Kibera Church of God Primary School

Kibera Informentors Foundation’s Gonsag Odero, introducing the career mentorship and leadership program to the students of upper class at Church of God primary school kibera.
This school is located in Laini Saba area in Kibera. Twenty minutes walk from the D.Os office. It is five minutes from the railway line. This school is young and only last year did they sit fro their first K.C.P.E examinations. It has about 150 pupils from pre -school to class eight. It is a christian school that the foundation of the teachings are on the word of God. Which is very inspiring.

Today, two of the mentors Eunice and Gonzag had a great day at one of our new schools this year. The students started the session with songs of praise to the Lord, which is a different thing from other schools that we have visited. Many of the students would like lawyers, doctors, engineers to come and speak with them. This will be very much possible for us to bring theses people to them. For them, it will be a whole new experience because, Simpy getting to interact with these people from different professions will be a great opportunity for them to learn more.
We will get to go to church of God primary every Tuesdays for the mentorship program.

Kibera Informentors Foundation

YOUTHS AGAINST  ALL ODDS IN KIBERA.

The lack of a job in Kenya and particularly Kibera is not a strange thing to come across.Young people both in rural and uburn areas in Kenya lack jobs,this makes them to iddle and roam around with no essenceto life.Most Kenyans relocate to urban to the urban centresi n search of jobs,in their pursuit for jobs,they end upin the slum areas such as Kibera where life is easier and cheaper.

A forty seven like minded youths decided to beat all odds and formed a young hardworking youth group by the name CHANGE MTAANI which means change the hood.Having looked at their poor living standards and poverty stricken backgrounds that they live in.The members of the team decided to bring change as their name suggest to their home area and also to reduce their iddleness.The youth group having assumed the many activities that have been started by different organisations and youth groups,these cheerful members have started doing many activities.

Their passion is to change their living standards and have something that they can b rag as their own and also to their hood.

These are some of the activities they have started,

1.Garbage collection-This is done around the homes.The members have decided not to charge at high price,because the people living in the area are poor.20kshs is charged at the end of every week

2.Garden in a sack-This is done in sackswhereby,sacks are filled with soil and fertilizers are put.Planting of vegetables like, onions,tomatoes and kales.When the products are ripe and ready for consumption,the youths sale them around the home area and homesteads.The money money got after the sales of these products are shared among the the members.This money helps in either paying of the house rent or day to day household activities.Some of of the money is also saved into accounts for better future projects.

3.Poultry keeping-Its is done in a wooden box where the members kept the chickens.They sell eggs and other products.

By Gonzag Odero.

How reading and Access to Information affects Kibera

How we can rally people to curb the reading gap in our societies in my view; Firstly, I agree with the fact that many people in our societies cannot read. I encourage schools, educators and parents to help identify the problem at a very early stage in the child’s life. Then find institutes, after care, day care or young students who can assist with reading classes, in a safe, healthy and conducive environment for the child learner.

Hence my involvement with schools and pre-schools where we teaching children after school how to read, spell, to understand what they read, and basically assisting them to do their homework. Sometimes parents struggle to read too, and therefore cannot assist their children with reading and completing their homework.

Reading for me, is the foundation of learning. Anyone with a learning problem has a reading problem. Once a person can read, and understand what they read, learning becomes easy which leads to academic success.

We know information is knowledge and knowledge is power. However, even if access to information is available, if one cannot read the information, than knowledge cannot be gained. That makes the person frustrated, who then loses interest to acquire information, which follows by a low self esteem and low confidence.

School work, learning tasks can only be completed successfully if the learner is able to read.

So really the only way to help is to detect a reading problem early, in a child, address it, to form a good basis for learning and academic success. Parents and teachers should be the ones looking for the signs of a reading problem and should speak up early so that a child can get the right help at an early stage of detecting the problem, if one waits too long; it is difficult to rectify the problem.

By Gonzag Odero.

Facts about about my hood!!!!!!

                                        

                                           Kibera

FACTS & INFORMATION ABOUT KIBERA

There are approx 2.5 million slum dwellers in about 200 settlements in Nairobi representing 60% of the Nairobi population, occupying just 6% of the land. Kibera houses almost 1 Million of these people. Kibera is the biggest slum in Africa and one of the biggest in the world.

Land Ownership

The Government owns all the land. 10% of people are shack owners and many of these people own many other shacks and sub-let them. All the rest are tenants with no rights.

Housing

The average size of shack in this area is 12ft x 12ft built with mud walls, screened with concrete, a corrugated tin roof, dirt or concrete floor. The cost is about Ksh 700 per Month (£6). These shacks often house up to 8 or more, many sleeping on the floor.

The population

All the people are African. The original settlers were the Nubian people from the Kenyan/Sudanese border – they now occupy about 15% of Kibera, are mostly Muslim and are also mostly shack owners. The other shack owners are mostly Kikuyu (the majority tribe in Nairobi) – although in most cases they do not live there but are absentee landlords. The majority of the tenants are Luo, Luhya and some Kamba – these people are from the west of Kenya. There are many tensions in Kibera, particularly tribal tensions between the Luo & Kikuyu, but also between landlord and tenant and those with and without jobs.

Electricity

Only about 20% of Kibera has electricity. UN-Habitat is in the process of providing it to some parts of Kibera – this will include street lighting, security lighting and connection to shacks (this costs Ksch 900 per shack, which in most cases is not affordable).

Water

Until recently Kibera had no water and it had to be collected from the Nairobi dam. The dam water is not clean and causes typhoid and cholera. Now there are two mains water pipes into Kibera, one from the municipal council and one from the World Bank. Residents collect water at Ksh 3 per 20 litres.

Sewage

In most of Kibera there are no toilet facilities. One latrine (hole in the ground) is shared by up to 50 shacks. Once full, young boys are employed to empty – they take the contents to the river. UN-Habitat and a few other agencies are trying to help and improve this situation but it is painfully slow.

Medical facilities and HIV/AIDS Clinics

In Kibera there are no government clinics or hospitals. The providers are the charitable organisations: AMREF, MSF, churches plus some others. They do a great job. All people are encouraged to have a free HIV test and if positive to take free generic ARV medicine.

Changaa

This is cheap alcoholic brew. It is widely available, very strong (over 50% alcohol) and made incorrectly, so is usually very high in Methanol. The cost is only Ksh10 per glass and after a couple of glasses people become very drunk. With over 50% unemployment in Kibera many start drinking early in the morning leading to problems of violence, crime, rapes etc. Several charities are trying to help by showing the Changaa makers how to make the drink less dangerous.

Drugs

Cheap drugs and glue sniffing are an increasing problem. Initially taken to alleviate boredom but then people find themselves hooked. A big challenge to the charities!

Abortion

Due to many men still not using condoms and the availability of Changaa, many girls become pregnant, at any one time about 50% of 16 to 25 yr old girls are pregnant. Most of these pregnancies are unwanted, resulting in many cases of abortion. This can be very dangerous, particularly in such a poor area as Kibera. Many charities are working on this problem.

Unemployment

Kibera is near the industrial area of Nairobi where up to 50% of the available workforce are employed (usually in fairly unskilled jobs). However, there is still an unemployment rate of 50%.  This is why the training and teaching of skills is very important.

Sport

Most young people in Kibera have nothing to do, obviously it is better for them to have the opportunity to take part in sport and several organisations are working on this.

SUMMARY FINDINGS

Kibera needs land/tenancy rights, housing, water, electricity, health clinics, education, employment, security plus much more. All these issues are being addressed to a lesser or greater extent by many organizations including the Churches, UN-Habitat, MSF, AMREF etc. Money is finding its way through from many international organizations including Gates Foundation, Bill Clinton Foundation, all the well known charities and of course the churches both in Africa and internationally. However, money cannot help without people to direct it – all the organizations require assistance. They all need intelligent, keen, willing, and compassionate people to help.

In the western world it has become common for many students to take a Gap Year out before or after university. More older people are now taking a year out. away from their everyday life. Many could work in Kibera where they would achieve a real sense of doing some good. Kibera is crying out for people to help.                                               

                                           

by Gonsag Odero