Every week when we go to the schools in Kibera, I’m blown away by our students. These girls are enthusiastic, bright, and always ready to learn. Whether we’re talking about financial management and savings or drawing on iPads (check out Kajani’s post about that too!), the students are just excited to be learning something new.

But the students aren’t the only ones to admire.  There’s a group of unsung heroes at each of these schools: the teachers.

When we arrive before the club, the scene at the school can only be described as chaos. There are kids running around, students getting ready to walk home, lots of playing and shouting, and inevitably there’s a chicken squaking up a storm. Then, out of the crowd, a teacher will appear, and although the scene does not necessarily quiet down, there’s a tangible calm in the air.

The faculty advisors to our clubs are so crucial to the success of our programs.  We simply would not be able to have EmpowerNet Clubs without their endorsement and support. The teachers we work with are passionate about providing for their students, and it shows in everything they do. As soon as we arrive, teachers like Mr. Jared at St. Juliet or Ms. Kwamboka at Kicoshep greet us with smiles. We always chat for a few minutes and discuss that week’s topic and any issues or challenges we’re having. Their guidance and advice is an invaluable resource to us.

The school administration at our schools don’t just help organize the EmpowerNet Clubs—they’ll participate too. And the girls seem to really enjoy when their teachers come sit in the clubs and learn alongside them. When teachers invested in the program, so are the students.

It takes an extraordinary amount of time and energy to make these programs work. The teachers and school administration deserve a round of applause for  ensuring the success of the EmpowerNet Clubs!

The program started early this year and we have been having the girls learn how to draw using an application called the brushes. We started by having the girls know what is art, different forms of art, its applications and how it is important for the art to be able to communicate the intended message effectively.

We had them know that the goal of the drawing is to help ZanaA do an animated video that will help explain what we as ZanaAfrica are and  they are in the best place to help us do part of that because they have been with us and feels the positive impact of what we do.

We started by having the girls do some hand drawing exercises to warm up for the preparation of the actual drawing on the iPads. On the actual iPads we taught them how to switch on and then going to the drawing icon called brushes. After that we went ahead to have them learn the different tabs of the application. This includes changing different colour schemes, shapes and sizes when drawing.  Lastly we taught them how to do a playback and how to save their work using their group names.

The girls have been very responsive to the activities and they really enjoy drawing on the iPads.  Actually they are or might be the only of a few schools that have been able to use an iPad in the whole of Kibera and this makes them very proud. One of the great things l like about this project is that l am learning a lot more about the lpads and from the girls too.

The teachers in the schools that we work with have been very cooperative and keen on following and wanting to learn more on the lessons. One of the teachers from St. Juliet learned how to draw using the brushes in about 30 minutes and was so impressed with the application.

This drawing program is so easy that it took me like 15 minutes to learn the basics of the program and it takes an average of 1 hour to teach the girls the basics. After that the girls are all ready to do it themselves with just a few directions here and there.

The biggest challenge we have in the project is lack of enough iPads and we have the girls share the lpads in groups and have to use them in turns so that everybody in the group can have a chance to draw something.

This is a great empowerment tool for young people which can encourage creativity and bring out the talents that they have.

Me and the girls are eagerly waiting when the actual video will be out!!

The Problem:

ZanaAfrica is committed to helping girls stay in school through sustainable innovation. Over 800,000 girls in Kenya miss 6 weeks of school each year because these young women do now have modern ways to easily manage their periods. Sanitary pads are too expensive, and homemade rags are awkward, uncomfortable, and ineffective—causing embarrassment that keeps girls at home.

 ZanaA’s Solution:

But there is hope. Academic studies in Ghana and Kenya show that providing pads and health education reduces school absenteeism by 75%. This simple solution helps girls stay in school, and ultimately reach a brighter future.

In 2012, we will launch manufacturing for our own locally-produced, affordable, eco-friendly sanitary pad. Designed especially for girls’ preferences, our pad is also innovative by delivering health and hygiene education on every packet.

EmpowerNet Clubs

In addition, we host weekly EmpowerNet Clubs in Kibera. We work with 110 girls, delivering pads and covering topics including health education, self-esteem, positive decision-making, and financial management. Girls also learn to share their voices by blogging and tweeting from laptops and mobile phones.

We would like to introduce iPads to our Clubs because the touch screen is easy to use and provides a wide range of opportunities through apps. iPads are also similar to mobile phones, which is the most common way girls are accessing the Internet.

New Projects

We are proud to announce our partnership with the graphic visualization experts at Alphachimp Studio Inc. Together, we are creating a short animated clip to describe ZanaA’s impact.

And we’ve pooled together an amazing design team to lead the illustrations: the girls in our EmpowerNet Clubs! Using iPads, girls will create digital drawings to represent how ZanaA and sanitary pads have changed their lives.

But now we need iPads! Donating your iPad directly to ZanaA will help girls explore technology and art. There is no better way to empower a girl than to help her share her voice.

If you are interested in donating, please contact kimberly@zanaafrica.org for shipping and tax-exemption details. To learn more about ZanaA, visit us online, on Facebook and on Twitter. Thank you for your support!

Loitoktok is a small rapidly growing town situated on the south west Kenya and about 15 Kilometers from the Kenya Tanzania border. The famous mountain Kilimanjaro is just a few hours’ drive and one can see Mawenzi and Kibo peaks glittering above on a clear day.

The predominant people in the area are Maasai but there are Kambas, Kikuyus and Tanzanians.  The major economy of the area is agriculture and tourism with the place having a one season harvest per year. The major crops are beans, maize and onions.

The place has a rich cultural heritage from the Maasai community and it’s the gateway to the famous Amboselli national park. This makes the place to have thousands of tourists per annum.

The 100 Kilometer stretch from Emali to the town has now been tarmacked by a Chinese company and this has enabled so many businesses to boom in the area. The area boasts a good number of primary and secondary schools. It also has an airstrip for light aircraft landings. There is a police station with a criminal investigations department, anti-stock theft unit and a border control unit.

I went to the town on Thursday where I helped with the arrangements, planning and general preparations for the great race.

I and my team of volunteers went down to Emali town on Friday night to camp in preparation for the big day next day. More teams of volunteers arrived on the same Friday night.

Most of the teams that were participating had already reported that Friday into the camp led by David Kinja and Eldoret teams. The meeting point was at a hotel called Maasai lnn at Emali.  I have never seen so many cyclists gathered at one place and having a chat about cycling events that have been done before and how they wanted to work hard to beat some of the professional riders in the event.

We had a bit of challenges in the camp when  the owner of the camping site decided to hike the price at the last minute after he saw the turnout of people but we manage to help him understand that the race was a charity event  and he stopped asking us for more money.

The camping site at Emali was so warm at night and I ended up using my sleeping bag half way on my body. I just managed a 3 hour nap that night coz my friends at the camp were cracking jokes all over.

The event was headed by a very cool guy called Faddy whose leadership skills were something to admire.

Finally the big day was here and we were up at 5am. The camp was down by 5:30 and headed to the registration point at Maasai lnn. It was a beehive of activities by 6am with riders coming in to register and get their tags and putting their bikes to the final touches. The entire town was now awake by 7am and gathered to witness this great event. The officer commanding Loitoktok police force was there on standby with his team of officers including the local chief. We set the Public address and some local songs were played repeatedly to match the mood. I informed the crowd about the reason behind the race and about the Teule children’s home. The race director Faddy made the final announcements by 9am and the race began. There was 91 registrations the oldest being 60 while the youngest being about an 8year girl. This girl was able to ride about 40 kilometers to the finish. She was really cheered by the crowd because of her determination and efforts as she was crossing the finish line. I was really touched by the dad’s determination to bring the girl all over from Thika to the event. For me it was a dad’s belief and support to the girl and I was challenged by his love for her daughter and l saw that girl going far with her life as a result of the dad standing behind her and cheering her up in her endeavors. Actually the dad told me that he usually takes her around whenever there is a race around the country during the school holidays.

After the race was flagged off by 3 Teule kids we drove back to Loitoktok ahead of the cyclist so as to go and help with the setting up of the Public Address system and other final touches for the grand prize giving ceremony.

The cyclists took about 3 hours to complete the 100 Kilometer race. There were three categories of the bikes namely: Black mambers, Mountain bikes and race bikes.

There were about 8 people who did not finish the race as a result of minor accidents and inability to keep up with the 100 stretch endurance. Some of these only made it up to 25 kilometers only from the start. The finishing point was at the police station in Loitoktok and the grand prize giving event was done at the Teule School just 10 meters from the away.

There were so many people who turned out to cheer at the riders as they fought the last sharp hill to the finishing line including all of the Teule kids, staff and volunteers.

The winner was a guy from the Eldoret team though there were other winners in other categories. This team has vowed to beat David Kinja’s team of professionals which they did. However David Kinja himself was overall 5 but he had an injury earlier this year in the Mauritius cycling event which made him not in his best shape.

The prize giving ceremony was awesome with teams cheering their team mates and friends who have done well as they were getting their prizes.

This to me was a race to behold and lam glad to have taken part of it to help it become a success courtesy of ZanaAfrica and I can’t wait to be part of it next year!!

Now imagine having an additional four years of that in the secondary school system and have just completed it? It’s another big yeeeees!!!!

Now we have a wonderful 8-4-4 system and that means that even after the 8 and 4 years in primary and secondary school respectfully there is still 4 more years if not more or less depending on the higher education system.

It’s now November and the exams from primary and secondary have been finished in Kenya. The students are now already in the celebratory mood of the holidays. This holiday will be the longest in the Kenyan schools calendar. The schools might be opened somewhere in the mid- January.

It is however unfortunate though that this promising students who complete the primary and secondary education tend to be pulled by the powerful magnetic of negative influence. This is consisted by mainly peer pressure mostly brought by the lack of information and ignorance. These negative influences range from drugs to sex experimenting among others.

This causes many young boys and girls to be pregnant, sick, addicted, liars, thieves and above all they become a menace to the society they live in. They become a disappointment to the parents who really worked hard for them and a betrayal to a society that they were supposed to make proud. Not only do they become unruly and at times chaotic, they become defaulters to the rule of the land and many end up either in hospitals, jails or dead.

The significant others to this young people cry out loud, why is this happening!?? As the society around ask, where did we go wrong!??

As time goes by they realize that it does not only take  good advice and character to avoid influence from anti- social activities but it takes good parenting and support to their loved ones. It takes constant good choices to fight this monster of negative pressure. It goes from just saying l love you to the sons and daughters but by to simply living it. It takes more than just what you tell but what you are doing when they are around.

It does not help much when you spend most of your hours at work or in your social clubs when your sons  or daughters are consistently crying out for your attention, love and approval,  then you reward them  with maybe taking them out or buy them expensive gifts as a reward  to cover up for the lost time. Well!  What this makes them is party girls and because you can’t take them out all the time they get to find cute ways to make that happen before they go back to school .What happens is that not only do they find “cool” guys or ladies in some of those outings; they find their “role” models who show them how to drink and smoke while experimenting with sex. They also realize that there are cool guys out there  who can also buy them cool gifts better than their dads does.

What I am saying is that to create a good healthy son or daughter with a strong foundation to face the constant pressures of life, you need to be there for them and with them.

If they are looking for role models you should be their first choice, if it is a friend then you should be their best friends,

As much as good it is to let your loved ones to be looking up to teachers, spiritual leaders  and other positive resources as  their cornerstone and pillars to which they base their lives on, then let them have you as the foundation and the basement to which   you become their point of reference in their lives.

We need to come up with a long term solution to help our young generation.

Well, this is the way l see things. How do you see them?

Being a part of the team of Social Innovation Fellows at PopTech last week was a transformative experience. Over the next month I’ll blog more about what I learned and the amazing folks from whom I learned. In the meantime, listen to the incredible Fellows about what we see “social innovation” to be.

What does social innovation mean to you?

Methanol is an industrial alcohol used in the manufacture of dyes and anti-freeze. It is added to the brew, known locally as chang’aa (“kill me quick”) or kumi kumi (ten-ten), to increase its intoxicating effects. It is a highly poisonous substance and as little as 30 milliliters is enough to kill a person, with 10 milliliters being enough to cause blindness. Those who died suffered.

The questions most people are asking is why can’t people just stop drinking? Why can’t people drink responsibly? Why can’t people make right choices in life?

I say those are genuine questions and concerns but we need to look at things more deeply and clearly. People drink every day in this nation, some take beer, some wine, others take spirits while others take the illicit brew which we can classify it more in the category of spirits.

This type of drinks will most probably depict the classes of people. Beer and wine is mostly drunk by wealthy and middle class people while spirits and illegal brews are drunk by the lower class and those people who leave below poverty lines.

The lower class is the majority in this nation. These are the people who earn a dollar a day, sometimes less or even none at all because they cannot secure a casual labor employment leave alone getting some formal employment.

Why are this group of people being the ones that drink more than the rest?

These are the people that have so much time in their hands because of joblessness. They are a group of people that will drink anything to make the hassles and tussles of life go away. A good number of this people is uninformed and ignorant about the basic facts of life. They see life being unfair and hence if they live for nothing, then if they die for nothing and with nothing, it is well and good because they will have nothing to lose.

Such sentiments depict a person whose self-esteem and self-image has been reduced to ashes.

Surely! What went wrong? Is it their fault? Are they just sick? Is it the government? Is it the moral decadence in our generation? Is it a worship disorder? Is it all about bad choices?

Tell me what you think and,

Join me on my next blog about this issue.

Some young children naturally develop this quality. Some people have thoughts and feelings of self-confidence because they have role models with self-confidence that they have emulated. Some people have had parents and teachers and other friends and relatives who have given them plenty of positive feedback. This positive feedback helped them see themselves in a positive light.

Confidence and self-confidence are learnable skills. So even if someone doesn’t yet have the confidence and self-confidence that he would like to have, he can build it alone or with the help of others. How do you continue to build your self-confidence? When you see that you already know something, that you learned something, or that you can do something, comment to yourself, “I see I know this,” or “I just learned this. Now I know it,” or “I see that I know how to do this.” Every time? Of course not. Just as many times as you feel is best for you.

Confidence means that you feel certain that you know something or that you can do something. We all start off in life not knowing anything and not being able to do anything. Those who are confident tell themselves that they know the things about which they are confident.

Being confident does not mean that you should speak in a tone of voice that sounds contrived, forced, pompous, arrogant, or like a show off. Rather, you can speak in your regular tone of voice and have an attitude of knowing things.

Being confident means knowing that you know some things and that you can learn many things that you presently don’t know. You can ask others for the information you need. You can ask others to show you how to do things that you can’t yet do. You can read books, pamphlets, or reports that give instructions about how to do things.

Being confident also means knowing that you can find people who will be able assist you when you can’t do something yourself. In many instances, a kind stranger will be glad to give you assistance. As long as you know how to ask, you can consider yourself confident that you can find ways to get things done.

If you would like to build your self-confidence, tell yourself, “I keep building my self-confidence all the time. I know much more now than when I started off in life. As I keep learning more things and have more experience, my self-confidence gets stronger and stronger.”

You don’t need to wait until you feel 100% self-confident. At any given moment, you can say to yourself, “I will speak and act like a person with balanced self-confidence.” Just speak and act like that right away. You will find that when you speak and act with self- confidence, other people tend to treat you with more respect.

Those who realize the value of every human being will always treat you and others with great respect. But even those who have not yet reached the level will begin to treat you with greater respect when you have greater respect for yourself. Self-respect is a birth-right. You don’t need anyone else’s permission to have self-respect. Claim it. It’s yours.

The first day I went to the training hall one of the facilitators did not know if I work with girls and was surprised to hear that  l do actually speak to them about  the issues that affect them positively or negatively as women including their body changes.

This training was one of its kind to me because there were only two men among 35 ladies, me and Amos. The uniqueness of the training was that it focuses on sensitizing young girls about the importance of them having a culture of saving when they are still young while increasing awareness to their parents and guardians as to why they should allow and support their daughters as they make these important steps of crucial life lessons about money.

I wish my mother taught me how to save. As I was going through the training I could not help but marvel at how much l wish l was taught when I was young. I “bet you” that if l started saving when I was young then chances are that I could have done so much including helping my mum to take care of some of my schooling monetary issues. Young kids from the age of at least 8 years will know about money through this program and have transacted with the medium.

I remember by the age of seven years l could get like 5 to 10 shillings from my mum for lunch and this was at times a lot because 5 shillings then was enough for me to buy something to eat to the full. If l could have saved about five shilling a day from class one to eight then I could have earned myself fourteen thousand shillings. Suppose this was earning an interest then it would have been more. Most people will tell you that they don’t budget and if they do, they don’t treat savings as a part of it. I learnt an important lesson that while budgeting, the savings are to be treated as a part of it. No savings means the budget is not complete.

This training has prepared us to be able to empower young girls in Kibera on the importance of financial management with the intention to create a social culture of saving. This training involves on allowing the girls have the feel of banks and how they operate. I can’t wait to see this girls being able to go to the banks and actually do transactions accompanied by their financial mentors (parents). Each of our 110 girls will be able to open their own account at no cost in September.

This will improve their self-worth and self-esteem because they will feel in control of their lives while increasing their sense of responsibility. The money they save can help them buy short term necessities like sanitary towels when their parents are not in a good position to do so. They can also buy more things like books, pens and pay for their own to educational trips that are organized by the schools.

My role will be a social mentor whose work will be doing the actual depositing of the money to the banks on the girls behalf after they have filled their user friendly documentation while speaking to them also about reproductive health and other social- life skills to enable them to be informed on making positive choices for themselves.

I see the young people rising to greatness in our time and it starts from now.

l believe it is possible!!  Do you?