Mathari's Children Fund

Dear Friends,

I hope the New Year has been kind to you. Here in Mathare, things are back to normalcy after months of political campaigns that brought a lot of tensions especially after the experiences of 2007/2008 post-election violence.

 As you continue to help us realize that something good can come out of the lowest strata in society (Mathare slums), please allow me to give you an update of the many happenings in our project and its environs.

Reporting to Schools – Thanks to your support, 96 kids have reported back to school without any hiccups. Currently we have three children in Kindergarten, three in special schools, 34 in primary schools, five kids waiting to join high school, 30 in high schools, nine pupils are waiting for their high school results and twelve students are in college. We are planning to take 15 more children in, who will be introduced to you in the next emails.

We also saw a total of 15 youths say goodbye to MCFpanairobi this year. Some of the children include; Vinoly who trained as a Civil Engineer and is currently working as one in a consultancy (She earns more than we do but am not jealous J), Stephen who did not do well in his high school exams is currently working in a research firm in Kisumu after he did his basic computer skills training with us, Vivian who trained in IT – Higher Diploma and currently lecturing in a small computer college in Nairobi and writing projects as a consultant for students in the university, Kevin who trained as a primary school teacher and is currently employed in a private school and Samson is currently working with the Ministry of Immigration where he works as a registrar of persons .

High School - Our 5 children who sat for their class 8 (grade 8) national exams finally got their results and all of them have performed above average -250 out of 500 would be the average – and are gearing to join high school in 2 /3 weeks.  They were 4 boys and one girl.

Early Childhood and Care Development Program – On the 15^th of February, 6 teenage mothers and their children (below five years) joined our project. They will be coming 3 days a week in our centre.  We will provide a safe environment in which the development of the small children can be improved while their mothers are trained in a skill; tailoring or hair dressing, Parenting skills training, family planning workshops and a feeding program are also included in the initiative. We have bought two sewing machines for the tailoring department, a trainer recruited, a salon where the girls will be trained in hair dressing identified.

Income generating projects

The handbags project continues and we have been able to sell them both in Kenya and overseas and continue to try and establish more markets. So far we have been able to sell bags worth € 400 and the market looks ready for more. Our aim is that we sell about 30 bags per month which should create a net income of € 280. The second project is the MCFpanairobi Tours. This is a walking tour of the city of Nairobi offered by former street children who have finished high school waiting to join college. Through this initiative, our kids earn some pocket money, get exposed to new cultures, and learn important communication skills and MCFpanairobi invests the profits in the educating kids in the project. From the beginning of this year, we have had the privilege of hosting 17 tourists and we have more coming.

Sad Announcement

Stanley passed on last month – February. He was born with hydrocephalus and was not able to walk or use his hands. Last year, the teachers in his school could not handle his frequent illness and asked his mum to stay with him until he improves. Sadly when Stanley became sick, the medical practitioners were on a go-slow and hence Stanley died while waiting for medical attention in their local dispensary. We have had the opportunity to be with Stanley amongst us for the last 7 years and he was a jolly good kid whom we were fond of. May he rest in peace.

Elections March, 4^th 2013

In 2007/2008 Kenya suffered its worst humanitarian crisis since independence following the December 30 results of a hotly-contested presidential election. Opposition leader Raila Odinga and his supporters rejected the declared victory of incumbent Mwai Kibaki, alleging it was the result of rampant rigging. Protests degenerated into widespread violence as decades of economic frustration and ethnic rivalry spiraled out of control. In the days immediately after the results were announced, gangs of youths blocked Kenya’s main roads and set fire to hundreds of homes of perceived ‘outsiders’. In all, more than 1,200 people were killed and some 600,000 displaced into temporary camps, with an equal number seeking refuge with friends or relatives.

Due to these factors, our project and 30 other organizations under the Gender Based Violence Network to plan and strategize on how we would help out in case of pre and post-election violence. We approached the police and local administration to provide security in case of rescue and protection. Other resources identified include: safe house for survivors of rape and sexual assault, ambulances for rescue of violence; namely children and women, medical personnel, hospitals and medical centers, trauma centers and the necessary personnel and centers where children would be referred to as safe houses. Though the electoral drama has not been fully resolved, Kenya has greatly defied expectations and remains peaceful. The raft of reforms this country made after the crisis of late 2007 and early 2008, and the extensive anti violence messages during this election, seemed to have found their mark. Since the election results were announced on Saturday, giving the presidency to Mr. Kenyatta, top politicians down to neighborhood activists have been calling for peace — and the peace has been holding.

While the needs are great and almost overwhelming, the team in Mathare is impacting the lives of the people we work with, in a genuine life changing way. The team in Mathare and the board believe deeply in creating futures through education for disadvantaged children in the slums. So far, 450 children have passed through MCFpanairobi program and we can proudly say that we now have teachers, engineers, Lab Technicians, Military, Mechanics and many more professionals with a very humbling background from Mathare. We have seen what this has been for the children we have touched and all these have been due to generous contributions from persons like you.  We hope you continue to be friends of MCFpanairobi and support our work here in Mathare.

Please if you do have questions or need more clarification feel free to ask and we will definitely get back to you with responses. You can also visit us on our Facebook/webpage page in German or English:  http://www.facebook.com/panairobi (www.panairobi.net)or http://www.facebook.com/MathareChildrenFund

 Thank you and greetings from the team.

 Regards

Titus M

Dear Friends,

Although we are yet to get any funding for the project, we have gone ahead and identified the 20 schools. The schools are both in rural and urban areas. The headmasters of both secondary and primary schools are ready to try and implement a children’s parliament and see what kind of results that would bring to the school administration and general environment in school. Also identified are teachers that would be in the fore front in engaging the children to set up the parliament. These teachers will need to undergo scrutiny from pupils to ensure that they (children) are comfortable enough to work with them.

Clearly, Children’s Parliament has quite a lot of benefits that would bring to the good running of schools in Kenya and these include:

• There is a growing emphasis of children rights and later human rights in general once the children become adults
• Children will start to address their own problem and issues from an early age – person centred problem solving approach (An approach which believes in the others potential and ability to make the right choices for oneself, regardless of the society’s own values, beliefs and ideas.)
• Decisions made are positive unlike those decisions made by adults/teachers/staff which may have a negative impact
• Reduces chances of drop-outs since issues that would lead to drop-outs are dealt with in advance…
• Gives children a sense of responsibility and sharing of the consequences and gradually empowering them to be decision-makers. It’s crucial for growth and well-being of children to take responsibility for their actions, life, growth and development
• Children Parliament will help in focusing of children’s strengths and weakness and in so doing helps the teachers/school administration in respecting appreciating and developing talents/gifts and contributions of children in all circumstances. By acknowledging the creativity, resourcefulness and achievements of children, a level of trust and confidence is increased
• Children Parliament will enable children to assume the role of care takers of their families/society
• Children will become self-disciplined and self-motivated on account of the influence of Children Parliament
• Children will have citizenship training in practice, something that my country, Kenya needs a lot especially during the electioneering period that is on currently for the 4^th March general elections.

My dear friends to celebrate the second inauguration of President Obama, Goodjoe is hosting a design contest using the themes of democracy, literacy, youth voices, community engagement, and freedom of speech. They have invited t-shirt designers to submit their best designs for these themes.

They have invited their customers and supporters to vote on the best t-shirt designs. (See designs ) The winning t-shirt designs will be on sale on Goodjoe's website. Ten percent of all t-shirt sales will be donated to select GlobalGiving projects where our project is one of those 5 selected to be featured in this promotion. Proceeds from the t-shirt sales will be evenly divided among the five participating projects. 

Share this exciting news with your friends for us! Invite them to vote for their favorite t-shirt design. Voting will be taking place through Friday, February 15th. Individuals can vote by clicking on the t-shirt design here and rating the design. Please you could share this with your networks like Facebook, and/or Twitter.

Lastly, in 20 days Kenya will be going for elections and we pray and hope that all goes well. We do not want a scenario like we had in 2007/2008 post-election violence, but this is not to say, that as a project we have established a network of more than 30 Organizations within our district to prepare for any eventuality especially in regard to Gender Based Violence usually unleaseh on children and women. God help Kenya we pray.

My dear friends that is what we have for now. Please feel free to make enquiries on the project and we will respond in good time.

Thank you.

Season greetings, Friends!

It's been quite a year and as we come to the end of another successful year, we want to thank you for contributing to our success and ask you that you continue to be with us in the coming New Year, 2013. For those who will be joining us as friends of MCFpanairobi 2013, your much welcome in helping us achieve to educate the not so well endowed amongst us

This year saw us achieve a lot; namely having 114 children go through primary, secondary and college education, something that would not have been possible without your support and continue to ask that you stand strong with us. We still have a long way to go, but 2012 is a clear sign that we, as an organization, are making progress.

In this report, we want to bring you a few of our own most recent triumphs and catalyzing actions. The truth, though, remains: We can't do it alone. We need your help. We hope you'll read what we've been doing, donate to help us keep up the good work, and pass this report along to those you know who would assist these vulnerable children.

We thank you for everything…

Activities that have been going on since our last report in October includes;

• Continuity of handbag making by community members(women and single teenage mothers) and the sale of the bags both in Europe and Kenya and hence enabling them to be economically stable unlike before where they would hang around homes asking that they be allowed to wash cloths for 2 Euros.

• Continued increase in clients for our Nairobi only walking tours which we project to bring more income both for our young adults who have gone through the program and finished high school and will be joining colleges and MCFpanairobi where we hope to earn some income come next year. So dear friends when you’re in Nairobi and need to see a bit of what makes Nairobi, Nairobi, then call on us and you will see what it has to offer – The City in the Sun as we call it.

• The Child ProtectionPolicy was finalized and reported/presented to the children and to the board. The paper covers all working areas of the organization within it's realities.

• Through our active participation in different networks where we interact with different players on the children field we were able to participate in different activities like the world 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV). The Campaign seeks to strengthen local working groups around violence against women and girls to provide a forum to develop and share strategies for the eradication of gender based violence; demonstrating the solidarity of activists around the world and calling on governments to account, respond, protect and prevent violence against women and girls.
• As a program, we have had what we call a ‘Children’s Parliament’ for over 7 years where our children articulate their issues in an open forum. Recently we proposed and send forward a request to various donors via Globalgiving so that we try and implement Children’s Parliament within 20 pilot schools amongst the 70 schools we work with. It’s the organizations’believe,that children have to have a voice within schools and express their views on certain issues in a safe environment.This wil lenable them to grow up  as responsible citizens who are aware of their rights, their influence and their responsibility within communities. Furthermore, it will strengthen their ability to participate in decision making processes which will lead to better improved relationships between the school administration, teachers and the students through creating a platform of dialogue and learning on issues.
• Another initiative scheduled for next year, 2013 is an Early Childhood Development Project which is designed to address the holistic developmental needs of children  from conception to five years of age and their single young mothers of below 20 years. The intention of this project to try and provide a conducive environment in which the development of the children identified can be enhanced while building the skills, knowledge and capacity of their single teenage parents by supporting them to engage in participative processes of needs assessment, drawing up and implementing sustainable strategies to enable them to overcome conditions of poverty. These approaches involve the implementation of various income generating activities/projects (IGA) at either individual or group-level for the beneficiary single teenage mothers and their children.

 Over December holidays we engaged in various activities, namely;

• Workshop on Adolescence Sexuality and Reproductive Health
•  Workshop on NO MEANS NO aimed at teaching our children on verbal and physical self-defense against rape
• A visit to the Nairobi Gallery for a photo exhibition on Kenya Burning that details the post-election violence through photos. This trip with children generated a lot of discussions that we have asked those in charge to have an exhibition of the same in our premises in the slums and let us acknowledge what violence can bring within us especially now that we have elections in 3 months. \
• We had what we call ‘Olympics’ and invited a project nearby for two days…It was fun to say the least…
•   We held our annual medical check-up where more than 32 children had to be bought drugs for while the rest were doing fine
• We had a parents/guardians meeting where we invited some consultants to talk on the need to keep peace and persons who were affected by the last elections
• Our end of year Children Parliament was held where different issues were discussed that affected children both in schools and where they live. This also incorporated discussions on the new upgraded Children protection Policy which they approved as stated above.
• Lastly we held our end of party for children yesterday the 18^th of December 2012 where gifts were given out to all and more so to those who performed well in schools.

Christmas is the season of love and happiness and on behalf  of the children, staff and board members of MCFpanairobi, we would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family and friends  a very merry Christmas and a splendid happy new!  For us, Christmas is filled with more happiness because of donors like you.

Asante sana na shukrani.

(PS; If your in Facebook we request you like us - http://www.facebook.com/MathareChildrenFund and you will see what goes on every other second day or so.....)

Regards

Titus.

Links:

• http://www.facebook.com/MathareChildrenFund