GIRLS FIGHTING ILLITERACY IN KENYA

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Fred

One  can only excel academically after developing  positive attitude and being optimistic towards academics, however ,in  most African societies setup, most girls are neglected when it comes to education . When the family is poor, focus tends to be directed to boy child, hence living girls to be married in their early stages, ruining their lives.

 

Thanks to Girls fighting illiteracy in Kenya (GIFK) Project. GIFIK is an education for development project that is shaping the lives of girls in society by sponsoring them to pursue their studies in various colleges, universities across the globe .This project runs its operations from Kibera.

The project is meant to promote gender equality among the youth by offering equal study opportunity for a balanced society.

The program combines education and the social development to turn out better future citizens.

At the moment 10 bright girls from humble backgrounds are benefiting from the education programme of the project. Most of these girls are orphans, either their parents died of HIV/AIDS, Illicit brew among others.

They were recruited to the programme when still at primary level, after realizing their potential to make it to higher level of education. Besides, five girls are currently pursuing various degree courses in Germany, Three are taking various courses in Kenyan universities and two more are still in high school here in Kenya.

To ensure proper focus in education  that result to a better life in future,GIFIK  also offers behavior change programs  to the girls .GIFIK organizes psychosocial sessions  for the girls where they share their different life experiences  and how they want their life to be after school.

Girls fighting illiteracy in Kenya (GIFIK) has several programmes in place that run to empower the girls in different areas of life.

The programmes include; Girl child education. Education is a non depreciating asset that one can never afford to miss .Young girls from 10 years are recruited into the programme and are taught psychosocial lessons that help them develop positive attitude towards education and life. This message is passed to the girls through theatre and sports to convey the wonderful thematic messages to the girls and also help them develop self expressions and gain of confidence. They are then sponsored up to the higher level of education.

Sports being another programme, besides nurturing talent, it has power to bring people together ,it brings sense of peace as well as teaching people in various ways. So far 20% of the GIFIK girls are playing for various clubs in Kenya, this project has enabled them develop their talent.

GIFIK believe in maximization of girl’s involvement in the exchange programs, developing self confidence hence change of behaviors and later become community role models.

HIV/ AIDS and Illicit brew has affected many children academically, emotionally, physically and psychologically .This leaves the children hopeless and tends to indulge in dangerous activities such as prostitution, premarital sex, early marriages, smoking bang, conning and theft among others. GIFIK is working closely with HIV/AIDS positive children to ensure that they receive proper nutrition and treatment on time to reduce the risk of their conditions becoming worse. GIFIK also ensures the children are not stigmatized and discriminated at all cost.

Despite the amazing job, GIFIK Faces a number of challenges that hinders smooth progress of their activities .Some of them are; there is an increased number of children seeking support, and GIFIK can’t afford to host them since they lack an established rehabilitation centre, where they can be hosted and taken care of. They also lack resources to do community awareness campaign properly and support to reach to as many girls in Kenya as possible.

 

GIFIK partners with a number of organizations that contribute to their progress in one way or the other. The partners include; Ministry of gender and social services of Kenya, PHYDO Kenya, HOYWIK programs and individual families and members.

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Illegal brew in Kibera

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Lee Ibrahim

Illegel brew is one thing if you walked through Kibera mostly the Laini-Saba areas you will not fail to notice. Just a year after the death of 20 people from Kibera, 9 people in Shauri Moyo and more than 50 people country wide, there is still some people who are selling the illegal brew usually known as “Chang’aa” or nicknamed “Jet-Fuel” by some others.

After work you will find men, women and youths sitting in their respective areas taking the Chang’aa while laughing at the top of their voices. To make matter worst they do these right in the eyes of the residents and police, by the road you could spot them easily while passing by. Jet-Fuel has become a major component in local illicit brew drunk by many urban poor people in Nairobi, a local newspaper reported.

A research made showed that not many people cannot afford to buy the ordinary beer like Tusker, Pilsner or Guinness. After the reading of the Budget earlier in the year by the Minister of Finance, the prices of the ordinary beer doubled which made it expensive than before. This is one of the reasons you will find drunkards who can not quit drinking going for the cheap brew in the likes of Chang’aa and Busaa. Other claim that the beer sold in Pubs is not strong enough to make them high hence deciding to go for the stronger brand which will make them drunk in a matter of minutes.

The sellers of these illicit brews in the slums are in the other hand are ripping their fruits by taking advantage of their customers through the profit they make. The brew is mostly not brewed in the surrondings but outside Kibera and later transported in Kibera through hideouts, only but a few make their brew in Kibera in secret places or hidden houses.

This Chang’aa which is made in a quicker way rather than the African way with pure mixture of Jet-Fuel and Formalin. It is believed that airport workers sell jet fuel to customers who later sell it to brewers in the slums. The Jet-Fuel is used to make the drink stronger and it is much cheaper than the traditional ingredients, making the profit higher for the sellers. The Formalin, a chemical used to preserve bodies, shortens the brewing period. This is very dangerous to the Human body because the Jet-Fuel burns ones throat down to the stomach and the Formalin can cause eye blindness. If consumed in excess for a period of time can lead to death. The traditional Chang’aa is made of maize flour, sorghum yeast and sugar parse, but takes 15 days to be ready.

The government should take immediate actions to bring to an halt the brewing and selling of this dangerous liquor to the citizens. It should arrest the people selling this brew and those transporting it to the slums for the underprivileged people.

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VOICE OF KIBERA REVIEW

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Fred

The voice of kibera team has carried out different activities as well as participated in different events that are and will enhance growth at different capacities.

Last week witnessed the evaluation launch of “ushahidi” .”ushahidi”which means testimony in Swahili, is a crouwdsourcing platform that voice of kibera uses to aggregate and map reports. Four members from the voice of kibera team attended the launch and a blog was posted about the evaluation launch.

A people with disability forum was  also held at mchanaganyiko hall, and it was all about sensitizing the community about people  with special needs, to be accepted like any other members  of the society.

On the other hand of the reporting, a child died after a fatal accident that occurred at mashimoni, kibera, two more people sustained injuries. The lorry that caused the accident, is believed to have had brakes malfunction, lost control hitting a barber shop and a salon, The barber was injured serious as well as a reporter from one of the community radio station who was injured while trying to help ,they were rushed  to a nearby medical centre for treatment.

Sports are known to bring together people or communities in kibera .A peace tournament composed of different categories of sports were held recently at old kibera primary school. The sports included football, cat walk and tag war. The event was organized by YOBBPEK (Youth Building Bridges for Peace in Kibera), in partnership with a catholic peace led programme on peace. It was also meant to nurture talent on the upcoming generation.

As part of keeping the environment clean and safe, a number of youth, representing the different villages of kibera came up in large numbers to clean up kibera.The cleaning was around kibera and lasted four hour with each youth earning a stipend of kshs 250, courtesy of CDF Committee of kibera.

Over the last two weeks, VOK has held four meetings of two categories; general VOK meetings, every Thursdays’ and the blog meeting, every Tuesdays’ all with the aim to foresee progress in the different areas of operations.

Fourteen web reports have been submitted to the platform and six blog posts

By;

VOK TEAM.

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USHAHIDI EVALUATION LAUNCH

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Fred

Yesterday ,the 25 th of August 2011, is a day to recall in the history of “ushahidi” as it was the official evaluation launch of the platform. Ushahidi  is  a tool for crowd-sourcing information by use of multiple channels like web, sms and twitter. Its also what voice of kibera uses to aggregate and map reports.

Speakers from both the founders and the users aired out their different views on how it has  been used in the past, the success brought about and  how it can be used to change the community positively through information sharing and dissermination.

Credit is and was  given to both the users of ushahidi as well as the founders, but highly to the founders. The users of  Ushahidi thanked the initiators of the platform, for coming up with a platform that makes the citizen voices matter and amplified for rapid response. In return,  the founders  of  “ushahidi”  thanked the users, stating that, “ushahidi” wouldn’t be where it is were without the help of the community.

The crowdsourcing tool is not only  meant to amplify the credible voices of citizens, but also to revolutionize the world at large.

Ushahidi which was built in response to the post election violence in kenya in 2008, is all about gathering and mapping of incidents of violence  information  and peace efforts in the country based on the reports submitted either by web or mobile phone sms technology from the public, hence providing new insight at close real-time.

“Ushahidi”,which means testimony in Swahili, is  three years old since the inception. It is comprised of a group of individual who initially were volunteers and has grown tremendously to a fully forcused organization that  has attracted the attention of the world positively at large. The team is comprised of competent individuals with a wide span of experience and have also been able to build strong  team of volunteer developers from Africa and across the world.

“You dont have to be an expert to do something” ,says  Erick Hersman,one of the core team. He emphasizes that Africa has a great potential and is capable of building world class softwares and we shouldn’t expect nothing less out of us.

Several issues were raised from the audience on how they would want some other things incoporated to the plartform so as to meet other needs from the users, which were promised to be put into considerations.

“Ushahidi”  partners with a number of organizations that in one way or the other have seen its’ growth to success.Since the inception of this platform, “ushahidi” has been able to spread its wings to(132) one hundred ant thirty two countries across the world and it’s still gaining momentum  with a lot more interest showing up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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MIND YOUR HEALTH

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Fred

Everyone desires to live well. Living well means a good health. A healthy  life, however is a tough challenge for a majority of the people to maintain it, especially those  from the informal settlements, Kibera being one of them.

A number of reasons have contributed to this poor conditions of health. The most prone in the informal settlement, just but a few are:  poor sanitation, lack of balanced diet, climate change and exposure to harmful chemicals.

Kibera as a slum is not spared by these  challenges either. Poor attendace in schools is attributed to various illness. The most reported cases of illnesses include Typhoid, Malaria and diarrhea etc.

As one walks along the different  streets of kibera,you will notice exposed sewage systems, chanelled to different locations, some passing along the doorsteps and others near entrance to hotels, some of this collide with broken water pipes that pass clean water for consumption. The water(mixed with the sewage) ends up in our stomachs unoticingly leading to a typhoid and other related water borne disseases. These sometimes causes bad odour because the sewage affects the respiratory system leading to serious respiratory infections.

Some of the hotels operate  illegally and some tend not to  have a good preservative mechanisms of their  foods. You are likely to find exposed foods that are normally exposed to flies which causes germs and the food is later sold to consumers. This health hazards are preventable if only  some measures are  put into consideration  by both the individuals, private entities and also the government.

Besides the few goverrment health centeres in the area, thanks to the private health centeres that form a majority of the clinics in Kibera. Mostly the NGO’s , Missionaries and Religious clinics, have been set up to serve the community  to their level best.

On a visit to various clinics around, you will find an overwhelming number of patients waiting on the long queues to be served. This shows how  important the need for health care is to human beings and how it can solve the many problems we have.

There has been a collaboration of well renowned hospital with the locals and NGO based health service providers by helping in  bringing the services at the doorstep of people. Some have even used the public addressing system as they move around to get the community enlightened and to have access to the free medical services available.

Your tomorrow’s life will be based on your today’s efforts towards your health!

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PLANNED EVICTION IN KIBERA.

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Lee Ibrahim

Following the destruction of a school in Katwekera village due to the claim of having a weak structure and the allocation near the Kenya Uganda Railway being the other reason, reminded me of something which I thought had vanished or had been solved. The destruction of Nairobi’s structures which lay near the railway line, structures built in area which are set aside for road reserves, structures build under electricity lines and other public utilities.

The Rift valley railway line which is to be upgraded passes through Kibera. The 5Kms railway line passes from Soweto up to Katwekera on the far north of Kibera. Looking at this keenly if the said demolition was to happen today no other than Kibera dwellers will suffer the most. “The destruction will not only destroy houses but also schools, churches, health centers and meeting halls in Kibera”, says Peter Kamau, a resident who lives in Laini Saba.

Recently the UN-HABITAT in collaboration with the government of Kenya came up with an agreement to help the upgrading program by building decent houses for the residents. It all started at Soweto East where residents where located to the new houses in Lang’ate although some residents claim that the allocation was not fair and square. Apart from these the upgrading program has come to an halt due to some government’s bad planning and consultation. All what can be seen is the tarnac road from the Highrise fly-over to the bridge near Undugu playing grounds, barely a kilometer since the construction was started some years ago. All these good intentions have been marred with bad plans to the residents of informal settlement – FORCED EVICTION.

A warning which had been issues by the Rift-Valley Railway co-operations to the people who are living near the railway line claims that ‘One should not be within 100 feet of either side of the railway line’. A group of people living by the railway line have filed a case in the High court to protest the forceful eviction from their locations or the government to find alternative ways to settle the evicted people.

The NGOs working on land issues and settlement posted a full page on a newspaper a few years ago urging the government to fight slums but not slum dwellers. They had indicated that the procedure to carry out evictions must be followed in a justified manner.

-They should provide notice in time for the residents to prepare themselves.

-They should provide appropriate resettlement in due time for the evicted people.

-They should consult with the affected communities.

Do they know the magnitude or the disastrous effect it would have to displace more than five of thousands residents living next to the railway line in railway upgrading campaign?

The internal displacement which will accompany forced eviction will lead to increased insecurity and violence as the residents will move out to protest the eviction.

Another thing it will lead up to cropping of other new slums anywhere the residents will find to settle as they can not have the funds to build their own decent houses. The destruction will kill or bring to an end many people’s businesses hence creating poverty to hundreds living in Kibera, it might also cause loss of lives if those being evicted resist the eviction.


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Empowerment Through Art (TEDxKibera Event)

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Sande Wycliffe

TEDxKibera is an independently organized Ted event whereas TED is a non-profit with a global set of conferences devoted to ideas worth spreading.

TEDxKibera was born in 2009 August the 15th when Otieno Gomba among other speakers took to the stage to speak to the audience which is why it was conceived to share and discuss new ideas while indentifying new speakers to share experiences of their journey to excellence.

After this very first event, a couple of events followed and this time it was time to do it again. The event was held on the 13th August 2011 at the renovated Mchanganyiko hall bringing together men and women around Nairobi to spark a discussion that was focusing on the theme, “Empowerment through Art”. Being the MC of the day, it was such a difficult task to gauge the mood of the audience but everything began to work out just fine when the artist speakers started doing what they know best.

First on stage was Boniface Mwangi, who is a freelance photographer, a TED fellow, Magnum fellow, Acumen fellow and has won awards twice as the CNN multichoice African photojournalist of the year 2008/2010, sees the world through the lenses of the camera as he takes photos all the time. He grew up in a slum just like most of the others and he encourages fellow Kenyans to make use of available resources however scarce to make a difference in their lives.

 

Ngwatilo Mawiyoo, whose talent is undisputed across, and beyond, the African continent, a native of Nairobi, a poet, performer, actress and musician. A keen observer and devoted student of the written word, started her talk by reciting one of her poems …

Lauded “a priest of the art of performed poetry,” Ngwatilo has presented her work at major African and European festivals, and also enjoys creating unique collaborative poetry-in-performance concepts independently and in association with various cultural institutions. Her first EP album “Introducing Ngwatilo” (2011) offers a sampling of her solo work and her latest collaborative explorations with musicians.

Ramadhan Obiero, the coordinator of Sisi ni Amani in Baba Dogo, a leader of the band Kale Leo, and Director of the “We Are Watching You” project which engages communities through music and performances to create a culture of vigilance and political accountability. Recently awarded a Fellowship with the    Acumen Fund east African Fellow Program was able to share with the audience of how he reached where he is now. He says that it was not easy at all for his father never saw a future in music as an industry to venture into. He defied all this and chose to focus on music for this was like a calling.  He is now this opportunity to reach out to as many young people in Kenya as possible before the 2012 elections, raising awareness and promoting peace through art.

 

With his artistic dressing style, Otieno Gomba took the audience by surprise when he rose to share his story ha! ha! ha! kind of laughter. Having made friends with a sign-writer who agreed to train him for two years, he met another street sign-writer, Otieno Kota in the year 2000, who invited him to work with him and they formed the famous Maasai Mbili art center.  Later they were able to acquire a studio premises in Kianda Village, Kibera where they are still located. The studio membership has increased to the present 8 members .

Gomba and the artists of Maasai Mbili have since been involved in numerous community based projects especially those involving kids from the immediate neighborhood. The artists also make work to exhibit in Kenya and abroad. The most amazing thing about him is that it was clear for him that he loves Kibera and he is real about it. He is indeed a true inspiration and a reflection of what is possible even with little resources in Kibera.

“A big name, being honored by dignitaries, living large is not what defines me as a person! It’s what I do that defines who iam. I come from a family full of professionals, layers, doctors name them, but I had to choose what I liked doing which is off course singing”. Sara Mitaru an afro-soul musician is indeed passionate about her carrier.

 

Kennedy Odede was the last speaker on stage and being a community organizer and social justice advocate who is recognized worldwide, He admitted that he has been living in Kibera and truly believes that problems of Kibera can only be solved by the residents. He believes that one day no child will have to suffer if the global community came together to help.

After his talk, the event came to an end with mingling as everyone grabbed a drink and some mandazi. This was an opportunity I used to get contacts of 2 people who are leading organizations here in Kibera, this will really help for our networking course. The whole event was a big success and we look forward to many more.

 

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ARE MICRO-FINANCE OPERATING IN KIBERA EXPLOITING ITS PEOPLE?

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Ibrahim

How are this institutions registered and does the government knows about them? under what ministry they operates?  can someone assist or even correct this unlawful act which is happen even today as we speak today in kibera , convincingly even it if has been revealed that those who operate the so called institutions have support or links from the top or even so called big fish  in the society or in even the government .
Thumbs up  to those few micro-finance institutions who have done great in transforming lives  in kibera. For lending soft loans , supporting and boosting small business and also in uplifting the young and up coming entrepreneurs in kibera .

It has happened or  occurred in broad-daylight in some instances that some of the micro finance institutions  tend  to or pretend to  help or better lives in the name uplifting,boosting, helping or even empowering the community who are needy ,or who are in need of help, like, soft  loans  to boost their small business you just name it, but are they  on the possition to deliver in the required standard what the are obliged to do?

It has occurred on several  occasion that some of the micro- finance institutions operating in Kibera legally and without fear at all. What i mean by saying this is that they have the courage to operate without fear because they are eligible to operate in all parts of kibera and the environs without any confrontations.

One wonders if its really worth helping as they are meant to do but on the other hand they are just there to stay for a while and business as usual.This institutions benefiting easily or even take away the little thing that the community owns or posses without mercy, its a pity at time like this, where nearly the whole of Kenya is facing  drought and hard times  as things are getting harder day by day ,As it is happening in kibera today no jobs, business are not performing well , on top of that  someone comes  boldly with out fear and just gets away with it easily.Its inhumane and only God Knows.
In this case one needs be very  careful when signing any agreements that will bonds one when it comes to the agreed terms and condition . One has to fully comprehend  because itys sometimes very trick because when a person is desperately in need of money, can fall a prey into it  easily, without noticing it,one  can accept anything with considering  if its applicable or not according to ones  income or profit ,he or she earns or actually make or recover within that period of time ,to pay it back the money
Now there is this scenario that a friend was approach by another friend about loan from one micro finance institution operating in kibera.yes,its true, in this kind of situation he was desperately in need of some amount of money  like 5000 ksh to settle some problem he had .Not keeping in mind the terms and condition of the micro finance was a little bit complicated of which he seems not to comprehend about it.
For a matter of fact it was 12% interests of which  the borrowed amount was to be paid within a month and failure to that there was a penalty or fine,If one  fails to that they have confiscate anything that your had as a security without giving you  more time, each week one is supposed to pay 1250ksh of which if he fails to beat the dead line,extra 100 ksh is added on top of the supposed amount, it keep goes up by the number of days one defaults debt  is due, this means if you fail to pay on time you’ll have to pay extra amount of money depending on days one defaulted to pay on time ,so this applies in all the weeks until the intended time of the loan elapses in a period of one month.

For sure, i really don’t understand if its possible one can be in a position  to settle the debt on that short period of time.what i understand about  any lend institutions their policy always or at least try to favour its client by As at least give a minimum of a month to start paying back the borrowed amount

I think they need to review their term and condition  or else people will continue to suffer ,it might be someone know or even your relative who might be in a situation like this.Can we do some something to salvage anybody who might be caught scenario like that,
I think its now clear that the government needs to put in place well defined structures that protected its people from institutions that are  like coning its citizen in the name of helping,

Tell me something? are they here to help the community or  are they here to gaining from the less fortune ,

Some go for it just because they don have other but  believe you me don’t know how its or if its possible or theoretical it is hard, remember they don’t give their client enough trainings so as to be equip with more information on investing and saving of the loan wisely .People just  go for it only to realize its better not to borrow the money but due to desperation and lack of money, they have no option. now that things are not easy life seems to be more difficult its very hard for one to maintain his or her family here in Kibera

This is a challenge  when it comes to transparency and accountability one wonders does this micro finance institutions there to help or what?

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Views on Development.

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Sande Wycliffe

 

Development has been on the lips of every Kenyan either for the right or wrong reasons. I am not ashamed to say that it has been a subject of political campaigns/rallies to woe voters in the next general election.  Kibera is one such area that is underdeveloped but if you have plans to use antics to woe voters here then you will be doing a mistake of your life time.

Sigar Angumba, an opinion leader in his own right has been living  in Kibera, Lindi/Kisumu Ndogo village for the past 8 years and he takes us thought what he has been doing in Kibera about development since he came to live here.

A teacher by profession, he has been involved in doing trainings in schools and he is now working on matters of sexual gender based violence after being part of the famous Sita kimya awareness project of Film-Aid as a Co-coordinator. Sigar says that the SGBV is categorized in different levels; Kibera SGBV working group, Sub-working groups which are referral entities namely Raila, Katwekera, Kisumu Ndogo (1st  cluster), Lindi, Silanga and Soweto east (2nd cluster) , Mashimoni and Laini (3rd cluster) this are just but sectors of response to SGBV cases which according to him, when they hear about any case they should report to a medical institution within 72 hours to ensure a medical test is carried to have proof for pinning down the culprit. After this is down, the psychosocial sector deals with the counseling of the defiled to bring her back to normal. They have been working together with the Centre for Rights, Education, and Awareness (CREAW).

If I were a member of Parliament for Lang’ata constituency I would in the first 6months priorities the following key issues;

  1. Focus on working together with non-governmental organizations and civil society within Kibera to fast track developmental agenda since they are already doing a lot in the area. Many youths within Kibera slums are jobless and therefore supporting the grass root groups, community based initiatives will encourage youths to actively participate in income generating activities hence being able to provide for themselves.
  2. Rally my support behind the organizations that run sponsorship programmes so that they can be able to help many students enroll for tertiary education hence a skilled work force from Kibera that will intern trigger development.
  3. Encourage/work together with medical practitioners to offer maternity services at discounted rates for Kibera Women  and the government to ensure that a hospital that can handle emergency patients is put up in the heart of Kibera to see to it that the referrals currently being done {referring patients to Mbagathi district and Kenyatta hospitals} is taken care of in this hospital.

Slum upgrading in itself is a success but the ‘commoners’ as he calls them, are in one way a problem. Bye and large Sigar thinks that this should have been a collective responsibility between Government and the people by way of consultations on the modality to follow so that consensus would have been reached before the transfer of people was done.

Advice to the youths would be; we have been talking about revolution, time is now……lets change the face of kibera for the betterment of future generations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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KIBERA IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Fred

For the last two weeks, Kibera has seen tremendous progress in terms of empowerment in various aspects of life.

Two fundraising activities took place in Kibera; One themed; ‘access to education’ it was all about supporting of schooling of bright but needy students in the slum. This took place at mchanganyiko hall on the 12th of Aug.It was organized by the director of children foundation of Kibera, called Mr. Dan Okoth.

The other fundraising took place at mashimoni. Organized by a group of well-wishers from Cleveland city from the United States, It took place on 1st of Aug.The school which has more than four hundred students from within and outside Kibera will now be able to aces electricity and solar power in the school and this will ease the learning process, Thanks to the fundraising team.

There was a slum film festival in Kibera that lasted for six days, the reason was to train youth from the slums in Nairobi,( began in Kibera), on storytelling in video, the objective being to impart skills of video to tell a story in video form.

Tedx Kibera which was formed with an aim of sharing and discussing ideas as well as identifying new speakers from Kibera,had  a Tedx event  on 13th Aug  at  mchananyiko hall, themed; ‘Empowerment through art”, This saw artists   within  and out of Kibera, speak  on how to empower through art.

Flying kites Oasis programme will on the 20th of Aug hold huge live music festival at the DC’s social grounds. Children from five oasis member homes ,including one in Soweto west and silanga have been selected to participate in workshops led by Dashy krew and goodmakers street team, with the goal of fostering self empowerment ,creative expression and giving a voice to orphans and less fortunate in Nairobi.The festival will feature the locals artists namely: Jim gait, Daddy Owen, Emmy Kosgey,Eric Omondi  and children and youth leaving in children homes located in Kibera, kawangware and korogocho ,The event will kick off  from  1-5pm,entry is free.

Over the last two weeks, VOK has had three categories of meetings namely. Vok general meeting (two meetings), the blog meeting (two meetings) and the Organizational directory meeting (three meetings).Twenty four  24 reports have been submitted and four blog posts.

To contribute to this noble course of updating the Kibera community and the world at a large we need your support by way of submitting your comments/ideas, and submitting reports by either to this number  0738888830 or by web submission by going on the site http://voiceofkibera.org. Besides,you can share via our facebook fan page, http://www.facebook.com/voiceofkibera. To support in any other way of your choice, contact us through voiceofkibera@mapkibera.org

Done by: Voice of Kibera Team

 

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