Intern Blogging - Second Post

by William Ochieng

The week has been very busy to me and I have learned a lot of things. First of all, I met parents at the office to fill the sponsorship forms for those who were absent during the meeting. They came in a good number and we served them diligently.  From the parents perspective as they talked they want to see their sons and daughters to have a better life in future and its through education that they can achieve their goals, thus education is vital in the society. I have also started taking pictures for membership cards for children registered in the center which will be updated in the course of time.  This will enable faster tracing of the child's background. Also we went to Ishankai Medical Group with fellow staff and we were briefed by the Doctor on what was required. From the briefing I got, I learned that a child’s health is more important and can help them excel in the classroom. Through better medical health care, children are free from diseases which can hinder their education. I have been helping other fellow staff member Mathew with the sorting of Sponsorship files so as to speed the flow of work for the organization in meeting its objectives. I also accompanied Mathew to the Chemist to sign contract for purchase of drugs. I have made sure that the records of Kibera Agenda 4 Business Savings are computerized to enable easy tracking of documents to ensurer fast flow of their activities without much hesitation.  My ambition for Agenda is to see it grow from small to big entrepreneurs and be recognized in the country. Also I have been involved in helping Agenda to track loans held by the members that are due.  Through repayment of loans, other people can borrow and uplift their fellow human beings to boost their standard of living. William is studying community development at The Kenya Polytechnic University College in Nairobi and has been interning with Uweza since October.  Read his first blog entry here.

World AIDS Day

by Thomas Bwire

Kibera was not left out in joining the entire world in celebrating the World AIDS Day.  In different parts of the community, one could easily see white mounted tents, that acted as temporary centers for voluntary counseling famously known as VCT.

In Kibera the main celebration, an event aimed at creating awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education, was held at the DC grounds. World AIDS Day is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away and that there are many things still to be done.

At the Uweza Center, the youngsters too were not left behind as they dedicated this day in passing the message to their fellow age mates using a small drama that used “sheng” language which is a mixture of Kiswahili and English words combined.

Their story had a family set-up that involved a father, mother, their only son and a house help who assisted in house chores. Behind the scenes, the house help had slept with the father and the son on different occasions. After many months had passed, the father and the son became sick and the house help's secret was exposed when a neighbor she used to work for had come to pay a visit to the host family.  The neighbor exposed that the house help had the HIV virus when she used to work for her

Part of the skit went like this:

Neighbor: This house help is suffering from HIV, you guys didn’t know that she is positive?

Father/Son: (Looks surprised and astonished, as they both shake their heads sideways)

Son: Oooh my God I slept with her and I thought all was fine.

Father: What? You have slept with the house help??? Me too.

Househelp: I'm sorry, I feared to tell you for fear of rejection and being stigmatized.

Father/Son: We are all infected with the HIV viruses, God help us (they fall slowly to the ground as they weep).

At that point, a counselor walks into their home and tries to console the father and the son that having slept with their house help should not be the end of the world.  She advised them that they need to visit a VCT center to get more information and if they agree, to get tested to know their status.

Once at the VCT center, they agree to be tested after having been counseled and vow to change their bad ways.

It was a story that gave a significant group at the center the opportunity to pass a message to each other with a hope to change and help educate their peers.

Get Together With A Purpose

by Thomas Bwire

The mood at the center this afternoon was adorable as pupils who had just cleared their primary national examinations known as Kenya Certificate of Primary Examination (KCPE), sat in one of the classrooms as the blaring sounds of reggae music could be heard from the Sony music system. It was a great way to kick start their long holiday as they await the result of their exams after Christmas period.

In the Kenyan education system, it takes eight years of primary school, and then the pupil sits for national exams that will enable him/her join high school education for a period of four years.

But as for now, the pupils present at the Uweza Center sat on the benches smilling, while for some, they took moments to chat with their friends. Since the outside weather was sending some signals of heavy down pour, Becky Gitau the Generation-T Club teacher took charge of the programme and asked everyone to step outside so as benches could be arranged for everyone to get enough space.

Once everyone was seated, food was served, and the menu comprised of cooked rice famously known in Swahili as “Pilau.”  This is a kind of delicacy is cooked with some meat inside and tastes delicious. Chapati too was part of the menu as well as a glass of juice to wash the food down the throat.

As the pupils sat and ate their meal as one family. I took the opportunity to talk to some of them and get to know their expectations, now that they are done with primary school.

14 year old Fredrick Mwandindo from Kibera Primary School expressed his joy of joining other pupils in the get together and believes he will perform well in his exams. I did ask him what he aspires to be in life.  "I want to be a professional footballer in the near future as I believe I have the talent, and God willing one day I can also play for bigger teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United,” says Fredrick.

15 year old Willis Nyabuto from Jamhuri primary is happy being part of Uweza family.  "I love to be part of  the Uweza team as I get to learn a lot from my teachers and I want to become a scientist when I finish high school so as I can discover earth and space” notes Willis.

The climax of the day was when Fidel Ouma, the Center’s Prefect, gave a small speech of encouragement to all present and encouraged them to be kind to each other and always value the motto of discipline.

What are children in Kibera grateful for?

Yesterday at their meeting, Thomas explained to the members of the Uweza Journal Club that Uweza supporters in the United States would be celebrating Thanksgiving, a day to reflect and give thanks. We asked them to think about and write down what they are thankful for.  Given the tough circumstances these children are living in, it's incredibly moving to see that most of them are thankful to be alive.  We are humbled by their response and reminded not to take anything for granted.

We are incredibly grateful to all of our supporters worldwide for supporting programs that are truly changing lives.  It is because of you that we are able to do everything that we do.  If you are celebrating today, Happy Thanksgiving!

Ready to Shine

Thomas Bwire is a Kibera resident and a radio journalist.  He currently works with a local FM station called Pamoja FM based in Kibera as a News editor. He joined the station in September 2007.  He has also had some extensive training in Holland with an international training in broadcasting journalism from Radio Nederland Training Center and Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) based in the Hague.

Thomas has recently joined the Uweza team to initiate a journalism club for youth. The journalism club will provide youth from Kibera the chance to learn valuable skills such as research, writing and photography.  They will be researching and writing pieces for their own periodic newsletter, which will provide them with a platform to learn and speak about issues and topics that are important to them. 

Thomas will also be a regular contributor to the Uweza blog.  Below is his first post about the first meeting of the Uweza journalism club.

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The afternoon weather was hot as I arrived at the Uweza Foundation gate at 2.45pm, with a mission to kick start the journalism class at the center. The center located at Karanja Road, shone with its blue colors painted on the walls. To welcome me was Mr.Moi the Program Manager in charge of the center, and as I sat in his office, we got to exchange greetings and catch up on how the day had been earlier.

Not later, some of the pupils started trickling into the compound some in pairs, while some came on their own. In no time, I headed to one of the classes and met my pupils eagerly waiting to hear from me.

First things first, I did start by greeting them and telling them a little bit about myself and this was followed by a simple exercise of knowing each other.  This is how it was done, pupils paired into two and asked their partner about themselves on issues ranging from their names, likes, dislikes and what they expect to learn while with the club. The response was amazing as the whole class got to know a new person that they had never known before. Some of them said how they love to eat fish, some love to travel and some wanted to be journalists and to read news while they finish school. "Amazing sentiments there," I thought to myself as we moved on.  The class had a total of 15 pupils ranging from ages 12 to 15years old.

After getting to know each other, suggestions for in house rules were put across and all agreed to abide by them, Here are some of the house keeping rules, perhaps to give you the better feel of things here in Kibera, "be patient, respect to people’s property, obey your teacher, co-operate, no chewing, no gossiping" and the one that stood out was "listening to each other."

Very insightful there as proposal to set the rules came from the participants themselves, and hopefully they will be followed to the latter. Day one presented the participants to get to know what news is with the following elements in storytelling,” who, what, why, when, where and how,” with practical example from one of the local daily newspaper as we read through each line to identify these elements.

  To close the day’s session, each participant had an opportunity to read one story to help to identify how the key news elements were used in stories. Time  flew so fast and as we winded up, many of the kids were reluctant to leave, but before they left, a simple assignment was given out, and here it comes, "write a simple story with not more than 100 words, but include the key news elements."

Look out for our next blog next week where we shall post some of the first ever written stories done by our Uweza Journalism Club.

milk & honey shoes for Uweza

Kate Mara has created a shoe for milk & honey and ALL of the proceeds from the sales of the shoes will go Uweza.  We are so excited and grateful to Kate for selecting us as her charity recipient and hope you will check out (and buy) her beautifully designed shoes!

Check out the shoes on milk & honey's website : http://www.milkandhoneyshoes.com/signature-collection/kate-uweza.html. 

Intern Blogging - Week 1

William Ochieng, is a Kenyan college student, studying Community Development at  The Kenya Polytechnic University College in Nairobi.   As part of his studies, he must complete an internship with an organization working on community development.

William started interning with Uweza two weeks ago.  We have been doing our best to keep him busy with interesting work and he has been a big help to us.  As part of the internship,  he will be writing weekly blog posts detailing his work and what he is learning.

Feel free to leave any questions, comments, or words of encouragement for William in the comments section!
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It has been a busy schedule for the last 2 weeks at Uweza Foundation. I have been able to interact with Kibera Agenda 4 Business Savings group members. It comprises of persons with integrity who are business oriented. The group deals with savings and loaning of funds to the group members. It is through loaning and savings that they are able to uplift their level of living standards through businesses to a comfortable life. In the group activities I was involved in calculating the total savings each person has saved and total loan given out.

I also met the parents of the sponsored children in the Uweza Sponsorship Program. The staff of the organization emphasized on the cleanliness of the children sponsored by the organization when going to school.  When the children are clean, they perform well in class and help the organization get a good reputation in the society at large. At the meeting I took minutes of the agenda which was a bit hectic because I couldn't memorize the parent's children's names.

During the Uweza Football team party, I took some photographs which was a fantastic day.  The team was position 1 at the Amani tournament.  Also I did some office work like arranging and filing of documents.

I have learned a lot of many things in the organization. First of all, people should join hands to form a large pool of resources in the Kibera microfinance through the Kibera Agenda 4 Business Savings to facilitate in the actualization of its dream.

Second, the organization is working to its level best to uplift the status of children by offering evening tuitions. This enables the children to ask questions to their tutors about what they didn't understand in the classroom.

There is also a good working relationship among the Uweza staff as all of them give time to express their news.

The organization responds immediately without hesitation to child's health and tuition fees. This is taking the child to hospital/chemist for medication.

I have also learned that children need to be given time to realize their talents through soccer and activities like drawing.

Trip to Korogocho

With all the media attention and thousands of NGOs, it is easy to forget that Kibera is not the only slum in Nairobi.  Korogocho, which means "crowded shoulder to shoulder" in Kiswahili is estimated to be the third or fourth largest slum in Kenya with a population of 150,000 to 200,000 people living in 1-1.5 square kilometers. It is located about 11 kilometers northeast of Nairobi.  

The slum directly borders Dandora, Nairobi's principal dumping site, which presents concerns of health issues and human rights violations for the slum's residents.  A study by the United Nationals Environment Programme of 328 children and adolescents living and schooling near Dandora found that around 50% had respiratory problems and 30% of them had blood abnormalities that indicated high exposure to heavy-metal poisoning. 

At the same time the dumping site creates opportunities for income generations as both children and adults living nearby scavenge for and resell garbage for a living.

(image source: lightstalkers.org/caroline_kaminju) 

Yesterday was a national holiday in Kenya and children had the day off school so our coaches arranged for all Uweza teams to travel to play with teams from Korogocho.  

The kids, as always, had a great time. The day of matches was a great opportunity for them to get out of Kibera  and it also kept all the kids occupied and busy on their day off from school.

Good Luck on KCSE!!

We want to recognize Dennis Odhiambo (left) and Johnson Musyoka (right), two very dedicated and studious Uweza football players that started their Kenyan Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E) exams today and will be taking them for the next three weeks. Scores on KCSE play a huge role in determining whether or not a student will be able to continue on to university, which school they can attend, and if they will be able to get loans/scholarships.

Good Luck Dennis and Johnson!

Two Uweza teams bring home trophies!!

Today has been a great day for the Uweza Soccer Program as two of our teams have, for the first time in Uweza history, won first place in a tournament! Three Uweza teams, Under-16 girls, Under-15 boys, and Under-13 boys competed in the annual peace tournament held by Amani Kibera. Amani means peace in Kiswahili and according to their website: "this unique initiative continues to engage young people of different ages, ethnic and religious backgrounds to utilize their diverse sporting and cultural talents to promote peace and inculcate a culture of non-violence." In 2009, Uweza's Under-10 team won third place in the Amani tournament.

Uweza's girls team played great defense and did not allow any goals to be scored against them. They won their final match 1-0. The Uweza Under-15 boys team also played great defense and won every single match they played in penalty kicks. The Under-13 team played great as well but were unfortunately defeated in the semi-finals.



In reward for their victories, both teams won large trophies, 7 pairs of shin guards (an Uweza first!), jerseys for their coaches, and new soccer balls.



The kids were so excited and are preparing tomorrow for a victory parade where they will cheer and carry the trophy from their training ground to the Community Center.

Congratulations Uweza teams!!



More photos from tournament have been posted here: http://uweza.org/gallery/amanitournament.html