A Brighter Tomorrow

by Thomas Bwire

It’s just after 5.30pm on a Wednesday and the children all sitting on the benches in one of the Uweza tuition classrooms look busy. Some can be seen writing part of work given by the teacher in charge. While for some, its porridge time besides having to keep up with given tasks. 

Students completing an assignment

The children are sitting on brown  wooden benches in the classroom made of iron sheets.  After looking around the classroom set up, one can easily see some of the teaching aids on manila paper neatly hanged on the wall and some hanging across the roof.

At one of the corners is the teacher Harriet Luvaga, who in charge, and she is checking through some of the books of the children present. The day’s session is meant for revision of the just concluded middle of the term exams that most of the children had done from their respective schools the previous week.

Teacher Harriet with some of her students

A chat with Trizah Achieng, a standard two student who goes to school at Kibera Primary School, reveals that she loves to come to the evening tuition program because she loves to read a lot. “Here the teacher helps me to get to know how to read better,” says Trizah.  These sentiments are also echoed by Francisa Maloba who attends school at Tunza School and is also in standard two. She also loves coming to the tuition program to get time to read and get assisted to read better.

Teacher Harriet at work

While interviewing teacher Harriet I learn that she handles classes of children from baby class up to standard three pupils. In a normal day, she has to look for a general topic that cuts across all grade levels so that it becomes easier for all the children to understand. “You need to bring your understanding to a lower level of the kids so that by the end of the day, you have one thing that can be memorable to them.  This is because most of the kids a had a long day at their respective schools .” 

The main aim of the tuition program is to help each child get better in their school grades and help with their homework so that by end of the school term, there is a slight difference in terms their grades and they have learned more from their school education.

Students enjoying a cup of porridge

This program normally runs from 4pm to 6.30pm during the week and on weekends, kids get to rest.  With Uweza’s objective, investing in the community to alleviate poverty, the future of these youngsters is gradually growing to a brighter tomorrow.

Home Visits

by Thomas Bwire

The sloppy terrain filled with litter of all kinds is what we had to experience during our home visits within Kibera slums. Our mission with Mathew Muema, Sponsorship Coordinator was to get to see how some of the children under Uweza's sponsorship program live with either their parents or guardians.

It took roughly less than 10 minutes to arrive at our first house from the center. Here we found Alphonce Otieno in his school uniform eagerly waiting for us. Their one room house is situated in Gatwekera village. Alponce, a total orphans, stays with an aunty who is very kind and takes care of him as if he is her own child. After greetings, Mathew introduced me and went ahead to explain that our main mission was to pay a visit and find out the progress of the children under the sponsorship program. Before we left, Aphonce received a shoe polish and water guard for purification of their drinking water at home.

Alphonce Otieno with his younger cousins

Our next stop was to Edward Kuremi, who lives in the same village as Alponce, though some distance apart. We found his mother in the one-room shanty iron structure house that stood just next to the road side.   One thing that quickly strikes you as a first time visitor to this area is the fact that the house stands between local pubs, with loud music emanating from them.  One could easily wonder if the noise pollution levels can affect a school going child staying here and if still he can still do well academically. Kuremi attends school at Toi Primary and is now in class five. Her mother struggles to put food on the table as she does not have a stable source of income. She too received the small bottle of water guard and shoe polish for her son.

Sponsorship Coordinator Mathew with Mama Eduward Kuremi

There on, we had to take a longer walk to another village known as Kianda. It took us roughly 10 minutes before arriving at Charles Omondi's home. Charles goes to Olympic High School and is now in his third year. Charles is an orphan and he is taken care of by his aunt.  His aunt lives with 14 children in a single semi-permanent room and that forces Charles to sleep in another houses that belongs to a good Samaritan, who offered him a place to sleep. The aunty was very happy to see us and appreciated work done by the Uweza family in assisting some of the needy children with education, which plays a key role in shaping life.

Our last stop was at Dennis Odhiambo’s home. He lives with his parents, both have un- stable jobs as the mother sells roosted maize for survival to keep the family up and running. His dad is not working and cannot be able to support the family yet. Currently Dennis is undertaking a vocational training in electrical installation at a technical training center in Kibera.

Dennis Odhiambo, center, with his mother and younger brother

Truly that was an experience of a life time, having to see where some of our sponsored children do come from. I got to know some of the hardships they undergo, like poor sanitation facilities as well as what it takes to put food in the table so that a brighter future can be achieved despite challenges  coming from their homes.

To sponsor a student in the Uweza Sponsorship Program, please visit http://www.uweza.org/sponsorship

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!

Aspire Football Dreams Selection in Kibera

by Mathew Musyoka Muema 

On Thursday 31st May, Kibera football players gathered at Uweza's field at Toi Primary School in hopes of being selected to receive a scholarship to the Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence in Qatar.  The Aspire Football Dreams scouting program is the world's largest-ever football scouting program.  It began in Africa but has since spread to 16 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The Aspire program is run in East Africa by Vision 21 Sports Consulting.  Uweza met one of Vision 21's staff in 2009 and was able to become one of 100 centers in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) tasked with recruiting players to go to Qatar. 2012 is Uweza's second year of participating in the program.

Aspire staff member, Uweza Assistant Team Manager, and Aspire scout

Aspire scouts visit each of the 100 centers to select 50 players to attend the Final 50 Camp, held at Kasarani stadium in Nairobi from 6th to 9th June. This year, a very impressive four Kibera players (including one from Uweza's team) were scouted from Uweza's center to be part of the 50 to move on to the next stage.  Only a few players will be selected from the Final 50 to travel to Qatar.

Players participated in a series of matches to showcase their talent

I had the chance to interview some of the people involved on Thursday, here is what they had to say:

Coach Said, Uweza Aspire Center Coordinator: 

"We have held this Aspire program for two years now and I am happy our center produced four players.  Last year, only one player was selected so this means we are working hard and we have talent."

"We did have challenges, like the event being held on a school day, which meant that the turnout of players was low.  The program asks for players who are 13 years old but if you bring players that age, they are too young so we learned the lesson from last year and brought older players this year.  All of the players should continue to believe in themselves and coaches should encourage them."

From left: Uweza Sponsorship Coodinator Mathew, Uweza TM Stam, Kibera Stars Coach Ken, Uweza Aspire Coordinator Said, Uweza Aspire Physiotherapist Mobi, Uweza Aspire Assistant Coordinator Joash, Uweza Assistant TM Tilen

Charles Omondi, Uweza Senior Team Assistant Captain and Selected Player

"I enjoyed playing today and being selected to go to Kasarani," Charles told me with a big smile on his face. "The advice from our coaches was the best advice.  I am disappointed because some of the best players from our team were not selected and they deserved to be. I wish all the players would always follow the coaches instructions, because it helps."

Coach Stam, Uweza Team Manager and Senior Team Coach

"Charles is very lucky but I will express my feelings if he becomes one of the top three at Kasarani.  I'm happy our center was able to produce four players and have a lot of talent.  The scout mentioned that we have a good team of players which was very encouraging." 

The four selected players, from left: Felix Onyango, Charles Omondi, Joshua Kitheka, and Douglas Nyangareli

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Mathew Musyoka Muema is Uweza's Sponsorship Coordinator. He formerly coached the Uweza Under-16 team and still volunteers as a coach regularly.

Uweza FC versus Githurai United

Story and photos by Nicholas Gisemba

Although the most watched soccer league, the English premier league, is over, Kenyans are now getting a treat from the local league that involves local soccer clubs. Last Sunday our boys of Uweza FC traveled to a Githurai for an away match. Our boys were upbeat that they would do well just a few moments before the kick off time at Githurai  Primary School against Githurai United.  

Warming up before the match

11am sharp and the whistle was blown to kick start the match.  From the start, our opponents seemed to be hard on our boys as they dribbled the ball across the field, that kept all players alert and chasing the ball.

Uweza FC in action

On the 22^nd minute, the home team netted their first goal against our Uweza FC boys. And just before half time, another score was recorded by our opponents. At half time, the score remained 2 nil against our boys.

During the break, Team Manager Charles Kaindi, also known as coach Stam, had to give words of encouragement to his team, asking them to remain focused and never lose hope of overcoming their opponents in the coming second half after the break.

Team talk at halftime

The second half went on smoothly during the initial time, but come the 68^th minute, Githurai United had another chance and scored a third goal.  Despite the loss, team captain Dennis had to encourage his team members that all was not lost and that they need to practice more and work hard in their up-coming matches.

Uweza FC is currently ranked 9th out of 20 teams in Zone D in the Nairobi County League.

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 The author and photographer of this story, Nicholas Gisemba, is 22 years old and a member of the Uweza Journalism Club.

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.

The Determination of Coach Said

by Thomas Bwire

As I watched the senior soccer team play today during their training session, I found myself drawn into the game as the ball kept running across the field while young energetic young men kept their momentum. Amidst the players was one coach by the name Said Mohamed whom you could easily mistake as one of the players, instead of a soccer coach. He played with his team members to keep the game strong from the opponents who were the senior boy’s category.

Coach Said, left, warming up with Sponsorship Coordinator Mathew and Coach Tilen

Time flew so fast that when the referee blew the whistle for the first break, I got the rare opportunity to grab coach Said for a small interview and get to know how his soccer journey has been.

He shared with me that his passion for the soccer started at a tender age of 7 years while still living with his parents in the coastal region. At that time, he used to accompany his elder brother by going to watch local matches that kept increasing his interest day by day. By the time he joined class seven, he found himself training with a senior soccer team.

Coach Said, on left, playing in a coaches vs. players friendly match

The greatest impact came from his mother who supported him throughout his journey to success as she could sacrifice her small savings from her business selling fish to give him money to purchase any soccer kit he required.

He later moved to Kibera in 2007 and had to stay with a relative as he looked for a casual job to enable him have some savings for himself. While staying in the city, he got to meet Uweza team manager Charles Kaindi, famously known as Coach Stam, who later introduced him to the organization program.  Said started with Uweza as a coach for the girls team and is currently tasked to manage the youngest categories, the under-8 and under-10 teams.

Coach Said Mohamed

Coach Said says that his greatest passion now working at Uweza is that he is happy to be working with the small team of both girls and boys from the Kibera community.  "Kids love to learn even if they see a challenge ahead of them, they keep up with the spirit, they are also flexible and don’t like to lose a game," says coach Said.

If he were to change something in the soccer industry, it would be to create ways of nurturing talent among the less fortunate children.  Most of them have great talents but no one notices them, since most of the soccer officials fail to scout for the best talents that can be beneficial for the country and their respective clubs as well.

Cooking is my passion

by Thomas Bwire

Meet Patience Masaku, age 15, whose dream is to become a top chef in the near future. Dressed in a white apron, I find her busy in the kitchen where she is currently preparing a meal of spaghetti for lunch together with two of her classmates. Their tutor is closely monitoring the on-goings.  I steal a few moments to take a few photos of her, so as to create ample time for our interview.

Patience is one of the beneficiaries of Uweza sponsorship program, which is on its first year of supporting students who are in vocational technical trainings institutions within Kibera. Patience shared with me that her passion for cooking is what drove her to wish undertake a catering course. She appreciates that her tutor Rose Karanja has been inspirational to her as she takes them through their lessons.

Patience with tutor Rose Karanja

Patience is currently undertaking a yearlong catering course at the PCEA Kibera Emmanuel Technical Training Centre. Upon finishing eight years in primary school, she opted to undertake the course with an aim of learning more cooking skills.

According to the tutor Rose Akinyi, the aim of the technical training centre is to build and impact skills in interested students to learn cooking skills. She says that the course offered is tailored to cater to the young people and elderly. “Here you will find that for those ones who are not able to pay for 10 month training course, then we have short courses of three months that they can enroll in to enhance their skills."  She also adds Patience is keen enough and has great potential as she asks for advice whenever she in doubt.  Enrolled students undertake units like food and beverage production, service and sales.

Patience and her classmates

According to Mathew Muema, the Uweza Sponsorship Coordinator, there are a number of factors put into consideration when sending students to undertake vocational trainings. “First we look at the performance of the child when it comes to primary and secondary national exam results.  If they performed poorly or they are challenged academically, then we come in to give advice.  Also through the help of our counselor Becky Gitau, kids are able to understand from their hearts their passions and what they really want to do in life,”  notes Mathew.

Counseling helps both the student and the parent or guardian make a wise choice in the course they will undertake by the end of the day. All said and done, we do wish Patience all the best  in her endeavor.

To learn more about how to sponsor Patience and other Kibera students, click here.

Mothers of Uweza

Story by: Rebecca Musanga
Photos by: Everlyne Nzilani

Many women in the world celebrated Mothers Day in a style today. For some, this created ample time to reflect back on their parenting skills while others spent most of their time with their families as they shared memorable moments together. Some organized parties to their mothers as they presented them with gifts.

As the Uweza family, we also wanted to find out from some of our mothers what the day means for them and possible challenges they face as women in the society.  My camera person Everlyne Nzilani and I got ready at the center where we did the interviews one on one. My role was the interviewer while Everlyne was to take photos to be shared to the world.

Perhaps a sneak preview of the interview was getting to know what Mothers Day meant to these women and what impact a woman has in the community. These were some of their views about this day: many were aware of this day’s celebrations but most said that it had no difference with the rest of the other days since they had nothing to celebrate, saying that the economy was in bad shape hence limiting their joy but most suggested that it was a good day to spend some time to be with their families and friends.

Evelyne Adhiambo, a parent says that she plays a bigger role to mold her family by taking care of the house chores.  “I make sure the children go to school on time, wash their clothes, and cook food so  that everyone has an ample life,” says Adhiambo.

For Hellen Awour, her sentiments were that Mothers Day is just like any other day. However, she shared some of the challenges she faces as a woman. “We are at risks of death during delivery since some of us don’t have enough money to get proper medical care and we are forced to visit traditional birth attendants (TBA).  To me, this is a bigger challenge. As we celebrate Mothers Day, I urge mothers out there to be close friends with their children and instill good values in them for a better tomorrow."

Rebecca Musgana talking to Hellen Awuor

"Despite facing some of the day to day challenges, women should never give up easily.  You find that we do sacrifice a lot for our families for a better future,” notes  Irene Atieno Amollo.

“I am a single mother and take care of my own children, grandchildren, neighbor's children and also at times children of my friends. For me, this is a day to reflect on what role you can play as a mother by not just loving your own children but extending the love and care to others. We need to advise kids all the time so they can be better role models,” were sentiments aired by Hadija Khamisi famously known as Nyanya (Grandma) Omosh.

Thomas Bwire with Nyanya Omosh

As for Harriet Akinyi, all that matters to her is to show love right from our households as that’s where we spend so much of our time.  She told me that this will reflect on your family by the end of the day to have better values in life.

Thomas Bwire interviewing Harriet Akinyi

Lillian Awinja says that mothers should be responsible while at home and that without a mother things cannot go right.”My message is that we need to work hard, take care of the community and the world around us as a whole.”

Lillian Awinja with her sons

At the close of my interviews, I learned that women do experience challenges like unemployment, being overburdened at home, and discrimination from the society.  Others manage as single mothers or widows and some face rape cases amongst many other challenges. Despite all these challenges faced, they all had one common message to the rest of the world: that all women should be responsible in their families, hardworking, never give up, create time to be free with their children and above all to put God first in all their work. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL WOMEN IN THE WORLD.        

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Rebecca Musanga and Everlyne Nzilani are members of the Uweza Journalism Club.