Protection Services for 100 Rural Kenyan Children

Beginning in August 2024, Mirai Future of Kenya launched this project with the goal of lowering the risk of early pregnancy and deliquency by offering a place (Nafasi) where young people and children from rural areas can relax, participate in interactive and playful activities, receive counseling to improve their life skills, and/or learn about the aforementioned topics (pregnancy prevention and deliquency). Because of this, we made the decision to run the pilot program over ten days in December of 2024. This is due to the fact that many chiildren and young people will be on holidays, which raises the risk of early pregnancy or involvement in juvenile delinquency. The project has so far involved four internal meetings where we have had in-depth conversations about how to develop advertising strategies, the project's timeline and outline, as well as the many individuals and authority bearers we will need to work with to carry out the activity. These sessions took place on August 9, 12, 15, and 19 of 2024.

We chose December 2nd –13th, 2024, as the official start date of the program, excluding weekends, with the goal of reaching 100–200 children and young people who are 11 years of age and older. They will have access to a safe environment where they can play, unwind, and gain confidence from important programs that provide them the tools they need to express themselves freely. In addition to offering group counseling, life skills workshops, early pregnancy and deliquency prevention awareness activities, and play items like chess, balls, and darts, the space, also known as Nafasi, will also serve lunch and snacks. In order to do this, we will begin searching for an appropriate location in September that will include each of these components to undertake the 10-day program. 

We have started disseminating information about the campaign, including the relevant meetings, activities, and initiatives we are taking to ensure the activity is a success, using our social media channels (especially English X and LinkedIn). The manager of Mwiso Rescue Center, where we support some of the children in accessing education through our individual support program, Anastatsia Nduku, was a recent interview subject for us. With a wealth of experience managing cases involving abused children, she shared key insights about the importance of running community sensetization programs to promote attitude and behavior change on child protection issues while simultaneously providing psychological assistance to children. This was one of many interviews we planned to conduct and share in order to give adequate background on the problems we plan to tackle and the necessity of these intervention techniques.

The interveiw will be made available on our social media platforms. As the program activity intensifies, we intend to provide regular updates on the progress of our activities as we head towards the pilot prrgram in December. Thank you for your unwavering support.