Drama, Dance, Music, & Sport for Kisumu Youth

As we move into the holiday season, we are grateful that the Manyatta Youth Resource Centre (MYRC) has managed to maintain our original programs of sports and arts while expanding the training and services we provide in spite of all the challenges in the last few years.  

While the MYRC continues to attract significant donations of equipment such as football jerseys and shoes, monetary donations are still very much needed. Principal funding for the MYRC comes from Equip Manyatta in the US. This money covers stipends for our coaches and skills trainers, our General Manager, who coordinates all the many aspects of the MYRC, team travel, workshop expenses, and rent on the office where so many activities are based.  Inflation touches not only those in the Americas and Europe, but folks trying to stay afloat in Kenya as well.  We need to be able to provide a reasonable level of support for the adults who are giving so much to the youth of their community so those leaders can afford to continue serving our young people. 

Consistent with one of our initial focuses, non-violent conflict resolution, the MYRC has created a series of workshops and team meetings focused on inter-personal relationships. In October, the MYRC hosted an event called “Understanding Consent.”  The discussion revolved around communication and how it can be challenging even among friends. The importance of openly discussing and respecting personal boundaries in a consensual and safe manner was stressed. Learning to talk about concerns and expectations are the key to helping friends feel comfortable in their relationships. This is one expression of the MYRC focus on “coaching boys into men.”

Another long-running success is our feeding program.  After weekend football practice, the MYRC provides a tasty and nutritious meal for both program participants and other community members. Our kids can count on that meal. It may not seem like a big thing, but every educator knows it is hard to concentrate on growing up and learning when your stomach is rumbling! It is also a time when our program participants can relax, chat, and bond with other kids and adults.   

We continue to make sure that girls and young women are a focus throughout our programming. A recent football shoe distribution presented shoes to girls enrolled in a local school. The MYRC has included girls and young women in the football program from Day One. This was fairly unusual when the MYRC first began. But following our example among others, many youth sports programs in Kisumu now also include girls and women.

Mentoring young women is an important MYRC function. On International Day of the Girl Child, we got together with our interns from the Kisumu National Polytechnic to discuss how to positively impact the lives of the less fortunate at the grassroots level.  The focus is on how to empower and offer support for girls who have been neglected and how to create a good environment in which they can mature. A formal program is not needed.  Each of us can reach out to mentor a girl child!

We invest time every month in strengthening our partnerships. Recently, we visited with our long-standing associates at the Blue Cross offices in Kibos to learn more about effective ways to reduce alcohol use among our youth.  We also strategized about street football as part of planning a jointly sponsored year-end event.  

In our last report we discussed the national election that was to be held on August 9. Kenya has a history of significant post-election violence that has rocked the country on several occasions, one of the reasons the MYRC has such a strong focus on non-violent dispute resolution. There had been an unusual situation where outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta was supporting his former opponent Raila Odinga rather than his own deputy, William Ruto. In spite of this, Ruto was the winner, although the contest was close. Ruto received 7,176,141 (50.49 percent) of the votes, narrowly beating his rival Odinga, who came in with 6,942,930 votes (48.85 percent). After a significant period of vote review, Ruto was inaugurated on September 13 as the 5^th President since Kenya’s Independence. Although the close vote created significant tension and some violence, we are relieved that there was no widespread chaos.  Ruto’s Cabinet Secretaries were confirmed and the transition completed on October 28. As our young people see that peaceful transitions are possible, we will continue our focus on providing them the skills to resolve conflicts through discussion, negotiation, and compromise.

Since its founding in 2009, the MYRC has created a broad array of vibrant programs for the poorest youth in Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya, on the shores of Lake Victoria. Many of these girls and boys are now leading productive lives as young adults using the personal and professional skills they learned by spending their time not on the streets or in some back alley, but on the football pitch, in the recording studio, making videos about Manyatta life, discussing how to avoid disease, drugs, and alcohol, and learning how to get along with their friends and family.  To keep all of this going into the future, we need your continuing help.  We need your financial contribution. 

Thank you for helping us get to this point. May 2023 bring a peaceful, productive year for the young people of the Manyatta Youth Resource Centre!

One of the hallmarks of the Manyatta Youth Resource Centre (MYRC), principally funded by Equip Manyatta, is the variety of programs youth can access.  Performing and Fine Arts, Soccer and other Sport, Business Education, Peace Building, and Non-Violence Training are all part of what we do.  After our beginning as a small group with big goals, we are now an integral part of the social fabric of the wider Kisumu community. 

Although the manyatta communities have many challenges, one can still find others who have an even greater need for assistance. In early July, the leadership of the MYRC responded to such a situation when we went to the Kisumu Children’s Remand Home and conducted a football workshop for some of the more than 60 youth in residence there. 

According to Judiciary.go.ke, the official website of the Kenya national judiciary, a Remand Home is a facility that takes care of children who are in conflict with the law.  The local Remand Home serves 11 courts in Kisumu, Siaya and Vihiga counties by providing custody for children.  It also acts as a temporary holding unit for boys and girls pending placement and those destined for rehabilitation.

In partnership with Crime si Poa, the Youth Safety Awareness Initiative, a grassroots organization that works to promote social justice and a crime-free society, the MYRC visited the Remand Home in July to conduct a Soccer Clinic. The day included basic soccer skills and drills, and motivational talks.  It was also a day of fun for the girls and boys and provided sporting skills they could use after the event.  One can hope that a spark of hope was lit in at least a few young minds.

Back at the MYRC compound, in late June ten of our older youth participated in a five-day Entrepreneurship and Business Skills workshop sponsored by US AID.  Young people in Kenya face high unemployment, limited social and economic opportunities, and major challenges to their overall well-being.  The workshop provided six young women and four young men with introductory business skills, insights in how to create and sustain a business, and encouragement to take the next steps to develop their ideas into viable business plans.  Participating in the workshop can potentially lead to applying for a small start-up grant from US AID.

Our youth also benefit from the generosity of existing local entrepreneurs.  Recently Inside Africa Fashions provided a generous donation of stylish Africa-inspired garments to our program participants.  The items ranged from women’s jackets and vests to colorful v-neck tees for our younger kids.  This woman-run local enterprise demonstrates that it is possible to create a thriving business with the right concept and good planning. 

The MYRC benefits from all sorts of donations.  A few months ago, DJ Benny Oyoo from Dallas, Texas donated a new professional digital mixing board to support our Performing Arts Program. Our recording studio has helped a number of musicians launch their professional careers.  The new equipment, which enables a DJ to plug in their computer or device and mix, fade, sample, and manipulate the sound, has been put to good use by our aspiring artists.  It has been a terrific addition to our studio.

Football continues to be a key component of the MYRC programming.  Our successful teams and players have attracted the attention of those who wish to help our players do even better.  Recently we hosted coaches and a multi-day skills workshop put on for us by Coach Jamie Fullarton, the management Board of Arkworth School in Yorkshire, England, and James Muiruri of Two Rivers.  The Clinic was one of a kind, very high energy, and the youths who participated learned so much, not only skills and techniques, but teamwork.  It’s these sorts of trainings that have helped bring our teams to such a high level of play and led so many of our players to be able to pursue a professional career in football. Our coaches have learned so much from them over the years.

The homegrown effort in creating the Kenya Legends organization to promote sport throughout the country has really taken off.  With the slogan “Donate One Ball Make 22 Happy” our MYRC partner recently had a huge event turn-out that brought much-needed new balls and kits not only to our teams but to many teams in Kisumu. It’s impressive how much Kenya Legends has achieved in a relatively short period of time.

One of our very first programs continues to be a mainstay of how the MYRC works for the community.  Every week after practice, the MYRC brings together the participants for a solid, nutritious meal.  It seems basic, but it is still much appreciated. All our young people live better lives for having a regular, decent meal.  

Finally, National elections will be held in Kenya on August 9.  Historically, elections have triggered significant levels of post-election violence, particularly in 2008-9 just prior to the founding of the MYRC.  There is still concern about the voter rolls, with well-documented levels of dead and duplicate voters on the rolls, and many others registered without the appropriate paperwork.  This leads to distrust in the outcome.  Although the last several election cycles have been relatively peaceful, recent realignments could also raise concerns. 

Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta is supporting his former opponent, Raila Odinga, thereby forsaking his own deputy, William Ruto.  Other interesting factors are Odinga’s age, 77, and his running mate Martha Karua, who, according to Wikipedia, is the first woman in Kenyan history to run for a national political ticket of a major political party. This means that a win for Raila's Azimio La Umoja (roughly translated as Hope for Unity) coalition would make her the first Kenyan woman Deputy President, and the highest-ranking Kenyan woman in history.

One can only hope that the extensive non-violence training our participants receive through the MYRC and the many peace-building activities they participate in every year will help keep our MYRC young people focused on their future hopes and goals and out of harm’s way.   

Thank you for the support you have provided through the years.  Without you, the MYRC would not be able to be the creative dynamo it has become for the young people of Kisumu. In a world much troubled, the MYRC helps bring peace.