In the first of our series of guest-hosted episodes Racheal Wanjiku Kigame, Country Director, Help a Child Africa, who was a guest on episode 12 talks to her mentor Dr. James Kisia about using mentorship to cultivate leadership in Africa.

They discuss:

• why leaders must listen and be curious
• why mentors should '‘walk their talk’ if they want to encourage others to grow and develop
• why there is a greater focus on localisation of NGO (non-government organisation) support today, to meet the needs of local communities.

About Dr. James Kisia
Dr. James Kisia is Country Director for Catholic Medical Mission Board Kenya (CMMB), is a medical doctor who worked within the public, private, and NGO sectors. He has more than twenty years of combined clinical and humanitarian program work. He has led large, multi-county implementation of projects in reproductive and maternal health in areas of low resource settings and difficult-to-access services in Kenya. James has been involved in setting up emergency and health services in some of the largest refugee camps in the world in Dadaab and Kakuma.

James loves the outdoors and has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya several times. He is passionate about the environment and has planted and cared for over three thousand trees within the last four years, most of them indigenous.

Connect with Dr Kisia at LinkedIn and at the Catholic Medical Mission Board
Connect with guest host Racheal Wanjiku Kigame on LinkedIn.

Key Quotes

• I realised that I had actually put aside my dream and so I rekindled it, and moved from my clinical practice to work for Kenya Red Cross. And I never looked back.
• My father was a mathematics teacher in the fifties, and my mother was an English teacher. And what they imparted in me was the importance of education.
• I derive great pleasure at seeing people just develop.
• Context is very important for leadership, and the way in which we respond to the world is largely influenced by our own perception of the world.
• I've always admired those kind of leaders that have clarity of thought, and clarity of action.
• Sometimes it's feast or famine. You have too much money within a short time when disasters occur. And then once the disasters disappear, you don't have any money.
• If I do my part and leave somebody feeling that it was useful for me to be in their lives then I think that's good enough.

This series is kindly supported by Squadcast –the remote recording platform which empowers podcasters by capturing high-quality audio and video conversations.

Read the transcription for this episode at our website

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Sound Editor: Matias de Ezcurra (he/him). Producer: Sue Stockdale (she/her)