In just two days, the grounds of the Maiyanat Indigenous Youth Life Skills, Arts and Culture Development Centre will come alive with celebration. Families will gather, cameras will flash, and proud graduates will walk across the stage to receive certificates they have worked hard to earn.
For many, it will be the culmination of months of learning. But for 28-year-old Everline Monto from Kimanjo, it represents something much greater.
Like many Indigenous young people across Northern Kenya, Everline faced an uncertain future after completing her education. She stayed at home, unsure of what opportunities lay ahead, as climate change and shrinking economic opportunities continued to affect livelihoods across her community.
For many Indigenous youths, these challenges have become part of everyday life. Yet within these same communities, a different story is taking shape.
One where young people are no longer waiting for opportunities to come to them—they are being equipped to create their own. That journey brought Naserian to the Maiyanat Indigenous Youth Life Skills, Arts and Culture Development Centre.
She enrolled in the Cosmetology programme, determined to turn uncertainty into opportunity. What she found was more than technical training. She gained practical, hands-on skills, confidence in her abilities, and a renewed belief that she could shape her own future.
She no longer sees herself as a Form Four leaver wondering what comes next. She sees herself as a skilled professional with the ability to earn a living, become financially independent, and one day open her own beauty salon. Her dream is not only to build a successful business but also to create opportunities for other young women in her community. Her story is one of many.
On 15 July 2026, the Centre will celebrate its 2nd Graduation Ceremony under the theme “Skills for a Shared Future.” It is more than a graduation ceremony; it is a celebration of resilience, partnership, and the power of investing in Indigenous youth.
Through the partnership between IMPACT, Laikipia North Technical and Vocational College (LNTVC), and The Nyeri National Polytechnic, the Centre continues to bring accredited, competency-based vocational education closer to Indigenous communities. Young people are graduating with practical skills in masonry, carpentry and joinery, plumbing, welding and fabrication, tailoring and fashion design, cosmetology, and other trades that prepare them for employment, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance.
For Everline, graduation is not the finish line. It is a celebration of a journey already in motion; one that began in a classroom at Maiyanat and today continues in her own salon in Kimanjo. For many others graduating this week, that journey is only just beginning
