"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." #KeshoKenya totally agrees with Benjamin Franklin. We do our best to offer children and adults access to education, financial, literacy and academic support and provide a learning-friendly environment accessible to all.
#Education #LiteracySupport #ResourceCenter ... See more

"I am passionate about debating, it is in my blood", says Mapenzi, one of our beneficiaries. She recently emerged position 3 at a national debate competition. Mapenzi imagines making a career from debating. Here is what she says in an interview with Kesho Kenya.

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚?

"It is normal to be nervous but I love composing myself. When I speak to a crowd of over a 1,000 people, I assume nobody is watching me. I also think of people who have made it in life, I get encouraged, start speaking and then all my fear disappears."

𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜?

"I am very talkative and I like English. When it comes to debating and I see how people express themselves and are talking in front of others, I want to be the one doing that. Who knows, maybe one day, I will be the president of Kenya because of ,my public speaking skills."

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙜𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙙?

"I was feeling like I am going to lose, I was not speaking at my best but I was encouraged when they announced me as the best presenter and was awarded. It felt so nice."

𝘿𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙧𝙚𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜?

"Actually, I don't practice. I only need to know what I am going to talk about. I ask myself, which style I am going to use on stage to get everybody's attention."

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣?

(Laughing) "You talk unique. You speak at your best. You use all the styles that you can, e.g. acting or making people laugh. I start speaking with all my passion. You have to know how to talk to the audience and who they are."

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩?

"It was when I went to St. Thomas for the national debate. All the big schools were participating. At the end, I was position 3. The other event was when I was elected Vice-Chair person of Kilifi County. To me, it feels I can be a leader in the future."

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙙𝙚𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙪𝙩𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚?

"It can support me to be more than I think about myself. I can be a lawyer, a teacher, a social worker, the president of the country. I feel like I can also make a career from debating. I don't want only one career. I want to be a lawyer, a lecturer, a journalist and a motivational speaker."

𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙮𝙤𝙪?

"Actually Kesho Kenya. When I came to Kesho Kenya I was shy. Through the trainings they offer and the smiles I get from staff when I am in the resource center, I am motivated to work harder so as to make Kesho Kenya proud. I thank them for moulding me into who I currently am."

#Debating #Competition #KeshoKenya #Career ... See more

Child Right Clubs(CRC) members of our project "Tackling Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children" (CSEC) participate in fun games and activities during theme days. In the event, members from project schools come together and compete in tomato balancing, netball, sac race and many other games. Furthermore, a theater group performed a skit about exploitation of children and their rights. All these activities aim at motivating students to be ambassadors in ending CSEC.
#TacklingCSEC, #ChildProtection Terre des Hommes Nederland #KeshoKenya ... See more

Besides the parent child reading sessions, our #Tusome project staff in partnership with class teachers in the project schools engage parents and pupils in developing literacy support materials such as word flashcards and charts. To further develop children skills, they are provided with picture prompts to develop their own stories in language of choice. The materials are then displayed in classrooms for children later use.
USAID Kenya #KeshoKenya #LiteracySupport #CreativeChildren ... See more

How best can one communicate effectively to children other than the use of entertainment? Our edutainment team performs a skit on child pregnancy, correct reporting mechanisms and various forms of child abuse as a result of parental neglect. Pupils from Milore primary are able to relate to the skit and share with the group together with our safeguarding team how they experience child right issues in daily life.
L'OEUVRE LÉGER #ChildProtection, #ChildRights, #KeshoKenya ... See more

Parents from Kararacha primary are pleased to see that their children are able to read fluently and want to be more involved in their academic journey, not only in school but also at home. To enhance this, our #Tusome project team organizes a parent-child reading session where they get sit with their children as they read stories out loud.
RTI.International, USAID Kenya, Kesho Kenya #Elimutuitakayo ... See more

We had the honor of being invited by Youth Theatre of Kenya to participate with some beneficiaries in a workshop at Kivukoni School. The children had a lot of fun doing exercises like "Help me, I am falling!", "Robot" and "Sculpture your partner" among others. The objective of the workshop is to give children a chance to express themselves, discover their talents and develop self-confidence. Additionally, Youth Theatre of Kenya selected young people who stood out to participate in a cultural event in Nairobi in October.

#YouthTheatreOfKenya #KeshoKenya #workshop #Kilifi #SearchForTalents ... See more

One of our SHINE project schools, Sokoke Secondary transform existing problems into projects. They drilled a borehole, constructed ramps for students with disability and started up a "cashewnut hybrid growing hub" which acts as an income generating activity. All these projects are initiated by the students of our integrity club. In our award ceremony, they received the prize of the best school in implementing SHINE against 15 other schools in Kilifi County.
#IntegrityAction, #KeshoKenya, #EACCMalindi ... See more

"We are grateful to our teacher for contributing to our bright future through education." Adult literacy students joyfully rehearse a poem and other art pieces to be performed at the International Literacy Day (ILD). Kesho Kenya will be at Mkwajuni Youth Polytechnic on 9th September to celebrate the importance of literacy in the community. This year's theme is "Literacy for Multilingualism and Inclusivity."
#ILD, #UNESCO, #Elimutuitakayo, #Inclusivity ... See more

"We tend to take matters into our own hands when we learn of perpetrators in our community", says a Watamu boda boda rider. During a discussion on child protection with our safeguarding team, the riders were grateful to learn the right reporting mechanisms. Additionally, they discussed child rights, child abuse, why it is so rampant in Kilifi County and consequences for perpetrators so as to advocate for behaviour change.

Since the riders are very often involved in defiling incidents, we would want to have them at the forefront in fighting against child abuse. ... See more