NASSAU, Bahamas (February 24, 2020) – On Saturday, February 22, wife of the Prime Minister, and Founder of the Women & Girls Mentoring Coalition, Mrs. Patricia Minnis, led mentors in their second official training session since the inception of WGMC last October.

The second mentor training session was held at the Thomas A. Robinson Stadium and brought together a number of groups formed under the umbrella of the Coalition including Princess Court Ministries, Hadassah’s Helping Hands and Girls United and many others.

Mrs. Minnis’ interactive discussion focused on the mindset of mentors and was aligned with John C. Maxwell’s book, Mentoring 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know.  She delved into nine points for a mentor’s mindset namely:

• making the development of people the top priority;
• knowing the mentee by developing a relationship before the mentoring;
• fostering agape love by giving unconditional help;
• committing to seeing mentee being able to become successful on her own;
• encouraging mentee to return to programme and be a part of mentoring new mentees

“Some people are just natural at encouraging, it is their gift but there is always room for growth,” said Mrs. Minnis, “and if you do not see yourself as a natural the fact of you being a mentor demonstrates that you have tapped into your inner being and received the vision to do this work.”

Dr. Samantha Evans, college professor and counselor, opened the session and talked about signs in young girls that may depict abuse. 

Mrs. Phillippa Dean of the Bahamas Crisis Centre closed the training session by revealing statistics of young girls abused that seek counselling at the Centre.

According to Mrs. Minnis the training will always be continuous but the focus will change as the need arises in the community.

The mission of the Coalition is to train, motivate and empower women and girls through mentorship organisations and to assist in the funding of programmes through national and international partnerships.