Margaret Syomiti has many rich experiences and stories to share. The first revolves around her decision to commit her life’s purpose to improve the livelihoods of livestock farmers. It all began when a hyena killed her grandmother’s fattest goat. Granny brought all of the goats in to sleep beside her to protect the others; she loved livestock so much that she would do anything to protect them.

This hyena incident instigated Margaret’s desire to do something and improve the livelihoods of livestock farmers so she decided to become a livestock researcher. For the last 15 years, her research work has revolved around the areas of nutrition and feed science within the bigger picture of livestock.

Margaret Syomiti has many rich experiences and stories to share. The first revolves around her decision to commit her life’s purpose to improve the livelihoods of livestock farmers. It all began when a hyena killed her grandmother’s fattest goat. Granny brought all of the goats in to sleep beside her to protect the others; she loved livestock so much that she would do anything to protect them.

This hyena incident instigated Margaret’s desire to do something and improve the livelihoods of livestock farmers so she decided to become a livestock researcher. For the last 15 years, her research work has revolved around the areas of nutrition and feed science within the bigger picture of livestock.

Margaret began her research career in 2001 with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) under the Animal Production Research Programme, Muguga South. She has developed two research projects geared to establishment of agri-business model farms where the farmers commercialize research technologies to improve their incomes. These research technologies are: Value-addition and Commercialization of prosopis species for livestock feeding in Kenya's dry land and early calves' weaner diets for smallholder dairying in Kenya. Margaret is yet to quench her thirst for knowledge and she’s in the process of finalizing her PhD degree in natural resources management.

In July 2010, Margaret was selected for an AWARD Fellowship – an experience that greatly benefited her research career. She has been able to hone? her mentoring skills, Proposal writing and publishing skills, grant negotiation and acquisition skills, Leadership and management skills. These, she says are key survival skills for any researcher worth their salt and have also equipped her spectacularly for the YPARD mentoring program.

Margaret says the YPARD mentoring program had just came at the right time. Many youths have lost hope and she wants to use this opportunity to help them achieve their potential and discover their strengths. She will share both her professional and personal life experiences from which she hopes both mentees and mentors will learn. By so doing, she believes she would be helping in bettering the lives of many more people as it will have a multiplier effect. For her personal benefit, the program presents an opportunity to reflect on what she’s been doing, develop professional relationships with other mentors and most importantly, she will get personal satisfaction through supporting the development of others.