns (if any) did you have when thinking about signing up?
In previous experience I was used to ‘helping’ people directly and solving problems. I knew mentoring was not like this and wondered if I would be able to switch my mindset. 

What were you hoping to get out of the SAYes programme?
I wanted to learn more about the mentoring role in general and to expand my knowledge. To show up and hopefully make a difference.

Tell us about the challenges you faced in the SAYes programme.
Data and wifi problems have been the biggest challenge so far. You have to get creative!

Tell us about the positives of the programme.
You get to meet some really great people and share experiences. Gaining new or different perspectives is also incredibly valuable.

Anything else you would like to tell us?
SAYes is doing such important work and I’m extremely grateful to be a part of it!

Find out more about mentoring from around the globe:
https://sayesmentoring.org/sayes-mentoring-uk-get-involved-in-2021/

 

What is your name?
Chris 

What is/was your role at SAYes? Mentor or Mentee?
Mentor

What year/s were you in the SAYes programme?
2021/22

How did you hear about SAYes?
I met the co-founder of SAYes, Michelle, at a dinner party. 

What attracted you to SAYes/What made you sign up?
I liked the mission and the academic rigour Andrew (Operations Director at SAYes) brought to it – a toolkit for life – a framework for becoming a better you…what’s not to like? It’s amazing!

What were you hoping to get out of the SAYes programme?
Learning about the programme, about the psychology and development ideas and about mentoring in general. I also wanted to be able to share the things I have learned more broadly than with my family. I think we learn so much from the people around us and if we are not lucky enough to have good people around us, it can be hard to make the right choices in life. 

Tell us about the challenges you faced in the SAYes programme.
Keeping the meetings up – one hour a week doesn’t sound like a lot but can get hard to keep to when there are so many other pressures in life. 

Tell us about the positives of the programme.
You get to meet and get to know an amazing person, learn from them, share what you have learned and to think about some problems together. It makes you think. It teaches things I didn’t even know I didn’t know! Everyone wins, and that’s pretty cool. 

Anything else you would like to tell us?
I cannot sing the praises of all the staff at SAYes enough. It is by far the most professional, organised and rigorous charity I have come across doing important work and making a massive impact. I feel humbled and priviliged to be a small part of it. They are truly wonderful people, doing truly wonderful work.

Find out more about mentoring from around the globe:
https://sayesmentoring.org/sayes-mentoring-uk-get-involved-in-2021/

 

What is your name?
Wendy 

What is/was your role at SAYes? Mentor or Mentee?
Mentor

What year/s were you in the SAYes programme?
From March 2020…

How did you hear about SAYes?
When the U.K. went into lockdown in March 2020, I found that even although as a teacher I was still online teaching, I had a lot more time to offer. I decided to apply to children and young people’s charities to volunteer my time. Unfortunately, none of the charities responded back to me. But one day, as I was scrolling on social media, a Tweet popped up from SAYes looking for international mentors. So I signed up and have been mentoring ever since.

What attracted you to SAYes/What made you sign up?
I was the first international interview (on Skype) so beforehand I researched the work that SAYes do and read about the success stories.

As my training progressed, I recognised that the SAYes programme was structured and well planned.  Each training session really prepared us for the skills of mentoring. I knew then that I was excited to be a part of this process.

What concerns (if any) did you have when thinking about signing up?
My main concern was that being a teacher my job is to help to solve children’s problems.  I learned from SAYes training that mentoring is not like that – we are there to offer support and guidance but not to give instructions. That definitely worried me at first.

What were you hoping to get out of the SAYes programme?
I was hoping to be able to offer any life skills or knowledge that I had to a young person, who for whatever reason, may not have had a positive role model in their lives.

Tell us about the challenges you faced in the SAYes programme.
The main challenges we face are data and wifi problems. My mentee and I have to find innovative ways of me pointing my phone to my laptop – whilst together we look at jobs or college applications.

I learned that phone signals in South Africa are intermittent depending on weather, time of day or load shedding. So we have to adapt the way that we communicate in our sessions.

Often the slow signal will eat away at my mentee’s data – we sometimes have to cut sessions short which is frustrating at times.

Tell us about the positives of the programme.
There are so many positives  about the SAYes  programme – from the training course to the structure of mentor/mentee meetings. At the heart of it all are the wonderful young people who are part of the programme.

Anything else you would like to tell us?
I assumed that coming from the U.K., I may find it difficult to relate to the life of a young person in South Africa. In actual fact, it made no difference which country we hailed from – my mentee and I loved to hear about the similarities in our countries and it really opened the channels of communication between us.

Find out more about mentoring from around the globe:
https://sayesmentoring.org/sayes-mentoring-uk-get-involved-in-2021/