Educating street children in the Mathare slums

Dear Friends,

“I need to be different, I want to be different, I believe am different. Leadership is about action and not necessary the post…” Kazuri, President of Mukumu Girls High School student’s body.

Currently in Kenya there has been an ongoing high school student unrest where at least 100 schools hav been set alight and property more than $5,000,000 destroyed in the process.  Many schools have been closed with 8,000 students sent home early in the process. Every day, around 5 schools are burned down by students in high schools.  The shocking acts of destruction of school and student property have led the country to seek answers for the causes of this delinquent behavior.

In our project, we have been involved with a pilot project within 5 schools where our students attend school whose major objective is to increase Students’ voices and expressions as responsible citizens who are aware of their rights, their influence and their responsibilities within their schools leading to better performance due to a better learning atmosphere.

This project has seen more than 3150 students engaged with elections of more than 200 student leaders elected on a platform of free and fair elections. 35 student leaders got trained in areas like conflict resolution and management, effective communication, decision making process among others. The life skills acquired helps in reinforcing and promoting positive behavior and attitudes that enable adolescents to overcome challenges associated with growing up.

10 student leaders were then afforded a trip to Germany where they interacted with Christian Herzog Schule student leaders and had even the opportunity to interact with the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party in Heilbronn and visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

We hope to cascade this to the other schools in the country.

Please visit a blog started by the students http://haveavoicehaveachoice.blogspot.co.ke/2016/06/how-to-make-student-leader-succesfull.html

Asante Sana

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Dear Friends,

Meet two teenage mothers who finished high school last year and are off to the university in autumn.

Lorna joined the project 5 years ago. At 17 years she had two girls already and she had up but given up hope. One of the donors to the sponsorship project was visiting and we happened to visit the family. Lorna was taken in for the sponsorship although she did not qualify within the criteria set for sponsorship.

Lorna has not disappointed and last year after sitting for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education whose results were announced early this month, March 2016. Lorna was able to score a mean grade of B – (B minus). This gives her straight passage to a public university. We are yet to know what degree she will be taking.

Vivian on the other hand, was a teenage mother within the Teenage Mother’s project from 2014 and graduated with a certificate in Hairdressing after 6 months of training. Vivian had dropped out of school in Form 3 after getting pregnant from a Rape incident in Mathare.

After the 6 months training in Hairdressing, Vivian went back to the village and enrolled back to a day school while working in the evenings and weekends as a hairdresser. This enabled her pay her fees and she too sat for her exams last year and scored a mean score of B – (B Minus). Vivian will be joining a public university in autumn.

Both girls had this to say:

Lorna “yesterday is history, I look at my future with hope, Asante MCFp for indeed my future is bright…”

Vivian “Who would have said a girl from the slums, whose life has always been dark would see the light at the end of the tunnel. Mcfp continue doing this to the most vulnerable and God will always bless you…”

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