I hope you are all doing well and keeping Safe wherever you are.
Just to begin with, we have had a wonderful time with Children in the field but not as much it is supposed to be in the work plan. The school Calendar has been disrupted because of Covid-19, many Children have either dropped out of school because of school fees or they are in the rural.
Another challenge is that the government through the ministry of education has given all teachers an ultimatum for all of them to be vaccinated by 24th of August, these has led to many Children missing classes because there are no teachers in school, which technically makes Children to miss after school football sessions. But the situation will improve as we move a long because of vaccination is being rolled out in different places in Nairobi.
As far as community impact program is concerned, it has been a good feeling to see Children again in the field playing and relieving stress that they are going through at this time. We are now working with a small group of participants compared to the previous years, we have ensured that there are hand washing stations, thermos guns and sanitizers an indicated by the ministry of health.
One the finding during monitoring and evaluation is the decreasing number of girls in the sessions, the decrease is coming from schools especially adolescent girls “many of these girls are helping their parents at home, to cook for the young ones as their parents go out to do manual work to feed the family”, said Mrs. Veronica of Brains wealth. This is just but one case on 4 schools that we are working with in Mukuru Slums.
As a community Coach, I feel for Children who are living these communities, there are situations that need more intervention to be able to support pupils to go to school, at times we ask ourselves whether to buy soap for washing hands or buy food, or pay for school feel. These has been one of the difficult moment in the lives on many young people who are leaving in challenging environments.
We would like to thank all of you for your support during these interesting times, through your support we have been able to keep these Children closer be giving them moral and psychological support to live one day at time. We are optimistic that as the vaccine become more and more available, it will ease the burden that the whole community is going through and eventually bring back the tranquility in our lives.
Time flies, the first quarter of the year has just elapsed, we have faced insurmountable challenges but our tenacity and resiliency has proved that tough times never lasts but tough people do and you are one of them.
We have had different kinds of moments that came as a result Coronavirus pandemic, Green-Kenya community coaches begun community impact program in February with an array of hope that they year will be different than the previous one, we had a total of 147 Children across three community schools and conducted 20 sessions. This was one of the lowest numbers of participants that we have worked with for the last 3 years.
Many Children were either stuck in the rural home because their parents lost their jobs, these parents could not afford putting food on the table leave alone taking their Children to school any more. Some of the parents were scared to let their Children attend the sessions. I have witnessed many of these parents at their weakest moments during these pandemic not mentioning how emotional and uncertain of what what is going to happen next.
Despite all these challenges, we have put a brave face while we were not sure what is going to happen next, many Children have experienced stressful moments especially during lockdown, just in case you are not aware of these, our program is taking place in Nairobi which the capital city, which is one of the most affect counties and just recently, the President had announced the secession of movement in and out of Nairobi, the good news is that the ban has been lifted, we are now looking forward to begin our sessions after reviewing Covid-19 protocols with youth leaders, physical education teachers and the stakeholders who are engaged in sport for development.
Having said that, Our community coaches have been going through a refresher training on how Children learn, the training is a bit different from the normal sessions where the coaches use cones and balls, it is about how to capture the attention of Children, different kind of learner, values and identity, values from Olympism and the biggest elephant in the room which is Safe guarding and Protecting Children participating in sports. The lessons are being conducted by one of our Board member Cliff Parry, who has over 30 years in education and working with Children.
I am looking forward to see the adrenaline of the Children once we go back to the field again, this moment will be one of its kind, Thank you for your big heart even during one of the challenging moments in our life time, we are in this together and this is the message that we will pass to all our participants when we resume.
To all of you, we say “Asante sana” / Thank you very much
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This story is from our Kick and Conserve Coordinator of schools, Mr. Silwe. I hope you are going to enjoy reading as much as i have.
Menstruation is a positive indicator that a girl is maturing and has potential of being fertile. A good step in the life of one day being a mother to either a girl or a boy. The others will follow; you know grandmother foster mother – can breast feed another child from another mother when in distress.
But the menstrual flow can be a disaster. Even the eve of it, if not well prepared can traumatize. I have seen this many times, especially in school environment. More so, if the community has added some taboo inclination to it. We have to prepare, prepare and talk about it and openly to potential girls that it can happen to them. My view is that it is better done when fellow girls talk to their fellows as they interact in games, discussions and even when they walk home together from school.
As a father of many girls; three to be precise, the boys are only two, I feel for them and want to help them and want to help all girls. They should be empowered to afford to get their shield (Cheap pads – homemade) we want re- usable sanitary pads, made by themselves. We want girls to design their own re- usable sanitary pads so that they do not have to worry at all.
We do not want girls to coin excuse to borrow money from taxi operators (bodaboda) hence take advantage and “defile” them. We want to counsel them not to blindly opt for “trendy” factory made where as they can make them by themselves.
We do not want them to stay away from school, games, and now that FIFA has allowed them to play even if on periods. The good news is that it only happens three to four days in a month, that is 4/30 > 0.13% days a month. Very minimal, can’t wait to see our project kick off especially in our rural and informal settlements.
No excuse for not playing", No excuse for not interacting," "No excuse for not being busy".
Patrick Silwe is a teacher at Thomas Burke Primary; he doubles up as the coordinator of schools during kick and conserve events
Happy New Year 2021
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11th September 2020, Nairobi, Kenya
TeacherDamaris is from House of Prayer Community School in Mukuru Kwa Ruben where most of our community impact participants live. She is an enthusiast when it comes to physical edication ; “teacher Dama” as most of the pupils call her, is also the secretary of Green-Kenya committee team that is responsible for Child Protection in all the schools in we work with.
“Teacher Dama” has been taking part in community impact program weekly; helping with marking the attendance book after the sessions and ensuring that participants return to school after the session as per the requirement.
Just before the schools were closed in early March as a result of Covid, “Teacher Dama” was 3 months pregnant; her teaching was her only income. During the food donation that Green-Kenya
Conducted, “Teacher Dama” was among those who benefited from the donation. She is now in need of prenatal and antenatal healthcare to prevent low birth weight and other complications.
“Dama” has been out our radar even when there was restriction of movement; Green-Kenya had weekly calls just to offer her mental support during challenging times. At the moments, the situation has eased a bit; there is no more restriction of movement and people can move from one point to the other to work and to seek psychological health.
For this reason, we hope to spend part of the donation of little by little matching campaign that will take place on 14th – 18th September to buy for teacher Dama some of the essentials she will need during this time of her pregnancy.
We celebrate you Teacher Damaris aka “Dama” and on behalf of all our participants, our volunteers and G-K family in different parts of the world, we would like to send our positive vibe. We are in this together.
When the government through the ministry of education issued an order to close schools indefinitely and issued orders to avoid crowds and gatherings of any sort, as some of the measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, Green Kenya had to suspend operations to comply with the government order on social distancing.
Sessions were terminated halfway the month leading to the cancellation of all the sessions. By the time the sessions were canceled we had 243 participants, conducted 15 sessions with 89% attendance of the sessions in community impact program from 4 community schools.
In the quest to ensure that we helped to flatten the curve in the spread of Covid-19, we had to activate our social media platforms in order to keep the conversation going. With the help of youth leaders and volunteers in Mukuru and Shauri Moyo slums, we were able to share posters that communicated about keeping social distance, washing hands regularly, and staying at home as much as you can.
Our volunteers also had a chance to distribute food to the most affect families especially in Mukuru kwa Ruben where most of our participants reside, with the help of Green-Kenya committee team which is made up of teachers and community elders, we identified 18 families who had gone for a couple of days with only one meal a day. The distribution of food was led by teacher Damaris who is also the sports teacher at the House of Prayer community School.
While we understand that it is and not easy to stay at home for people who are leaving in communities that we work in, we strongly advised the communities to reduce the people who are going to the groceries to one person while observing all the regulations of being safe at all times. Recent statistics show that the infection rate on C children has gone up because most of them are still playing together without any personal protective equipment, for this reason, we are putting resources together to purchase 1000 masks and Distribute in Mukuru and Shauri Moyo.
I choose to be a believer in this course, we have done it before during the sessions to create a resilient, young leader and environmental stewards, it is now the time to protect ourselves to the Novel Coronavirus. Are you onboard?
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