From Mbooni to Finland: Making space for Young Voices

Author: Scholastica Mutua
Edited by Anita Lintula

Scholastica Mutua is a youth mentor based in Mbooni, Kenya. From March to August 2026, she worked with young advocates through the Connect for Global Change global education project, supporting them in creating stories, videos and storycards for Finnish secondary level students. For her, the experience became about much more than producing learning materials. It was about listening, creating space for difficult conversations, and learning to be moved by the young people she worked with. 

The themes we explored — climate change, inequality, colonialism and mental health — were not abstract topics for the young people. They were part of their everyday lives. At times, my role was to sit with a young person's pain before we could turn their experience into something that might educate others.

What impressed me most was how strongly the young people wanted to shape their own stories. They did not want to be presented as passive victims of climate change or inequality. They wanted to show their communities as places of knowledge, resilience and creativity, while speaking honestly about the unequal burdens they carry.

A Moment That Stayed With Me

One moment in particular has stayed with me.

During a storycard session, a quiet young woman presented a photograph and a text about mental health. She wrote about the silence surrounding mental health in her community, and about the loneliness of struggling without the words to describe what you are experiencing. 

The room went still. 

Then, one by one, the other young people began nodding. 

A conversation that may never have happened before was suddenly happening.

That moment reminded me that storytelling is not only about producing content. It can give people language for experiences they have carried alone — and help them realise that they are not alone.

Making Time to Pause 

The Kenyan and Finnish young people also met through online workshops. Their backgrounds were different, and sometimes those differences required explanation and translation. But the conversations created an opportunity for the young people to meet one another as equals, with knowledge and perspectives worth sharing.

Looking back, I would want to create even more space for reflection. Not only time to produce, but time to pause — for me as a mentor, and for the young people themselves. Some experiences need to be listened to and held before they can become stories. I would also give the young people more space to document what they themselves are experiencing through the process, not only the external topics they are exploring. Their inner journey can be as meaningful as the stories they create.

And if resources allowed, I would love to see at least one in-person exchange between the Kenyan and Finnish young people. Online connection can open doors, but there is something about meeting face to face that it cannot replace.