The Drug Free Youth Poetry For Health

Have you ever thought of how we could make difficult subjects interesting, how we could make boring subjects interesting and, in this case, then how we can make health interesting, especially to the young people? This is what this short collective is all about. Having thought critically in my earlier years as a health professional and an artist, I always wanted to solve the puzzle, to crack the case especially around how you can make health interesting to the youth and eventually how you could make any subject interesting and fun. And in my many years of research and creative thinking, I found that we could use poetry for health, and boom! This collective is a proof that this actually works. Compiling these works of art predominantly from Kenya was every bit fun and insightful and inspiring. The drug-free youth poetry contest was a project under Stowelink, which is a company I founded, where we invited youth from all over the country to talk about drug abuse and how drug abuse links up to the development of non-communicable diseases. the poetry contest attracted a readership of over 300,000 people in one month’s period and I couldn’t be happier to have documented the top pieces of this contest in this amazing book. These pieces of poetry could be used in schools, institutions, and learning centers across all ages to get the message out on drug abuse and also to teach the populations on non-communicable diseases. I know you are ready to dive in and have this great out of body experience and excitement just as I felt writing and compiling these pieces!

Practical Skills for Entrepreneurial Success is a true masterpiece that provides insight that goes beyond the entrepreneurial realm into wisdom for life and business. The book merges storytelling, insight, and instructions in such a delicate and masterful manner thus enabling the reader, to not only develop a mental and mindset shift in their approach to life and business but also equips them with practical methods of tackling business challenges both in how they approach them mentally and strategically.

The Mental Health Matters: Lessons and Experiences from Young People in Africa Anthology comprises of 4 human-interest stories from real young people who decided to remain anonymous but used their story to create awareness and impact. The book also contains 20 pieces done in pure English language, two of the most popular pieces done in the Swahili language and 3 pieces done in a mix of both English and Swahili which is also a rising writing and communication trend in east and central Africa. The book contains important chapters focusing on what mental health is for young people and what people could generally do to build a better mental health status. In this book you will find inspiration, you find sad experiences, you will find funny pieces, you will find love and resilience, you will find grit but most importantly, you will find hope. Hope that we young people can change the tide, hope that we young people can beat mental health, hope that we young people will always rise above after we fall, we will always come back stronger and that we will not only survive, we will thrive.

First published in 1997. There is an almost universal consensus that we as adult individuals, as communities, and as a nation, should attempt to prevent our youngsters from using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. For three and a half years, from 1990 to 1994, a team of researchers and clinical practitioners from Fordham University's Graduate School of Social Service, with funding from the New York State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, worked to review the literature published in the past two decades pertaining to the content and outcomes of adolescent substance abuse prevention programs which had been fielded during that twenty-year period. The results were presented to over a thousand substance abuse prevention specialists in a series of seminars throughout New York State. This book is a result of a need of effective strategies and training for those present were working in the field, in schools and community agencies, attempting to accomplish adolescent substance abuse prevention.