How to be an Active Citizen | Nataliey Bitature

I think it's important to be an active citizen for two reasons. One, for your own personal engagement in the community that you're living in, and two, for the greater good of the community that you're living in. It's a give and take relationship, what you can give the community and what the community can give you. So, for example, here in Uganda, we have this attitude about someone else is going to deal with the problem. We complain a lot. If you go on Twitter, you see all the memes about the government and how negative everyone is, but what are you doing to change our situation? We don't want to be Those people in 20 years that are just complaining and saying, look how the country has turned around and everything is terrible. Where were you when things were going wrong? We have to be more proactive. You have to think about it from your own smaller community, the people you live with and live around. Do you know your lc? Do you know the regulations in your area? Do you. You know the challenges that the community is facing? Charity begins at home, so you have to start with your immediate area, what is going on, and then think of the bigger context. Do you know your rights as a voter? Who are you voting for and why? Why is your MP that mp? Did you choose them? Are they good at what they're doing? What is the motivation for them to do what they're doing? Which direction are we going in? We have to be more proactive as citizens because we can't complain later. This is our life, this is our country. We cannot complain to someone else later. Something went wrong. It was us who went wrong. We have to take on that responsibility now, especially as such a young population, because no one is going to hand us a solution or fix things for us. What makes me upset about it is, for example, look at America. The day after Trump's inauguration, they had these huge protests of people so upset about it. And I'm like, where were you yesterday when it was voting time? Now they have more than 20 people registered to run for president. And where were all these 20 people four years ago? They were not ready to do this job. But because of the negativity and the outrage and how upset they are about it, now, they are spurred to action. I don't want us to wait for a terrible thing to happen, and then we say, okay, now we all have to become active citizens. We all have to start today. Now. Start by knowing what's going on in your community. Are you helping? Are you attending meetings? Are you giving back? Are you reporting crime? Like we have to be active in our communities and get used to doing it on a smaller level and then on a bigger level because it's good for us to give back. But also that's what it means to be a citizen. You are entitled to the privileges of being a citizen. You are protected by the laws, you have the police, you have the infrastructure. There are certain things we are taking for granted and we are not giving back to our communities. So we have to give back and we also have to expect certain things from our communities and hold our leaders accountable and ask questions and be engaged. And that's when it works. It's a two way system to be an active citizen. The importance of making genuine connections. It's a really interesting question and something I get asked a lot. So I always think the best thing about networking is making a genuine connection. Everyone thinks networking is this great thing for business. You just have to meet as many people as you can, give out as many cards as you can. But I don't feel like that's effective. Networking. Networking and the importance of networking is something I get asked a lot. How do you network? Why should you network? What should we do? Networking is really important because as a business, you are not an island. You need customers, you need products, you need people to buy those products. You have to provide a service to people. And even in our career, institutes are built on people. You don't see the World bank and think it's just walls and screens and glass. It's people inside that make the institute, organizations, companies. So, so people to people. Connections are very important. And the best way to do that is to make a genuine connection, not to just hand out as many business cards as possible and think, I have a huge network. It's about finding something you have in common with the person, listening to what they think and what they say. As much as human beings are so different and we have different backgrounds and opinions and ideas, there's always something that you can find in common with someone and make a genuine bond. When you connect to someone, you can be more helpful to them. You can laugh about something together, you can share something, a special moment. Then that person will remember you. You won't just be another face and a handshake and a business card. So when there's an opportunity or an idea or recommendation or something that could be useful to you, that person will want to share it with you because of that goodwill you've now built. And I think that's how you build an effective network. Because you need to know people in different sectors across different spaces that can support you, that can guide you, that you can guide, that you can make recommendations from, that you can hire from, that can hire you. And that's the value of a big network, even when you think about it industry specific. For example, now that I work in a hotel, it's important for me to know other people who work in hotels. So to know all the other general managers in Kampala. What do you struggle with? What is working well for you, which is your busy day? Why did you choose these kinds of sheets and not these ones? Why do your curtains move in this kind of way? Why do you have this kind of stuff? These are the kinds of conversations we can have, but not if we don't know each other and we don't have a genuine connection. Because then why are you motivated to speak to this person? So it's important that you build that kind of goodwill among the people you meet. I always say it's way more valuable to you to have fewer connections that are deeper, because they will go much further for you than to think you know everyone and really no one knows you. Thank you. What is financial literacy? What is the value of financial. Okay, what is financial literacy? Really good, by the way? You guys are all just blank. I'm like, I went too low. Financial literacy. Financial literacy is about understanding money and numbers and what that means for you and your life. I think it's a bit about having freedom of choice. Imagine you lived in another country and everyone spoke another language and you didn't bother to learn the language. That's what everyone is walking around doing. We all use money every day, several times a day. We need money to survive. We need money to keep our lives moving. It's a tool that we all use every day. But many people don't understand how it works. That's why I think it's an injustice that we're not taught financial literacy from the time we are young. And it's incredibly valuable, because until you understand how your money can work for you and what you should be doing with your money, how do you know you're making the best possible decision for your money, for your life? What are you saving for? How much are you saving? What should you spend your savings on? Should you buy shares? Should you buy land? Should you start a business? These are decisions that you can only make if you are informed. You need to be able to understand what money does for you and why it's important and how you can use it to enhance your life, not to limit your life. When I was a child. The two subjects that my dad would ask for our reports were English and maths. He didn't care about any of the other subjects. He said English is important because you have to be able to communicate properly. And math is important because you have to be able to understand numbers. You have to be financially literate. You have to be comfortable and conversant with numbers and how they move and what they mean and how you can work with them. That was something that was instilled in me when I was very young. So all of us are very aware about these kinds of things. We all know how to make budgets and how to plan for things and how to forecast. Because if you want pocket money in school, you have to be able to present a budget to the parents, otherwise you won't get it. To this day, they're like that. So it's something I'm grateful for because now in the working world, it's so much easier for me to make a budget, to plan for the money, to read a profit and loss statement, because I'm comfortable with it. Sometimes people think this is a far reaching something that's for financial people only. But money is something you use every day, every single person. So it's important for everyone to truly understand what that money is, what it can be, what it's doing for them, and to become comfortable with that. Because then you're informed and then you, you're empowered with your money and then that makes a big difference for the rest of your life.