Keeping Hope Alive for 1000 Children and Youth
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Updates from the Field:
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Index of Updates from the Field
SEACOAST UNITED SOCCER CLUB (USA) INSPIRES GIRLS
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, July 03, 2008 12:21 PM
SEACOAST UNITED SOCCER CLUB (USA) INSPIRES GIRLS
"I had never thought of ever going to Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. I only hear talks about it. It is a beautiful city with many people, tall buildings. I even went to the University of Nairobi where I want to go for higher education. To me that was a dream never to be!!!"- Naomi
"It was so exciting to meet over 300 girls of my age in Nairobi. We all played and enjoyed so much. I made so many friends." - Florence
"Everything went well. Though we had traveled long distance, 8hours to get to Nairobi, I really had fun!!! The trainers from Seacoast United Soccer Club from United Sates of America were so good. They helped us get new soccer skills and life skills." - Susan
These three girls Naomi, Florence and Susan were selected among 800 girls to represent them in a soccer clinic which was conducted in Nairobi on 18th to 21st June 2008 by Seacoast United Soccer Club from New Hampshire.
Your continued support is making really difference and keeping Hope Alive for children and Youths in Kenya. Thank you!
Attachments:
MADARAKA KWA WATOTO SOCCER TOURNAMENT ENDS ON A HIGH NOTE!!!
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, June 03, 2008 05:46 PM
MADARAKA KWA WATOTO SOCCER TOURNAMENT ENDS ON A HIGH NOTE!!!
TYSA Sports ground, 35 minutes drive from Kitale town along Sibanga Kapsara route is a beehive of body fitness activities on every weekend. Children from the local community make way to the pitch to jog their brains after a week greatly associated with books and pens.
June 1st 2008 marked such an imperative occasion whereby children below the age of 14 years took part in the ‘Madaraka Kwa Watoto’ tournament that was meant to educate them on their rights.
Madaraka is a Swahili word meaning freedom. Kenya celebrates every 1st of June for attaining this status. Unfortunately, children have been considered less in such occasions for quite some time. Besides, sky-racketing abuse on children rights: denial of leisure and play, freedom of expression among a bundle others has sent alarm bells ringing everywhere.
It’s in this retrospect that TYSA comes in handy to break the rift and bridge the gap between adults and children to help them voice up besides harnessing talents that would have otherwise remained hidden.
A total of nine teams for the boys and three for the girls playing seven aside battled for the Madaraka trophies that finally clinched at the hands of Beibei United who had an upper hand with key striking players and Pilipili FC on the girls’ side.
Dip FC, the runners up and third positioned Beibei City had enticing moments for producing the utility player, best defender and the goalkeeper with good diving antics.
Eight best players; four boys and four girls walked away each with a gift hamper that really motivated them. Jovial mood filled the air as they tried out their outfits and on TYSA Executive Officer’s note that best girl player would be taken for a training workshop in the capital - Nairobi.
And to sharpen more their claws, a general team selected from all the nine teams; Beibei United, Dip, Kawangware, Beibei City, Banana, Lion, Port and Makindu FCs took to their heels tussling with the East African Secondary Schools’ reigning champs Wiyeta Girls.
The match was sensational attracting a huge section of the community who braved the drizzling atmosphere to watch their boys play heroines. It was tight in the first half with scores maintained at 2-1. In the next half, the young boys’ speed, their greatest asset had deserted them resulting to a pulsating 5-1 goals with Wiyeta on the winning side.
“Hii mechi ilikuwa noma! Ningekuwa na ndula ningeplay better” (this match was tough, if I had shoes I would have played better). Commented one Peter whose striking efforts saw the lone goal.
TYSA advocates for children rights and wish to promote children in the local community by providing them with facilities that would better their future
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With the ‘No to Child Labor, Let Me Play’ banner conspicuous at the entrance to TYSA sporting Centre, a parent digested the message and could not hide his joy as he told another, “Wacha watoto wacheza, ni manufaa kwao”. Let the children play, it’s for their benefit.
Attachments:
EAST AFRICAN YOUTH IN SOLIDARITY WITH INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN TRANS-NZOIA DISTRICT KENYA
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, May 13, 2008 05:03 PM
EAST AFRICAN YOUTH IN SOLIDARITY WITH INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS IN TRANS-NZOIA DISTRICT KENYA
Many parts of Kenya particularly North Rift region were engulfed in unrelenting political violence arising from the disputed results of the December 2007 General elections. Ensuing protests led to loss of lives, property worth millions of shillings and displacement of over 20,000 people in Trans-nzoia East district specifically Geta Farm. These were hosted at the Noigam Kachibora IDP camp, where TYSA has been working for the last four months offering psycho-social support, sports & recreation, safe space for children, education scholarships for girls, child labour advocacy, peace building and youth empowerment.
This project will provide an opportunity for the East African youths to share knowledge and experiences and contribute towards dialogue, peace building, reconciliation and affirm solidarity with the internally displaced persons.
We look forward to your generous contribution to make this project a success.
Read the attachment for more details.
Keeping Hope Alive for Children and Youths Affected by Post election violence
Attachments:
RARE EXTRAVANGANZA
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, May 07, 2008 05:32 PM
Attachments:
RARE EXTRAVANGANZA FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS AT NOIGAM KENYA
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, May 09, 2008 06:42 PM
RARE EXTRAVANGANZA FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS
Pomp and excitement filled the air at Noigam IDP camp and the entire Kachibora Township and its environs as the TYSA organised activities got underway. Thousands of participants and the general public lined up on the Eldoret-Kitale Highway and braved rains to witness this rare street extravaganza. . We are grateful to TYSA for bringing us together by holding this event close to us-on the street. We always felt left out. We thought sports and other activities are only for the IDPs as many of them are always organised inside the camp. Said mama Koskei, a host community member
What was the occasion?
Celebrations for the international labour day (May 1st 2008) at the Noigam Internally Displaced Persons’ camp.
Activities?
Procession: Led by giant puppet and background music, hundreds of IDPs and local community walked for a kilometre, through the camp before finally settling along the Eldoret -Kitale highway for a three hour thrilling entertainment. I have never witnessed this kind of event in my 55 years; especially this huge moving and dancing thing (Puppet) said Mr Mogaka, an IDP.
‘Street’ Football: 16 teams of under 14 years participated in this “street” football. The players demonstrated high skills and prowess at this event. It was fun!! This was my first time to play soccer on the tarmac. When is the next! Commented Master Moses
‘Street’ Handball: 4 girls’ teams of under 17 years were very enthusiastic, as this was the first ever street handball activity to be organised at the IDP camp.
‘Street’ Darts: This event attracted over 100 participants mainly aged 45 years and over both male and female. It was a major attraction especially to the older people.
Face painting: For the first time, over 500 children from the IDP and the local community were treated to a rare experience of face-painting.
Rhythmic Gymnastic dance: A new concept of rhythmic dance was also on display and proved to be captivating.
Poems and dance: Mass dancing and poetry was one of the children’s speciality involving over 200 of them.
Lessons Learned?
 Through sports, music, poetry and dance, messages can be disseminated easily to a wider audience
 Given a chance, children have the capability to speak and express themselves
 Change of venue from the normal camp field to the streets generated a lot of interest and involvement of many parents both in and outside the camp. Sports can be used to influence children’s behaviour positively
 By using sports, peace and reconciliation is achievable as witnessed by free interactions amongst IDPs and the host community regardless of their ethnic backgrounds. We are grateful to TYSA for bringing us together by holding this event close to us-on the street. We always felt left out. We thought sports and other activities are only for the IDPs as many activities are always organised inside the camp. Said mama Koskei, a host community member
Who made it happen? TYSA, Child welfare Society of Kenya, Handicap International, International Rescue committee, Kenya Red cross, International Rescue Committee, Kenya police, Provincial Administration, Global giving (Keeping Hope Alive), Mama cash, Alive and Kicking Kenya, IDP Management, Children and the Kachibora community among other well wishers.
Attachments:
TYSA PROJECT RECOGNISED AND GIVEN NEW MANDATE BY KACHIBORA INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS CAMP
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, April 21, 2008 05:51 PM
TYSA WORK RECOGNISED AND GIVEN NEW MANDATE BY KACHIBORA INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS CAMP
Your continue support has made great impact to the lives of children affected by post election violence at kachibora IDP.This has made the IDP management to recognised our work and asked us to coordinate more activities.
For this reason we have established
SAFE SPACE PROJECT FOR CHILDREN AFFECTED BY POST ELECTION VIOLENCE IN KENYA
We believe the creation of the project would address the immediate problems created by the political violence. It would enable children to meet and socialise with other young people in similar circumstances and with trained and committed volunteers who would act as positive role models, and it would give them the freedom to seek help- both emotional and educational- independently of their parents or guardians, thus empowering participants to broaden their base of social support outside their family. They would be able to explore aspects of their own culture and community and the project would give them the opportunity to develop through trying out new activities and learning some essential life skills. This will go along way in making the children and community co-exist despite their cultural and ethnic backgrounds
We believe that child protection is crucial to ensuring that children under 18 years of age have the rights, confidence and environment in which they can make choices, express their views and communicate effectively with other children and adults. Children cannot become empowered change agents to improve their lives and that of their families and communities if they are not safeguarded from abuse, discrimination and harm of any kind, be it physical, sexual, emotional or neglect.
We as an organization have already demonstrated the power of sports in supporting children and youths in post election violence. It is for this reason that we have be asked to coordinate sports ,recreational and child welfare activities by the Kachibora IDP management.
Find more information about the project on our attached document.
Thanks for your support
Attachments:
OUR RESPONSE TO THE EFFECTS OF POST ELECTION VIOLENCE IN KENYA
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, March 26, 2008 06:15 PM
How we responded to the effects of post election violence
Due to the nature of and complexity of the effects of post election violence, we were only able to focus on the immediate and psychosocial based ones. Some of the psychosocial effects are: Trauma, School dropout, Rape, Idleness, mistrust, despair and apathy
Trauma We did organize interactive sports, recreation activities, one on one sharing, exposure programs, and solidarity gestures within and without the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
School dropout We worked closely with schools to admit children from the camp and or those who were staying with their relatives. Sought sponsorship to support secondary and college education for the most vulnerable girls who are staying the IDPs
Idleness Through organized sports and recreation activities e.g. Soccer, volleyball, netball and handball, many children, youths, women and men were kept busy at the camps. Various age groups eg under 9, 12,14, youths and women participated. Over 500 participants were involved in sports and recreational activities every day.
Mistrust With the support of the local community leaders, several sports for peace and recreational activities involving different ethnic groups were organized. The participating teams had representation from each of the various ethnic communities living in the area. The players and fans wore while ribbons as a sign of peace.
Despair and Apathy Besides sports, one on one sharing, exposure activities were offered to revitalize their hopes. The youths and children especially were offered opportunities to visit their counterparts outside the camp. This was either to play or just to share and refresh their minds.
Rape We organized for post exposure prophylaxis treatment, offered alternative safe accommodation for the victims and their children, food, clothing and Basic counseling. These cases were not in the IDP camps but in the communities, after what started as post-election violence gave rise to another evil of sexual violation in the community.
What are our successful stories?
3 girls from the IDP camps obtained secondary school scholarships
1 girl from the IDP camp secured partial support for college fees
Mentorship and leadership skills developed for one of IDP camp mobilizes
Managed to change the stereotype mindsets and perceptions that girls cannot perform better than boys or are only good at domestic chores. I almost stopped my daughter from going to play a soccer match. But now I am excited that she got a school scholarship for being the best soccer player. Said Mama Kwamboka.
Highlighted in the print and electronic media the plight of the sexually violated women and girls while offering them support.
Reduced mistrust among different ethnic communities through sports. We never expected that your team would turn up today to play against us. We thought you would think it was a bait to harm you. Said the team captain.
Involved the Kachibora Internally Displaced Persons in celebrating and marking the World Women’s day.
What needs to be done?
Reconstruction and resettlement
Farm inputs grants
Agricultural and /livestock Support programme
Educational sponsorships
Income Generating Activities support programme
Peace and Reconciliation
Psycho social support programme
Monitoring and Evaluation of various interventions
Attachments:
HARROWING TALES OF RAPE
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, March 11, 2008 06:58 PM
HARROWING TALES OF RAPE
The raiders are planning to abduct 78 women to cook for them in the forest and fulfill their sexual cravings
Residents of Bahati and Munyaka in Cherangany division, Trans-nzoia district, Kenya feel dejected. They feel they could wake up from the ‘nightmare’ but this is wishful thinking. What started as post-election violence has given rise to another evil in the community.
Jane (Not her real name) narrates her ordeal
‘Last week, raiders stormed my house just after we had taken supper’ she says. The gang armed with guns, ordered his family to lie down and ransacked the house. They took valuables and demanded money as they beat the victims.
The raiders’ tried to rape my sister in law but she thwarted them away. My in-law tricked them that she was HIV positive but the gangsters retorted ‘‘AIDS is what we want” my in-law became difficult and they beat her living her for dead. My brother in law was bludgeon on the head with a gun until he lost consciousness
The raiders then forced me and my brother in-law to carry the stolen loot to the Cherengany forest, nine kilometers away.
‘ We carried the loot deep into the forest on the way the gang raped me twice as my brother in law watched helplessly the gangster demanded by brother in-law to watch the act’
After a nine kilometer walk, the victims came to one of the dens used by the raiders where they were directed to leave the loot and find their way back.
‘We left the forest, but not without another round of humiliation. I was gang raped as my brother in law watched again. I begged them to leave me but my begging fell on deaf ears’
Because it was shortly after mid night, the two hid in the thicket to avoid meeting another gangster coming from their raids. ‘It was very cold and scary but we did not give up. We prayed and in the morning we went to the hospital.
In another incident, 16 years old student and her sister were abducted and raped repeatedly by the cattle robbers before they escaped
‘The bandits stormed our home and stole the livestock and properties before abducting us. They took us to the forest where they raped us for 2 days before we managed to escape, Ann (Not real name).
The traumatized girl now says life has lost meaning. ‘Why is life so cruel? Education has lost meaning and I don’t want to know my HIV status. My dream has been shuttered’
The residents say the raiders are planning to abduct 78 women to cook for them in the forest and fulfill their sexual cravings. Incidents of rape have become rampant. ‘After stealing the livestock, they vent their anger on women and girls, by raping them. The victims are often raped before their husbands, children and other family members. It’s a sad story ‘an area resident says.
Immediate Response by TYSA
--Organized for post exposure prophylaxis treatment
--Offered alternative safe accommodation for the victims and their children
--Offering food and clothing
--Basic counseling
We need the following Support for 10 victims of Rape
US$ 500: Specialized treatment
US$ 250: Trauma counseling and debriefing
US$ 300: Resettlement (Reconstruction of housing)
US$ 250: Supply Educational materials for children
US$ 150: Sustained supply of Food
US$ 100: Supply of clothing and bedding
US$ 50: Transport
Attachments:
Your Donations keeping Hope Alive
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, March 11, 2008 07:00 PM
22 children from the IDP camp at Kachibora had a rare treat from TYSA courtesy of your DONATIONS. The under 14 years old children were out playing soccer with their local age mates of Sinyereri soccer Team. They enjoyed themselves out the whole day.
"It was nice being out of the usual tent houses at the camp" --Wafula Eric
The sinyereri Team will visit the IDP team over the weekend of 8th March to celebrate the International Women day together.
Attachments:
YOUTHS PARTICIPATE IN SPORTS 4 PEACE
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, February 24, 2008 08:21 AM
12 Community sports team 4 peace participated in last weekend matches.The youths enjoyed themselves out.They talked about PEACE,Preached PEACE and lived PEACE. The community elders were there to supoport and encourage them to maintain PEACE.'Am very happy today to see the youths busy in the field playing.They have no time to think about evil an dburining peoples houses.We trhank TYSA and all donors for helping our youths' Mr.Henry Kibiwot the vilage Elder.
Attachments:
SPORTS 4PEACE KICKS OFF AT THE IDP CAMP
By Gichuki Francis - Executive Officer, February 06, 2008 09:36 AM
Over 47 under 14 soccer teams participated on SPORTS 4 PEACE Tournament at the weekend. Over 500 children were involved.This program is meant to bring together various ethnic groups in and outside the camp to realize PEACE
Attachments:
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