Provide Job Skills to Kenyan Slum Youth

Dear Friends,

We’re happy to send you another update on our actions to support the development and economic welfare of youth in Shauri Yako’s slums.

Youth Skills Training:

In June 2014, we recieved a donation of musical instruments from Nourish, a student-led organization at the University of North Carolina. We are now working with Nourish on the development of instuctional DVDs to teach youth how to play, and give them both an employable skill and the joy of music. We are also pursuing volunteer instructors and funding partners to help us expand this project. It is our longer-term objective to form a community band that can work for hire.

Thanks to Global Giving donors, we have also raised several hundred dollars to launch a computer and internet training project. While we didn’t meet our fundraising goal, we are able to bring internet connectivity into these slums for 5 months, along with a computer skills trainer. This is an enourmously important project, because internet connectivity is cost prohibitive for slum youth, who have little to no access to computers anyway. Through internet connectivity and basic training, we will be able to offer youth access to networks, employers, educational tools and – perhaps most importantly – ideas from which they are currently barred due to their economic class.

Reproductive Health Education:

Unplanned youth pregancy amongst girls as young as 13 years is a huge problem in Shauri Yako’s slums and contributing to child trafficking. Cases of stolen and abandon children are reported everyday. To address this issue, SYSC is working in colloboration with Family Health Options Kenya, who have provided SYSC staff with reproductive health counseling training so we can, in turn, support the community. We are also planning and seeking partners for a full reproductive health program.

Community Housing and Safety:

The population of Shauri Yako’s slums is rapidly growing, forcing people to build temporary housing structures along the Chania River and within the Mau Mau War cemetary. This is creating environmental and cultural pressures. In response, SYSC youth are mobilizing the community’s residents to launch a campaign to highlight these issues and pursuade Nyeri County goverment to find a sustainable housing solution. See the attached photos depicting local housing realities.

Fire disasters are common in the Shauri Yako slums, due to the use of highly flamable cooking fuel and building materials. Fire fighting is challenging because there are no roads within the slums and most houses here are attached. A SYSC youth volunteer group is now working with the Nyeri county goverment to educate residents on fire prevention and response. They are also exploring whether an emergency water point can be installed, or access roads be developed.

Lastly, we’re proud to let you know that the SYSC Scout Troop was selected to participate in the organizing committee for the International Scouts Jamboree in August 2014.

As always, we are eager to hear from you. If you have ideas or feedback on our work, please reply to this email. If you are interested in volunteering with SYSC here or from your home, we have lots you can do to help us help youth. And if you are able to donate, we would be enormously grateful for your support. We are small, grassroots, and dependent on the support of individual donors, but our impact is big for our size.

Sincerely,

Joe Mwai

Chair of the Board