Pleas to avert the on-going teachers strike

by Thomas Bwire

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has urged the striking teachers and lecturers to be sensitive to the country’s economic status in their demands for pay hike. Breaking his long week silence, the President pleaded with the teachers and lecturers to resume duty, saying the government is committed to dialogue.

Kenyan President Mwa Kibaki

President Kibaki says the government would do what is possible to address their salary dispute.
“Let us be reasonable in our demands and always give dialogue a chance in resolving any misunderstanding that may arise,” President Kibaki said while reading out a written speech.
He made the remarks at Moi Primary School in Nakuru, after laying the foundation stone for the proposed Trauma Centre at Rift Valley Provincial General Hospital said. Teachers and university lecturers have been on strike since last week, paralyzing services in the education sector.

All the academic staff in public institutions have remained off the classroom and maintained they will only return to work after their demand have been addressed by the government. A visit to some of the public schools in Kibera was no different as pupils also stayed away from schools and only a few could be seen.

Children cleaning at Olympic Primary School in Kibera

The teachers strike was called by Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), urging teachers to stay away from class and asking them to ignore a court order outlawing the strike until their demands for a hefty pay rise of 300 percent increment agreed upon with the Government in 1997 and which was to be paid in phases.

Students learning on their own

KNUT chairman Wilson Sossion asked teachers to keep off classrooms until their plight is addressed fully. Most of the pupils have now been left at the mercy on no teacher in sight and instead learning by themselves. The focus is now on the Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo, to see how he will engage both parties for the seek answers to the on-going strike.

Champions for an HIV-Free Generation

by Thomas Bwire

The Kibera community today played a key role in hosting key former African Presidents from three African countries, who caught the attention of the locals upon their arrivals at KICOSHEP Primary School in Kichinjio village. Today their mission was not just to come and see the slum, but as champions for a HIV–free generation.

 His Excellency Kenneth Kaunda, former head of state of  Zambia, His Excellency Benjamin Mkapa, former head of state of Tanzania,His Excellency Festus Mogae, former head of state of Botswana, Zambia and Professor Miriam Were

His Excellency Festus Mogae, former head of state of Botswana, His Excellency Kenneth Kaunda, former head of state of Zambia and His Excellency Benjamin Mkapa, former head of state of Tanzania and Professor Miriam Were drew the attention of the locals here upon their arrival.  His Excellency Festus Mogae had the opportunity to inspect the guard of honour mounted by the scouts of the school who stood neatly dressed in their scout’s uniform.

Guard of honor

AIDS represents one of the greatest leadership challenges of our time. Champions for an HIV Free Generation, a group of former African presidents and other influential personalities, have agreed to meet this challenge by advocating for a renewed and revitalized response from regional leaders, with a focus on proven HIV prevention measures in countries they visit.

KICOSHEP is one of the founders of HIV/AIDS support care in Kibera as it works with persons living with HIV virus and aims to ensure they receive good care despite their status.  According to the Executive Director of KICOSHEP, Dr. Anne Owiti Awour, their aim is to help the community fight against stigma and discrimination which is a major contributing factor among people living positively especially in informal settlements.

His Excellency Festus Mogae, Chair of Champions for an HIV Free Generation

Present guests were also treated to an entertainment, from Kibera children dressed in lessos.  In his address speech, His Excellency Festus Mogae and also the chair of the group noted that they were here as they visit African countries to plead with African leaders to give priority to HIV/AIDS in their budgetary allocations to help its citizens who are engaged in helping all those who are sick and orphaned.

Entertainment provided by Kibera youth

Their core mission is to lobby political leadership of the African countries, in fighting stigma and spreading treatment and care, especially giving a priority to community health workers in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

His closing remarks ended with a call, “please to our African leaders, please do more in helping our people overcome HIV/AIDS and together in the whole world we can and together as Kenyans we can.”

Kibera Has Talent

Story by Rebecca Musanga
Photos by Rebecca Musanga and Nicholas Gisemba

The fourth annual Children of Kibera Music Festival, which took place at Kibra Academy over the weekend was the place to be, on 22nd and 23rd June. This year’s theme was responsible  leadership in elective positions where over thirty primary and secondary schools participated including: Kibra Academy, Olympic Primary, Ayany Primary, Baraka Za Ibrahim Secondary school. Dance groups were also part of the event as they showcased their talents in the art world. Some of the participating  groups included Kibera Hamlets and The Girls Soccer Academy, which entertained the people present.

The performances had  participating schools pass different messages and themes in relation to  good governance, education, election violence, peace, political instability, among others. These were well portrayed by solo and choral verses not forgetting dances which incorporated both traditional and modern dances.  A lot of creativity was shown in terms of costume, choice of narration, words and types of dances performed but the judges were looking for the most outstanding performance to earn the most awaited trophy.

Different organizations were present, including Uweza Foundation as we were invited to have the opportunity of having our own table.  A team of some of the youth from our soccer and journalism programs explained to Kibera children what we do as Uweza. We were able to recruit more kids into our existing programs and welcomed those with an interest in journalism, art and soccer to register and leave their contacts with us.  We also displayed some of the paintings from our art program, which attracted a lot of interest.

Uweza's table at the event

The event was sponsored Children of Kibera, an NGO working in Kibera.  On the open air stage the competition kept getting stiffer since every school wanted to be the best.  Dressed in different attires, the students and pupils out did each other with an aim of winning an award.

And as the event entered the second day, all participating schools had an opportunity to convince the judges why they deserved to win in different categories. Judges had a very tough time coming up with the best performance because all the schools did their best.  Upon completion of all the performances it was time to announce the winners. Kibera Glory Secondary School took the trophy for the best overall performance since they won many trophies. Both the secondary and primary students had a moment to shed tears of joy as they lifted their trophies high as they danced to different tunes. This proved that their effort was worth it as the day came to an end.

Some of the winners celebrate as they accept their trophies

It then started raining as a sign of blessing to the whole event.  What a well spent two days seeing the talents among the Kibera community which can be nurtured to greater heights.

More photos of the event can be seen here.

---

Rebecca Musanga and Nicholas Gisemba are members of the Uweza Journalism Club. 

The Talking Box

by Thomas Bwire

Its on a Wednesday  morning hours as the cold chilly weather seems to take a toll on everyone as people seen walking along parts of the slum are warmly dressed with heavy jackets and scarves. As I walk through the slum, many local residents are busy with their day to day tasks as a way to get the day’s income. My walk from Olympic to Mashimoni takes roughly 30 minutes.

My mission today is to visit one of the local primary schools called Magoso. As I enter the school premises, I find some of the girls in brown sleeveless uniforms rehearsing for the up-coming music festivals slotted for this term. I am welcomed by the head teacher whom calls the patron of the Talking Box Club, madam Maureen Awour.  The Talking Box is a box for pupils to lodge written messages about issues that they cannot share openly with either parent or a guardian.

Madam Maureen with students Berlyl, Linn and Valerie

Issues range from child molestation, neglect and abuse that relate to gender based violence (GBV). according to Madam Maureen, girls are prone to abuse in the community. In most cases girls will be given two weeks to draft all the issues they feel should be addressed, and drop it into the talking box within the school premises. Many of the issues that kids write come from home. “You find that at home the father leaves and goes to drink alcohol and come home late and drunk and starts to insults the wife in front of the children.  Or even they start to engage in sexual activity without giving kids respect before they are asleep, and this becomes a problem to the children, as they don’t know these are bad behaviors in front of children,” notes madam Maureen.

And what are the main issues that affect girls? I posed this question to Madam Maureen. "We found out that girls are not ready to tell us their problems and we saw the need for them to write their issues on pieces of paper so as it helps us solve the problems they encounter. In most cases they are shy to tell us teachers directly," she says.

The Talking Box

The Talking Box is a program that was started in 2011 by Polycom Development Projects, a local community-based organization in Kibera slums. Once the girls write their issues and drop them into the talking boxes, a team of volunteers pick them and reads through to access the kind of issues that have been adversely mentioned then discuss pupil's problems with their teachers. In some serious cases, pupils are involved one on one with the volunteers.

Jane Anyango,founder of the Talking Box says they discovered that girls had many unresolved issues when they used to hold local forums, and even at such forums many of the girls feared to talk their issues out openly.  "We could not accommodate all the girls so that’s how we came up with this concept," she tells me.

Jane Anyango, Founder of Polycom Development Projects

According to Jane, many of the issues coming up heavily touch on gender based violence. “Many parents fight and if want to ask something, you don’t know who to approach the dad or your mum, since after a quarrel, the child becomes a platform of realizing all the stress, and kids end up stressed up as the home becomes a battle field. Also girls are so confused on relationship issues with boys, many don’t understand what needs to be done since as a society, boys will want to befriend the girls and they don't know how to respond," says Jane.

I managed to talk to a few of the pupils from Magoso primary about why they think it’s important make use of the talking box.  One of  the girls was happy that the talking box helped them since they didn’t have sanitary pads.  "Once we wrote it down, a good Samaritan was able to donate them to our school," she tells me.

An example of one of the notes in the box

Another student, who is 13 years old and a class eight pupil notes that some of the parents touch their kids private parts, like breasts, like they want to have sex with you and the child fears to say no, because of threats that nothing of this nature should be disclosed to any one or they will be punished.  She says that such a child should write her problem and post it into the talking box for help.

Girls especially face extra obstacles to education, these range from lack of sanitation facilities and sanitary napkins to teenage pregnancy, according to a 2008 report by the Centre for the Study of Adolescence in Kenya.

The Talking Box Program now runs it in 12 schools, all of which are in Kibera. The program also plans to open a counseling center as a way to give a listening ear to girls and will also target boys in the near future.

World Environment Day

The Kibera community was not left out in celebrating the World Environment Day, an annual event that is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. The day presents several activities taking place all year round that climax on 5 June every year, involving everyone from everywhere.
 
Local residents from Makina village had an opportunity to participate in this global day that saw some of them come out to clean the drainages alongside their homes. This was done by using some rakes to remove dirt and litter along the banks of the streams of dirty water. The cleaning exercise was organized by one of the organizations known as Umande Trust.

Kibera residents participating in a clean up

Fred Amuok, the communication officer of Umande Trust noted that it was important to come out and join local residents in sensitizing them on importance of having a cleaner environment.“We are trying to educate our people to take care of the environment, by even planting trees besides doing clean-ups,” noted Fred.

Fred Amuok of Umande Trust

One of the participants Mr. Jacob Mudaki a member of Jasho Letu self help group also shared his sentiments, that they came to educate the community on how they can preserve the environment as the world marked this important day. “There is need to start educating our brothers and sisters that it takes individual commitment on how we dispose litter, garbage and how we preserve the environment,” says Jacob.  Jacob also urged some of the local non-governmental organizations to look for ways of partnering with each other in helping preserve the environment.

Jacob Mudaki, left, of Jasho Letu Self Help Group talks to Thomas Bwire of Uweza

World Environment Day celebration began in 1972 and has grown to become  one of the main vehicles through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.  Through World Environment Day, the UN Environment Programme is able to personalize environmental issues and enable everyone to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development.

World Environment Day is also a day for people from all walks of life to come together to ensure a cleaner, greener and brighter outlook for themselves and future generations.  Everyone counts in this initiative and World Environment Day relies on you to make it happen!

Adapting to the climatic change

Mr. Peter Ombega is a Kibera resident who has been living here for more than 20 years. I paid him a visit at his home in Katwekera village early this week with a mission to find out how he has adopted to the impact of climate change.  Upon arrival at his home, I quickly notice a black gadget mounted on one of the rusty roof tops of one of the houses in front of his. The gadget is called Solvatten (Swedish for Sun Water) and black in color. After exchanging greetings, he takes me through its use. “The gadget looks like a jerrycan, and how it works is that one needs to open all caps and fill water using the black openings. You press the yellow button, then make sure all caps are tightly closed and place the open Solvatten gadget facing the sun. Treatment takes 2-6 hours and an indicator will turn green in color meaning that a treatment is complete as simple as one two three,” were Ombega's sentiments after taking me through this gadget.

Field Coordinator Phanice Maina and Peter Ombega

In a move to sensitize local residents in adopting to climate changes trends Solvatten came in with special jerricans that can heat water for purification purposes. This being one of the ways of preserving the environment by giving safe water to the users. The Solvatten project is a Swedish invention and funded by Nordic climate facility which is a group of countries including Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden that have been working with different countries of the world.

Solvatten on a Kibera rooftop

This project came about in Kibera following a research that was conducted in the year 2008 on disaster risk analysis on some of the contributing factors that affect the community in relation to climate change impacts regarding water. According to the Geoffrey Kimiti, Programmes Coordinator of the Institute of Environment and Water Management (IEWM) the major factor in Kibera included environmental hygiene. “When you look at the state of sanitation, the state of waste management, and the infrastructure around makes people more vulnerable, were some of the major reasons we thought of Kibera,”says Geoffrey Kimiti.

The motivation behind targeting the Kibera community was to adapt to the impacts of climate change.  Secondly, the device highlights the resident’s role in mitigation of climate change by cutting usage of charcoal and paraffin in high quantities to boil water.  This reduces the amount of carbon put up in the atmosphere so as by the end of the day the environment remains safe. By doing so, less trees are cut down and less carbon dioxide goes up in the skies.

The gadget also provides a livelihood strengthening project in the sense that, some few community based organizations involved are allowed to nominate their own distributors whom receive training and thereafter sell Solvatten jerricans in Kibera. “For every Solvatten sold, at a price of Ksh 1,000 ($12 USD), the distributors will earn Ksh 200, Ksh.700 goes back to the manufacturer, and Ksh.100 goes to the community based organization,” notes Kimiti.

Solvatten distributors Phanice Maina and Janye Kariuki

 

Phanice Maina has been working as one of the Solvatten distributors since the month of September last year.  She notes that her task is to walk around Kibera slums and sell it to the locals here. She acts as a sales person in the sense that, she does explain its usage for better understanding so that people can purchase it for environmental conservation purposes. “Even though people would love to own Solvatten, many are challenged economically and cannot afford to purchase it. But I do encourage them that one day they can also buy one of their own,” notes Phanice.

As I finalize on my interviews, Ombega shares his final sentiments, how Solvatten has changed his life and that of his family. “Before I started using it, my family used to fall sick with waterborne diseases like cholera.  Now that is a past history to recall and all water we use is much safer as I also help preserve the environment, and cut costs of visiting the clinic for treatment” notes Ombega.

Celebrating World TB Day

by Nicholas Gisemba

The world celebrates World Tuberculosis Day every year on March 24. It is a day to commemorate achievements undertaken in curbing the disease. Its origin was discovered in the year 1882 by Dr. Robert Koch, also a scientist when he discovered TB.

In Kibera, residents had the opportunity to come together to mark this important day as they started by a procession at the DC ground around 10am walking through sections of the slums carrying banners with TB messages. As they walked through parts of the slum, Baraka za Ibrahim Band did their jig and this pulled crowds to join in the procession.


Upon arrival at the Undugu grounds, several groups showcased plays that had clear messages on TB day, while others had a chance of showcasing their acrobatics skills.  The event was attended by local leaders, and some of the Non-Governmental Organiations (NGOs) that provide health care of services in Kibera, like AMREF, MSF Belgium and Center for disease control (CDC).  The chief guest was the area District Officer (D.O.) Joel Mwangala.

Kibera Hamlets showcasing their skills

In his speech, he urged residents to help fight TB. “This year we want to have zero deaths that are arising from TB because TB is curable, and also medical services are free at all government facilities, that’s why we are here today to help learn what we can do as a community,” noted Mwangala.
The D.O. also requested that people present help teach those who were not present on the day by passing information learned for empowerment.

District Officer Joel Mwangala giving his speech

Some of the TB patients had an opportunity to share their story in public like Lorna Akeyo Bonyo, a single mother.  “I was a TB patient recently and that is not good experience to undergo as I used to take medication on a daily basis for a period of three months.” Then she poses, “after three months I stopped taking medication simply because I thought I was healed, little did I know more was to come, I had to be subjected to be under medication care for 8 months instead of the initial 6 months.”  She urged residents to take medication without fail if one is under TB medication.

Lorna shares her experience with TB

TB is an infectious disease that spreads from one person to another when someone who is sick with TB coughs or sneezes. If another person breathes in the germs, they could get infected.TB can be fatal if not treated, but curable if the person is diagnosed early and takes full course treatment.

---

The author of this piece, Nicholas Gisemba,  is 22 years old and a resident of Kibera.  He is a member of the Uweza Journalism Club.

The Power of Reading

by Thomas Bwire

7th March is one of the most unique global day set aside by Lit World Organization to celebrate the “World Read Aloud Day” The day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. According to the Lit World Organization at least 793 million people remain illiterate around the world. This day which was first celebrated in the year 2010 serves as a reminder to read aloud and join the literacy movement. More than 35 countries worldwide participate in this event.

In Kenya in the Kibera community the day too was not forgotten as Children of Kibera organization held a special programme targeting the primary school going kids to get. This was to enable them get enlightened too. A few selected kids from one of the primary schools Red Rose Academy held this event; their mission entailed visiting some of the few schools in the Kibera community and reading aloud a story in front of other kids in a classroom set up.  The selected kids held a white banner with the words “World Read Aloud Day” as they walked from school to school.

Participating students hold up banner

Their first stop was their own school the Red Rose Nursery School, then off they went to the Primary school section. Here I got to interview a few of the older kids on their understanding of this day.

Diana Akinyi a class eight pupil was able to share her understanding of the world read aloud day. She said it is important to read and that it’s not about age, even if you are old you can still read and still ask someone to help you if you cannot read well.

For Maxwell Omari, a class seven pupil who likes to play soccer and also an avid reader. He says that “The day means that today we have to read and more books and we have to read them aloud so that other people can hear it.”

The next stop was at Spurgeon Academy School where we had the opportunity to see kids being able to read stories to each other. One important element of the  project assistant officer of children of Kibera Prisca Mawia was that once you read a story book, you should kindly show your audience the photos, especially young kids who learn to read though pictures.

Class Four students at Spurgeons Academy read a story

The last stop was at Olympic primary school where the same exercise was carried out among class six pupils who felt motivated to create time to read so as to enhance their knowledge.
World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially words that are passed from one person to the another, and creates a community of readers.

A crowded class at Olympic Primary listens as their fellow pupil reads

 A parting shot from Kenneth Okoth, the Executive Director of Children of Kibera challenged the well wishers, ministry of education  and other well wishers in Kenya that are focused on the welfare of children, education and literacy to donate books to support the community library, so that children from poor backgrounds with minimal resources can have access through their schools and community library, not forgetting the churches and the mosques who can put aside space not only for spiritual reading but other useful material that can help children in the community to grow in other ways.