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We Believe It Takes Team - bmobile youth lead in sports and business
Youth leadership is defining bmobile’s social investment programmes. The bmobile Foundation’s initiatives are focussed on capacity and capability building for a better, stronger, tech-savvy, and more inclusive society. The Company is clear that “we can reach our full potential once we are committed to properly fostering the talent of our youth.” Leading several projects in business, sports, education, health or culture, bmobile nurtures champions as inspirers and rolemodels to effect more inclusive and sustainable communities. Among those champions are Olympic Medalist Keshorn Walcott, and business entrepreneurs Khachielle Farmer, Josiah Jacob, Ayodhya Ouditt, and Atiba Henry.
Team Sport: Olympic Medalist Keshorn Walcott talks success.
The bmobile Foundation’s support for a youth entrepreneurship training programme and an Olympic javelin thrower’s continuing quest for another gold medal have something in common: They show that success takes teamwork.
“bmobile has been one of the backbones of my career,” remarks Olympic gold medalist Keshorn Walcott, reflecting on the corporate partnership that has sustained him through 11 years of training and competition to the brink of another Olympics. “They’ve stuck with me through the highs and lows.”
Keshorn’s partnership with his long standing sponsor began a month after he won Men’s Javelin gold at the London Olympics in 2012. In August 2023, Keshorn felt he was well prepared to win his first World Athletics Championship medal in Hungary, when everything fell apart while warming up. “Twenty-five minutes before the competition, I got hurt,” he says, recalling the season-ending Achilles tendon injury and subsequent surgery. “But knowing there’s someone who has always been there… it means everything.”
Over the years, the 30-year-old’s continuously collaborates with bmobile on youth building ventures especially projects which support children homes across the nation .. “I felt like that was a great connection,” he says. “Based on where I came from, I enjoy making a difference.”
Keshorn only recently began walking without crutches after surgery but is already training and still optimistic about competing well at the Paris Olympics in July/August 2024. As for all the sporting talent out there, he’d like to see it identified early and nurtured. “It’s not easy competing against the world on your own. You need structure and you need a team. That’s the only way you can succeed”
Team Business: Youth Entrepreneurs are ready to launch.
The graduation venue is abuzz with 26 participants of Youth Business T&T’s entrepreneurship support programme, JumpSTART. Over the past few months, the prospective entrepreneurs have bonded through breakout rooms and training sessions.
Among them is JumpSTART Best Business Pitch runner-up Khachielle Farmer, whose business idea, Chielle’s Design Experience, was developed in sessions and breakout rooms. “Everything was just coming together and helping me realise, yes, I could start a business with little to no knowledge,” says Khachielle. “Just have the idea and then the JumpSTART programme would take me through it.”
That’s why I did the programme: I wanted to be more connected to people who could tell me how to get customers and sales, and with people who could demonstrate that they have done this.
Ayodhya Ouditt, Most Innovate and Social Business Idea, YBTT JumpSTART 2023
This is a chance to have their own advisory board.
YBTT General Manager, Shedron Collins
bmobile’s support for JumpSTART was invaluable...
YBTT JumpSTART Training Coodinator Jonathan Khan says the key takeaway for most participants is emerging with a ready-to-launch business model. “The most gratifying experience is simply seeing persons be more confident in themselves and their business, and able to really sell their business with passion and commitment.”
Anjanie Ramesar- Soom, of bmobile’s, Corporate, Environmental, Social & Reputation Management team notes that entrepreneurs drive more than a third of T&T’s GDP. “And in these unprecedented times, our support of YBTT is directed at improving the likely successes of young entrepreneurs, who, in turn, make meaningful contributions to our overall economic well-being.”
Thirty-five-year-old Ayodhya Ouditt had established a business prior to JumpSTART, planning and designing impactful CSR projects for corporate clients. He eagerly anticipated connecting with people who had already succeeded. “This was more about honing my business,” says Ouditt, winner of JumpSTART’s Most Innovative and Social Business Idea. He found the mentorship of a digital marketing expert particularly helpful. “Our work is a B2B model and very premium. Having a mentor who worked in a similar field, she resonated with issues I have, in finding clients and scaling my business.”
Josiah Jacob has put his plumbing business on hold to focus on other pursuits. But, intent on generating “generational wealth,” he says he’ll get back to his own business one day. “The mentorship is needed,” he says. “You need that person to give you that push and that drive to keep going forward. As a single individual, you have so much going on and tell yourself, this is more important than that.”
Best Pitch Winner, Atiba Henry of Caribbean sweet manufacturer Kree’s Yumplicity, wholesales everything from red mango to coconut fudge and butter-fried pepper nuts. “It was just as I expected,” noted Atiba after graduating. “Getting to network with like-minded entrepreneurs and being guided to further develop and streamline my business.”
