Support to 80 street connected Kenyan youth

After spending over 6 months attending our WOW programme daily our young people are preparing to graduate at the end of September. We will continue to work with them for about another 6 months as they move on  to their apprenticeship placements or work. Of the 22 young people who have been with us during this period 11 are young women. Two returned home and two we have assisted to be in secondary school. Two came to us from prison and two have delivered babies during this period. Some of the young mothers will continue to attend with us daily going forward as their babies are still young. Of the young men one has returned home to do agriculture. One is training as a barber, one has started his welding apprenticeship, two have began to train as motor vehicle mechanics and two have begun to train as motor bike mechanics. Two young men have begun selling second hand clothes and one is training to do nails and beauty. One has received a food trolley to sell street food with a view to returning to his home area. As we plan for continued working with the mothers and babies and some new youth we need to meet the cost of the apprenticeships. These include trainers fees, overalls, boots, tools as well as daily allowances for meals for the young people. Also house rents.

This week GlobalGiving is having its Little by Little Matching Campaign. Any donations this week from Monday 18th to Friday 22nd up to USD 50 will receive 50% match funding from GlobalGiving. I am aware that everyone reading this report has previously supported our project but if you should be in a position to give something further we will very much appreciate.

Thanks again.

Apologies for the delay with this update... WOW 5 group are now coming to the end of phase 1 of their period with us. Since February they have attended daily and partaken in the various programme activities. All of the young people have now moved away from the streets are now in basic housing. The next phase of the programme will involve them moving on to apprenticeships or small business. During this time we will continue to offer various supports to them. 

During this year we have been priviliged to have 3 Irish visitors Sr Frances, Eilis and Ursula spend time with us. Sr Frances and Eilis have been long term volunteers with us at VMM. Sr Frances worked with some of the WOW team in the area of counselling training and counselling supervision. Eilis brought her catering and tailoring skills to the project. A number of the young people can now bake lovely cakes as well as sew reusable sanitary pads and reusable nappies / diapers. Eilis also shared these sewing skills with the women at Kitale prison. For Ursula it was her first time in Africa. Ursula is a teacher from Gonzaga College in Dublin and among other things her legacy to WOW will be chess. She brought some chess sets with her and taught all the group how to play the game. Since that time the young people play it at the project base and at their homes with great vigour and passion. For Ursulas farewell send off we had a barbeque and an outdoor screening of the movie "Queen of Katwe" which follows the success story of a young Ugandan girl who takes up chess. The young people found the movie inspirational. There were many tears shed as Ursula departed. 

With this report we would like to thank all those of you who have supported this project on a once off basis or as monthly supporters. Without your help we couldn't do the work that we are doing. We look forward to sharing with you how the young people of WOW 5 fare when they leave our day service to the next stage. Our next report will also feature the WOW 5 graduation and introduction to the WOW 6 group. Thanks again.

During this month of March 2023 Dalmas and the team are carrying out assessments to decide who will be the participants on our next intake for WOW 5. Referrals are coming from former participants as well as those who may have been referred by other service providers. 

Since our last report we have employed a professional counsellor who works with us two days a week. We were also lucky to have the services of a professional counsellor trainer, Sr Frances, who was able to work in terms of professional development with Doreen.

During WOW 4 we had a number of expectant and young mothers and again during WOW 5 we will also have some young mothers. This brings a new dynamic to our work and what needs are there. During this period we have put up a shade which can be used as a creche as well as for other meetings and purposes.

A volunteer from Ireland, Eilis, has also been assisting with teaching the WOW girls how to sew resuable pads and childrens nappies.  

During the period most of the WOW 4 have gone to join training opportunities. 

During this period the World Of Work (WOW) 3 team, who had been with us since Feb 2022, graduated and a new WOW 4 group commenced. WOW 3 was our first group to have girls as participants. One of the girls, Joyce, was very happy to graduate in early October. In addition to receiving their certificate the particpants also received a photo album which documented, in pictures, their story through the WOW 3 programme. They also each received a mobile phone. The photos of graduation below show the colour, flavour and happiness of that day. During the period WOW 3 also participated in a number of events at Kitale Museum. These included World Tourism Day when the young people sang, danced and played drums. There was also the Sanaa ya Jamii festival when they participated and joined with a number of other young people and creatives. These days give our young people opportunities to interact and enjoy events which they would not normally be exposed to. On some of these occasions our WOW youth have provided the catering services for which they have received much praise.

By the end of the period of training all WOW 3 members have been housed and all but one are on attachments / placements or running their own small business. 3 are training as mechanics, one as a welder, two have been given street food trollies (following appropriate training), one boy has been taken back home to return to finish primary school, one youth is training in a restaurant and one youth has a luggage trolley. We hope to facilitate the remaining youth to return home to his grandmothers and to assist her in running a honey business.

With the WOW 4 we have taken in a bigger number of participants at 15. This includes working with 4 young women. We also have formally begun our Personal Development & Lifeskills programme with two sessions being facilitated each week by Godfrey. The other usual activities such as catering, horticulture, crafts etc also continue. A fun activity for WOW 4 members has been the two day Story Train event currently taking place facilitated by a team visiting from Nairobi. This gives an opportunity for the young people to share their stories in a relaxed, informal and supportive way. Drumming, movement and dance are also a feature of this exercise.

During this period we continue to partner with Kitale Museum and spend each Friday at the museum assisting with landscaping and cleanliness among other activities. A new activity during this period is our engagement with the Kitale Women's prison. Here we have made an initial donation of 2 desktop computers (photo below) and have began computer training sessions with the women there. This group in the prison includes one of our WOW 3 girls while one of the WOW 4 girls was recently released from prison. 

AMV would like to take this opportunity to firstly thank our team of staff and volunteers who day in and day out work to assist these young people to have a better life. None of this work could be carried out without the generous support of our well wishers and friends. We are so grateful to those who have donated, on the GlobalGiving platform, to our work with the street connected youth of Kitale. We know, because they tell us, we are making a difference in these young peoples lives. 

Since we last reported a lot has been happening at the World of Work (WOW) project. Over the past couple of months we have welcomed, for the first time, some girls into our programme. in addition to the usual daily activities on Monday and Wednesday we now have Hair and Beauty sessions with the girls. 

Last month one of our  WOW group 2 members Emmanuel died tragically. This was a sad time for the team and our members. On Saturday 11th June Emmanuel was laid to rest in an emotional and fitting ceremony attended by most of the street connected youth of Kitale. Following the burial we facilitated about 240 street connected children and youth to celebrate Emmanuel's life by going for an afternoon outing of lunch and swimming. 

We continue our weekly sessions at the museum for music and cultural activities as well as clean ups and painting of signs and murals.

Three of our current group have recently been housed and three have moved on to the next stage in putting into practice World of Work skills. One youth is running a small business selling second hand clothes and two others have begun learning the practicalities of the catering world.

At our compound we now have a German Shepherd pup, a kitten, 2 rabbits and 3 chickens which the youth now look after as well as the garden. 

On behalf of the WOW team we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have donated towards this work.