Economic Growth Kenya Project #7743

Provide Job Skills to Kenyan Slum Youth

by Shauri Yako Community Youth Support Centre (SYSC)

Project Report | Mar 3, 2014
Jambo from your friends at SYSC in Kenya

By Joe Mwai | Chair of the Board

Hello to our friends and supporters,

Here we are at the start of March. It is a lovely day in Nyeri town, sunny with a high of 28 degrees celcius. We hope that you have had a good new year thus far.

This is just a short report to let you know that we have continued to be busy making improvements to our youth drop-in and training centre, built last year through your support. Our top priority has been wiring the facility with electricity, and expect that Kenya Power Company will install the power line transfer within the next couple of weeks.

We've also been installing furniture and our newly serviced computers in the computer lab. This means that we are almost ready to begin offering the youth we serve with computer training again. Computer training is not a ready opportunity for the youth from this slum community, who often do not complete school and are busy day to day making ends meet. However, we recognize that even basic computer proficiency can signficantly improve their employability.

We are also continuing to ramp up for the arrival of university student volunteers from North Carolina, U.S.A. in May. These young women and men are coming to set up a music training program. Youth here are so excited have access to the arts, and our board is thrilled because of all the documented benefits that access to the arts brings, including increased sense of self-worth and a creative outlet to keep youth away from the negative trappings of streetlife (drugs, prostitution).

We are also installing a fence around the compound to reduce our vunerability to theft and planting trees and flowers to help with erosion before the rain starts.

Lastly, we're pleased to welcome new volunteers through the UN's Online Volunteers network to our team. Edel from Kenya and Zenith from Singapore are helping us to develop grant applications and seek organizational funders for our job skills training programs. If any of you ever wish to volunteer with or visit SYSC, we would be thrilled - hit reply and send us a note anytime!

With ongoing thanks for your support and interest in helping our youth to help themselves change their lives for the better,

Joe

Joe Mwai

Chair of the Board

SYSC

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Dec 3, 2013
Microsoft will match your donation for youth today

By Joe Mwai | Chair of the Board

Community kids outside their homes

Happy Holidays friends!

Guess what? SYSC has joined teams with Global Giving and Microsoft. We are lucky enough to be a part of their Youth Spark campaign. Today is Giving Tuesday and Microsoft is matching any donations we receive to support slum youth development beginning at noon, up to $1000 a donation (until the $250,000 in matching funds runs out).

If you are able to help SYSC this holiday season, today is the day to do it - you'll DOUBLE your impact.

It's been a big year for SYSC, thanks to you. We raised enough funds to tear down our old iron sheeting facility and rebuilt a solid facility and two-stall public toilet in stone and lumber. This means we have a permanent home for our programs and can avoid spending essential program funds on rent, our equipment is safe from theft, youth have a safe refuge from the street and the community has a new meeting space. Best of all, we all have new hope for the future. Because we are a part of Global Giving, we were able to build a partnership with The Project Solution and have just found out university students from the University of North Carolina will be coming this summer to teach music and computer lessons, through the youth-run organization Nourish.

We're excited for a new year and focused on fundraising for tailoring and welding job skills training. This will give youth skills in a high demand sector. According to Business Daily Africa, there is a massive shortage of technical skills like plumbing, mechanics, tailoring and welding, in the Kenyan economy because universities have been taking over middle-level colleges that used to train workers.

We know we can make a real difference in the lives of slum youth with your help. Here's a testimonial from Kenneth, pictured below with his wife and family:

"I am a volunteer for SYSC. I was born and raised by a single mother here in Shauri Yako slums 33 years ago, where I continue to live with my wife and three children. None of us live here because we want to. Life is a daily struggle. The government consider the community of Shauri Yako an ‘informal settlement’, which renders slums residents ‘invisible’ to the authorities and the town administration. SYSC is only organization that helps our youth to escape slums life and become independent. Our hopes and dreams depend on SYSC's success."

Thank you for your support. We've said it before, but it continues to touch us that strangers who do not know us are generous enough to support our cause.

To close, we'd like to wish you and your families' the happiest of holidays and share with you an old Swahili proverb: kutoa ni moyo usambe ni utajiri, which means 'giving is from the heart not from wealth'.

Joe

Kenneth and his family

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Nov 18, 2013
Progress on improving slum youth's lives

By Joe Mwai | Chair of the Board

Scouts troop meeting in our new centre

Hello friends,

It's time for another update on our work to improve the lives of slum youth here in Nyeri town, Kenya.

We're really happy to let you know that since we last wrote we have completed a two-stall toilet just outside the facility where offer we offer our youth drop-in and programming centre. For the first time, youth - most of whom are accustomed to sharing one pit latrine with 30 others - have access to a hygenic, modern toilet when they use our centre. This is an extremely exciting improvement for everyone, and we are so thankful to our Global Giving supporters for making this dream a reality.

The past three months have been active for us in the areas of fundraising and planning. We have submitted several new grant applications, thanks to the hard work of our new on-line volunteers. We have been researching the feasibility of growing bamboo along the nearby Chania river as a means of sustainable income development for local women. And our local Scouts troop has been brainstorming on ways to help the community and themselves. They are now exploring opportunities to train in first aid and emergency preparedness, with the goal of eventually being able to train others.

We've heard from our supporters that they like to hear from those we help. Here's another story from one of our beneficiaries. Is there anything you'd like to know about SYSC? Respond to this email and let us know.

"I have been involved with SYSC since I was 12 years. I am from a family of 8 children and a single mother. When our father left and my mother later lost her job, we did not have a home and my mom turned to Mama Mugo (SYSC’s founder) for help. I lived at SYSC when it was Mama Mugo’s Childrens Home. SYSC gave me a place to live and sponsored my education through secondary school. Afterward, through a SYSC donor, I attended a hospitality college, where I trained as a cook. Now I work for the Kenyan Red Cross as a cook. I am self reliant and able to help my mom and two younger sisters. I volunteer at SYSC once in a while, when I can. I want to give back because I owe what I am today to SYSC. I would like to see SYSC grow to be a bigger organization that can reach out to more youth and children because what they do is very important." - Nicholas Mureithi -

In conclusion, THANK YOU for your kindness and generousity. You are making a direct difference to youth who are isolated and receive no programming support from the Kenyan or local government.

With gratitude and appreciation,

Joe Mwai

Chair of the Board

Single mother's support group meeting

Our new toilet

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