Kenya
Climate Change (GG Green)
Updates from the Field - Provide Kibera Slum Children with 1500 Solar Lamps
Updates from the FieldUpdates from the Field (or Progress Reports) on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.com by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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Recent Updates from the Field
Visiting Liz Odera, Sadili's programs, and the interviewing the community
By Leah Ambwaya - Evaluator, October 14, 2009 12:19 PM
If the world has never seen the next mother Theresa, then you are in for a rude shock, believe me , I met one recently. This incredible woman has touched the lives on many, some call her mama, others call her Daktari, the kiswahili version of doctor, I call her Mama Hope and the list of her names is endless. This is Dr Liz Odera, simple and very simple indeed, from her way of dressing to her car and her hairstyle, very sportish though, you can be sure this lady is not anywhere close to having high blood pressure despite the amount of work revolving around her.
I met her an evening prior to my visit, for the monitoring exercise, my wildest of thoughts let me down. She was simple, humble and yet articulate. She kept her academic title away for this day, and kept my heart melting away, a few kids in school uniforms milled around her as we treated ourselves to a concorsion of sprite , ginger ale and fresh lemon. She introduced me to the kids as her friend. This made the kids feel at ease. "Tell my friend about yourself, she softly requested the two boys."
I could see the trust in their eyes. The two boys opened up and their story on how much Daktari has impacted positively in their lives. But they said," you must work hard in sports to earn the scholarships in this place. Once you are here you get the best. Mama gives us the best education. We love her," they say.
I try my best to provide a future for these children, It has been a sacrifice from my family and friends to come this far, it has been expensive, but we have no regrets.
I ask why she got herself into all this work. "We are a family that is blessed in academics and we wanted to share in our blessings with others and the best way for us was to reach out to these children, who would most probably never have seen the door to a school. So we gave it the best shot and here we are."
I keep wondering to myself why that level of simplicity, so I collect my courage and ask.
"You can only reach the groups we work with in simplicity and that has been my brand, I love being simple," Liz said. A few more kids hover around her and one of them is her daughter, she treats her the same way, makes introductions and then calmly but firm, tells her, "I will talk to you honey, when am done with my visitor," she tells her daughter.
This woman has extended her hands of love to many young people and facilitated lasting change in their lives. How do you survive all these? was my question to her, "I have learnt to delegate, the beneficiaries both present and past have given their all to serve, that is the only way they can give back to society, this is all about putting some value systems in our children. We do not only teach and train, but we mentor."
I am glad that I took my evening off to get to know this incredible woman, so I fix my formal appointment for the next day.
This woman, has invested in humanity, in love, hope and a future, and for her, I could tell, it is about others, not about her, in her whole life's equation, she came last, but fulfilled.
============================
Please download the full evaluation on the site. Here is an excerpt of what Leah wrote:
The clear focus on sports for mentorship of responsible future citizens of Kenya can not be underscored. Both beneficiaries and benefactors view the project with a lot of pride, they all want to be part of this success story.
The community talks well of the project.
The community offers free labor and time to the project.
The funds, have gone towards providing scholarships for vulnerable youth from Kibera slums in Nairobi, hosting soccer tournaments and provision of eqiupments to enhance social change amongst the youth, feeding program, training coaches and construction of toilets in Kibera (just to note that all financial records were availed to us for scrutiny).
============================
Interviews with community:
Faiz Magak
Says the relationship between Sadili and the kibera community is quite mutual and the benefits can easily be felt or rather seen on the ground. It is because of this that he prefers to talk less but rather invite visitors to take a field trip with him to actually have a firsthand experience on what’s happening and hear it verbatim from the horse’s mouths.
Faiz tells me “Sadili is a path for the youth leading people towards the light. Personally I wasn’t a sports person but now I am a sports enthusiast, so you can imagine what it can do to the youth.”
Kibera has some areas that had been completely ignored by other NGO’s but thanks to Sadili an area like Katwekera now has a toilet. He informs me that Sadili was actively involved in drawing the country’s sports policy where members of parliament are setting up sports centres through the Constituency Development Fund. He concludes, “you see all this things are visible - you don’t need to scream about them”.
Francis Isiaho
During our interview with Liz, Francis kept appearing on the scene to give our host updates and to us he was one of the normal beneficiaries, but this was not to be when I decided to have a one on one chat with him to find out exactly what he is being trained on.
Born 19 years ago in the slums of kibera Francis attended Olympic primary school but dropped out because his parents were not able to afford the kind of school that was being charged by the school.
During one of his strolls in the slum he saw banners highlighting a football tournament dubbed "nature in sports" organised by Sadili sports club. The tournament mainly involved children from the slums. He fell in love with the programme and has never looked back.
Francis later joined Raila Educational school where he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education where he scored 398 marks out of the possible 500. He joined Chavakali High school through the sponsorship of Sadili Oval. He sat for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in the year 2008 where he passed with a mean grade of A- and is soon joining the university to pursue a career in Bio chemistry.
Due to the demand of his career path, Francis has decided to give the programme his maximum time by being involved in various activities, Apart from being the rugby coach he assists in Soccer, tennis and is also involved in the after school programmes by offering tuition services to those students who are weak in science subjects, to Francis just to quote him he says “Basically Sadili is a bridge to greater heights if you implement the teachings and empowerment offered by the institution”
Francis is happy of have been the person behind the 5th annual langata youth soccer league which ran from 9th to 30 July bringing together 284 teams and among those who attended include The Right Hon Prime Minster Raila Odinga,The French ambassador to Kenya,Mr Abbas Gullet the sec of Red Cross. During the event over 200 trees were planted. Being aware of the kind of support received from Global giving ,he wishes Global Giving could market itself more for the world to know the kind of work they are doing to kids out there who think their life is hopeless .
I met her an evening prior to my visit, for the monitoring exercise, my wildest of thoughts let me down. She was simple, humble and yet articulate. She kept her academic title away for this day, and kept my heart melting away, a few kids in school uniforms milled around her as we treated ourselves to a concorsion of sprite , ginger ale and fresh lemon. She introduced me to the kids as her friend. This made the kids feel at ease. "Tell my friend about yourself, she softly requested the two boys."
I could see the trust in their eyes. The two boys opened up and their story on how much Daktari has impacted positively in their lives. But they said," you must work hard in sports to earn the scholarships in this place. Once you are here you get the best. Mama gives us the best education. We love her," they say.
I try my best to provide a future for these children, It has been a sacrifice from my family and friends to come this far, it has been expensive, but we have no regrets.
I ask why she got herself into all this work. "We are a family that is blessed in academics and we wanted to share in our blessings with others and the best way for us was to reach out to these children, who would most probably never have seen the door to a school. So we gave it the best shot and here we are."
I keep wondering to myself why that level of simplicity, so I collect my courage and ask.
"You can only reach the groups we work with in simplicity and that has been my brand, I love being simple," Liz said. A few more kids hover around her and one of them is her daughter, she treats her the same way, makes introductions and then calmly but firm, tells her, "I will talk to you honey, when am done with my visitor," she tells her daughter.
This woman has extended her hands of love to many young people and facilitated lasting change in their lives. How do you survive all these? was my question to her, "I have learnt to delegate, the beneficiaries both present and past have given their all to serve, that is the only way they can give back to society, this is all about putting some value systems in our children. We do not only teach and train, but we mentor."
I am glad that I took my evening off to get to know this incredible woman, so I fix my formal appointment for the next day.
This woman, has invested in humanity, in love, hope and a future, and for her, I could tell, it is about others, not about her, in her whole life's equation, she came last, but fulfilled.
============================
Please download the full evaluation on the site. Here is an excerpt of what Leah wrote:
The clear focus on sports for mentorship of responsible future citizens of Kenya can not be underscored. Both beneficiaries and benefactors view the project with a lot of pride, they all want to be part of this success story.
The community talks well of the project.
The community offers free labor and time to the project.
The funds, have gone towards providing scholarships for vulnerable youth from Kibera slums in Nairobi, hosting soccer tournaments and provision of eqiupments to enhance social change amongst the youth, feeding program, training coaches and construction of toilets in Kibera (just to note that all financial records were availed to us for scrutiny).
============================
Interviews with community:
Faiz Magak
Says the relationship between Sadili and the kibera community is quite mutual and the benefits can easily be felt or rather seen on the ground. It is because of this that he prefers to talk less but rather invite visitors to take a field trip with him to actually have a firsthand experience on what’s happening and hear it verbatim from the horse’s mouths.
Faiz tells me “Sadili is a path for the youth leading people towards the light. Personally I wasn’t a sports person but now I am a sports enthusiast, so you can imagine what it can do to the youth.”
Kibera has some areas that had been completely ignored by other NGO’s but thanks to Sadili an area like Katwekera now has a toilet. He informs me that Sadili was actively involved in drawing the country’s sports policy where members of parliament are setting up sports centres through the Constituency Development Fund. He concludes, “you see all this things are visible - you don’t need to scream about them”.
Francis Isiaho
During our interview with Liz, Francis kept appearing on the scene to give our host updates and to us he was one of the normal beneficiaries, but this was not to be when I decided to have a one on one chat with him to find out exactly what he is being trained on.
Born 19 years ago in the slums of kibera Francis attended Olympic primary school but dropped out because his parents were not able to afford the kind of school that was being charged by the school.
During one of his strolls in the slum he saw banners highlighting a football tournament dubbed "nature in sports" organised by Sadili sports club. The tournament mainly involved children from the slums. He fell in love with the programme and has never looked back.
Francis later joined Raila Educational school where he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education where he scored 398 marks out of the possible 500. He joined Chavakali High school through the sponsorship of Sadili Oval. He sat for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in the year 2008 where he passed with a mean grade of A- and is soon joining the university to pursue a career in Bio chemistry.
Due to the demand of his career path, Francis has decided to give the programme his maximum time by being involved in various activities, Apart from being the rugby coach he assists in Soccer, tennis and is also involved in the after school programmes by offering tuition services to those students who are weak in science subjects, to Francis just to quote him he says “Basically Sadili is a bridge to greater heights if you implement the teachings and empowerment offered by the institution”
Francis is happy of have been the person behind the 5th annual langata youth soccer league which ran from 9th to 30 July bringing together 284 teams and among those who attended include The Right Hon Prime Minster Raila Odinga,The French ambassador to Kenya,Mr Abbas Gullet the sec of Red Cross. During the event over 200 trees were planted. Being aware of the kind of support received from Global giving ,he wishes Global Giving could market itself more for the world to know the kind of work they are doing to kids out there who think their life is hopeless .
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Community Library Grows
By Dr. Liz Odera - Director, March 18, 2009 01:11 PM
The Community library now has about 300 books, and is finally open to the children. We still have a target of 3,000 books, and with your help, we will get there!
Pictures:
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NOW WE HAVE SHELVES!
By DR. LIZ ODERA - DIRECTOR, August 06, 2008 03:48 PM
LIGHT UP MY LIFE: PROVIDING CHILDREN WITH A FIRST READING OPPORTUNITY
Did you know that many children in Nairobi do not own any reading books, and often do not get the chance to read? Samantha Stonewigg has partnered with Sadili Oval to create a wonderful little library for estate and Kibera children who attend Sadili’s Sports for Life programme, to get their first reading opportunity. Sam plans to put together an exciting environment that will tempt children to immerse themselves in a world of books and also instill creativity through art. You can also contribute to this amazing project in the following ways:
1. Donate books that your kids no longer need. Just drop them off at your school and we will come and pick them up.
2. On average, a reading book costs Kshs. 300, so even if you do not have the books to donate, you can send some funds.
3. We recently received a television set, so we can now show movies as well, so we welcome donations of dvds and tapes.
4. Art materials, such as paints, paper, colour pencils and crayons are also very welcome.
We hope to open the doors of the children’s library and art room by the summer, and estimate that 1200 children will benefit from the learning opportunity
Did you know that many children in Nairobi do not own any reading books, and often do not get the chance to read? Samantha Stonewigg has partnered with Sadili Oval to create a wonderful little library for estate and Kibera children who attend Sadili’s Sports for Life programme, to get their first reading opportunity. Sam plans to put together an exciting environment that will tempt children to immerse themselves in a world of books and also instill creativity through art. You can also contribute to this amazing project in the following ways:
1. Donate books that your kids no longer need. Just drop them off at your school and we will come and pick them up.
2. On average, a reading book costs Kshs. 300, so even if you do not have the books to donate, you can send some funds.
3. We recently received a television set, so we can now show movies as well, so we welcome donations of dvds and tapes.
4. Art materials, such as paints, paper, colour pencils and crayons are also very welcome.
We hope to open the doors of the children’s library and art room by the summer, and estimate that 1200 children will benefit from the learning opportunity
Pictures:
Want to support this project's continued work?
An Update from Kenya
By Liz Odera - Director, January 24, 2008 02:10 PM
Great news: The French Embassy has donated enough money to keep many affected children eating for the next couple of months - hopefully, it will help stabilize them while all the chaos is going on.
In addition, they have requested that we assist with providing support to other groups in Kibera, Kisumu, Mathare, Kitale and Nakuru. Funds will be used to provide emergency feeding, build toilets, provide medicine for the sick and those with special medical illnesses, provide temporary shelter (now that the rains have begun), connect water supply, and chemicals to a district hospital mortuary. To do this, we will be working with organisations that include, Action Against Hunger, WOFAK (Women Fighting Against AIDS in Kenya), and Handicapped International. We are confident that this emergency programme from the Government of France will make a real difference at a time that many Kenyans are suffering and need a helping hand.
We are, after this stage going to need to do the following:
1. Look at ways in which we may build a soup few kitchens that will provide regular feeding for children only, to ensure that they can keep healthy. Establishing a soup kitchen will cost Kshs. 690,000 or US$ 9324 or Euros 7040.
2. Begin a healing series of counseling workshops, as many children have been traumatised by what they have seen and experienced, especially the girls. This can be done through sports and social workshops. This will require expertise, and would work best with qualified volunteers.
3. Donate towards schooling and books, to ensure that kids can continue to learn, inspite of everything. Schools have opened, but many lack the important learning materials. It will cost Euros 113 or US$ 150 per school to get shared chalk, exercise books and pens. We have isolated 34 schools within the worst hit in Kibera that are still active, at least in some reasonable way and judge that they will serve as the safest place for the children to be during the day (safety in numbers and better adult supervision).
4. Provide solar lighting to provide added security in an area that lacks electricity, which will have the added value of ensuring that children in the family can get to study. This is a part of this project in which we are hoping to provide a solar lamp each to 1500 families and after-school learning groups in Kibera, confident that it will serve to improve the learning environment and success of those families.
5. Seek clothing, toys and shoes that will assist children get through the Nairobi cold that has begun with the typical cold breeze. This has already started amongst Sadili's friends within Nairobi, and has made a reasonable impact, but much more needs to be done locally.
We are opening a well-manned coordinating office from Monday 21st January 2007 to ensure that all donations are well documented and a report is published to ensure proper accountability. We hope to run this office to the end of March 2007, when we hope that everything will have stabilised and most support services can wind down. We will, however, continue with the usual projects such as this one and the African Child Sport and Education fund (links given below).
Also do view our video at the link given below made by the children.
Sincerely,
Liz Odera
In addition, they have requested that we assist with providing support to other groups in Kibera, Kisumu, Mathare, Kitale and Nakuru. Funds will be used to provide emergency feeding, build toilets, provide medicine for the sick and those with special medical illnesses, provide temporary shelter (now that the rains have begun), connect water supply, and chemicals to a district hospital mortuary. To do this, we will be working with organisations that include, Action Against Hunger, WOFAK (Women Fighting Against AIDS in Kenya), and Handicapped International. We are confident that this emergency programme from the Government of France will make a real difference at a time that many Kenyans are suffering and need a helping hand.
We are, after this stage going to need to do the following:
1. Look at ways in which we may build a soup few kitchens that will provide regular feeding for children only, to ensure that they can keep healthy. Establishing a soup kitchen will cost Kshs. 690,000 or US$ 9324 or Euros 7040.
2. Begin a healing series of counseling workshops, as many children have been traumatised by what they have seen and experienced, especially the girls. This can be done through sports and social workshops. This will require expertise, and would work best with qualified volunteers.
3. Donate towards schooling and books, to ensure that kids can continue to learn, inspite of everything. Schools have opened, but many lack the important learning materials. It will cost Euros 113 or US$ 150 per school to get shared chalk, exercise books and pens. We have isolated 34 schools within the worst hit in Kibera that are still active, at least in some reasonable way and judge that they will serve as the safest place for the children to be during the day (safety in numbers and better adult supervision).
4. Provide solar lighting to provide added security in an area that lacks electricity, which will have the added value of ensuring that children in the family can get to study. This is a part of this project in which we are hoping to provide a solar lamp each to 1500 families and after-school learning groups in Kibera, confident that it will serve to improve the learning environment and success of those families.
5. Seek clothing, toys and shoes that will assist children get through the Nairobi cold that has begun with the typical cold breeze. This has already started amongst Sadili's friends within Nairobi, and has made a reasonable impact, but much more needs to be done locally.
We are opening a well-manned coordinating office from Monday 21st January 2007 to ensure that all donations are well documented and a report is published to ensure proper accountability. We hope to run this office to the end of March 2007, when we hope that everything will have stabilised and most support services can wind down. We will, however, continue with the usual projects such as this one and the African Child Sport and Education fund (links given below).
Also do view our video at the link given below made by the children.
Sincerely,
Liz Odera
Links:
