Having said that, I am heading back out to a rural area this afternoon. There are some youth farm projects that are ongoing at the Mt. Kenya area that we wish to observe, take note of, and perhaps glean some best practices.
Meanwhile, a lot has been happening here in Nairobi with both Shiriki and another NGO I have connected with called Soweto Academy. There appears to be no end to the number of projects one could get involved with here in Nairobi, and especially Kibera, one must be careful not to over-commit.
Soweto Academy is a non-profit schools, situated in Kibera, recognized by the government, but privately run. It was developed on a garbage dump for children living in the Kibera community whose parents could not afford school fees or uniforms. There is a primary mixed school, and a secondary girls school. There is a feeding program so the children receive at least one nutritional meal a day (though the food is provided by a North American NGO and imported from the US), nonetheless, hungry students do not perform at their best. As a side note, there is a food surplus in both Uganda and Tanzania, so why don't we buy food from them? Why do we continue to import food from Europe and North America. Not enough time for another government policy food rant; nonetheless... Anyways, there is also a dormitory for the girls to stay at the school (as the girls at this school are incredibly vulnerable and risk being married off very young, home and community violence, poverty, and disease). Further, there is a health facility on site. This health facility was created for the students, as students would get sick, and their parents couldn't afford to bring them to a govt or private hospital, and they therefore would not receive medical attention. Now, the health facility has expanded so as to provide reduced cost services to the Kibera community.
Being a reduced cost school, they are always looking for funding, and I was very inspired by the vision of this school that I offered to help them create a website, which may in turn help attract donors. In taking pictures, and interviewing the founder, principal and teachers, I was asked if I could give a talk to the high school. As I already mentioned, these girls come from impoverished backgrounds, and though the teachers and school staff are constantly encouraging them, the principal thought it would be nice for them to hear some encouragement from an outsider, me, to re-confirm the message that they are Kenya's future leaders, and have huge potential to do and be whatever they want.
When I got to the school to do the talk, the principal said to me "you will talk to the girls for one hour". Hmmm... okay. One thing I have noticed about Kenya is that the men are very talkative, but the women are a lot quieter. I discussed this with the principal, who confirmed that the woman need to have more of a voice. These young women at Soweto Academy are focused, intelligent and bright, but are shy and eager to stay out of the spotlight. As I gave the talk, I asked the girls questions about some of the challenges facing their country. The girls spoke about the drought, HIV, government corruption and tribalism. The girls were very well informed, albeit shy, and I ensured to tell them that they were the ones that were going to be solving these problems in their country.
In all the schools I have been to out here, including Soweto Academy, I have yet to see a single computer lab. This has got me thinking about all the computers and/or laptops, sitting idle in Canada, and indeed all of the western world. A lot of these computers could provide valuable education to these girls (and other schools), that would help bridge that digital divide. In this age of information, including computer literacy in the school curriculum can provide invaluable education to Kenya's students. It is the intellectual capital of Kenya's people that will undoubtedly serve to solve some of the country's daunting challenges.
I met with a large NGO called Computers for Schools Kenya that has an excellent program for not only importing used computers, but refurbishing used computers, maintaining and fixing used computers, training courses from introductions up to the University diploma level, and are equipped with a sophisiticaed electronic waste facility. They also have helped develop a model Computer Use and Proficiency course for the primary and secondary school curriculum in partnership with the Ministry of Education. I am hoping we can work together and help educate these girls. However, as resources are tight, and in demand, I am going to have to put together some catchy proposals.
I will follow up with more information as things transpire. I feel a little bit overwhelmed by the things I need to look into. When I get back from Mt. Kenya I plan to hibernate with my computer for a week or two and hopefully make some gains in these initiatives.
As for marketing some of the products made by Shiriki, as I mentioned in my last post, I have found one lead, a clothing company in the UK who have some employees working out here in Nairobi. However, one never knows if anything will work out or not, we shall see... This is another area that I need to continue to pursue, as they have some high quality merchandise, and one needs to spend some time looking for partnerships and links in order to maximize on this potential.
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