Improving lives of 1000 girls in Nairobi's slums

With the aftermath of covid-19 still being experienced in every sphere of live including health sector and loss of livelihoods, VAP’s Employment and Entrepreneurship department has been engaged in digital marketing trainings. The trainings are targeting girls who have gone through various vocational training courses and are about to venture into their own businesses and those whose businesses were affected by covid-19 outbreak. A total of 15 girls have been enrolled into the digital marketing training where they have so far covered trainings on: Digital marketing and e-commerce, transcription and video captioning, writing and translation, data entry management and virtual assistance. Participants are now owning online work accounts in various platforms and are engaged into the second part of training. “I feel so proud to bring my business which was affected by covid-19 online and venture into online business where I can do marketing and deliveries to my potential clients.” Said 21 years old Fatuma.

Participartory Design Workshop

A participatory workshop targeting girls and young women whose businesses were affected by Covid-19 was conducted in Mukuru community. A total of 30 participants drawn from every area of Mukuru gathered at Mukuru community hall to weigh in their insights, opinion and share information towards building up a concrete bottom up approach that is tailor made to fit the target group. In attendance in the meeting was: area chief, Nairobi Metropolitan representatives, teachers and community leaders. The workshop helped in tailoring a psycho social support and Biashara Mtaani (Business in the neighborhood) activities which is currently implemented in the areas by VAP coaches. “This program is well on time given the fact that Covid-19 has really affected many people and especially the vulnerable group, girls and young women who could easily be swayed into other weird ways of seeking money including commercial sex.” Said area chief.

A new Employee At Quickmart Stores

21-year-old Batuli is the new employee at Quickmart chain of stores, Ruai branch this month of February. A footballer by DNA, Batuli got involved with VAP sports and life skills programs at the age of 12 years old right from the primary school, and into her secondary school. After her life skills graduations, she was integrated into VAP’s Employment and Entrepreneurship project where she was enrolled into vocational training to pursue bakery. Immediately after her graduation she was attached for internship opportunity at the Quickmart stores and ended up getting a job at the store’s bakery department. “Am happy for the life skills knowledge and the bakery course that I did while at VAP.Am now economically independent and supporting my two younger siblings: brother and sister with their school fees and books.” Said Batuli.

                                        Mental Health Counselors

In the wake of Covid-19 outbreak, a total of 8 VAP’s coaches were trained and certified to become mental health counselors and psycho social support care givers. The trainings have been so timely as most of the youth have been grappling with mental illness coupled with other disorders driven by the after math of covid-19 that has affected both their social and economic lifestyles. The one day training touched on various critical topics such as: self-awareness, developmental stages with key focus on psychoanalytic and Eric Erickson theories. In self-awareness, counselors learnt important background information on what makes up one’s personality and why personality defects are more likely to reduce one’s capacity to grow and develop as human-beings. Throughout the training, counselors got a better understanding of themselves, achieved their personal goals and ready to serve the youth in different programs as well as the entire community. “The knowledge I have gained will be additional to my current skills and will position me adequately to provide total support to the youth and the community, especially this covid time and beyond.” Said 20 years old Judy.

                                    VAP Participant Honored in the ‘Here For Good’ Series

Damaris who is a beneficiary of the ‘Breaking The Barriers’ project which was supported by Standard chartered bank, participated in the global ‘Here For Good’ series: life lessons of football filming with standard chartered bank, London office. The series was all about sharing their stories in relation to being part of the Goal program and experience with football.Damaris filming was done in her community here in Kenya where she does the football refereeing job, after successfully undergoing a football refereeing course under VAP’s Breaking The Barriers project that targeted girls and young women to venture into male dominated careers. Certified as a football referee by Football Kenya Federation, Damaris continues to inspire many girls and women in the football space and sports in general. As a way of appreciating the girls in taking part in the filming project SCB London office sent all participants each a porret of themselves extracted from the video engraved with a thank you and also an encouraging message from SCB.