WITH LOVE FROM DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

 

 

Carlos Miranda Levy is a very popular TEDx Speaker around the world.. From Dominican Republic, to Tokyo, to Canada to Istanbul. He is an experienced internet and social entrepreneur who is now devoting his time to empowering disadvantaged communities through technology. His Market of Hope initiative, provides a global market for products made by local people from disaster ridden areas.

Carlos was in Kenya, not for another of his TEDx talks but on a mentorship session in SILOAM academy, which is one of the schools that we bring influential individuals to mentor the young generation. It is indeed humbling to have such a figure in our midist. We feel so honorable to have him spare his time and came to talk with the students at this school.

In this dark room was a whole multitude of people from three different schools who came to listen to Carlos. This dark room hosted 150students and 20 teachers who came to listen to the wise words of Carlos.

 

His message started with a very shocking statement of, ‘I don’t believe in helping people’

His massage on this occasion was ways in which we can eradicate poverty in our country. Carlos believes in never helping, but always Engage, Enable and Empower people.These are the major ways in which we can eradicate poverty.

It is about being innovative, working as a team and understanding our environment very well. Being innovative is not something very new. It is the way we think everyday about different things. It is coming up with a better solution for things that are at our disposal. Innovation does not have to be new, it is how well we improve the things that are in existence that make people look at your idea as something new.

This can be done by eradicating lazy culture. Our laziness can cost a lot of pain to the future generation, as they also adopt to that knid of lifestyle that leads to poverty. We need to be awake and make use of every opportunities awarded to us.

Carlos talked at length about, engaging which is coming together as a group and gathering information that can make the best out of an innovative idea that will later on become practical.

Empowering, which means to give power to people. Making them understand that they can. By teaching them the best ways in which they can sustain themselves. By giving them the best advice on how they can maneuver around an idea.

On this occasion he gave a challenge to all the students in attendance, of coming up with different ideas in which they could be seen to be as innovative. He gave the singers an opportunity to come up with a song, dancers, writers, story tellers, poets, artists and many other ideas and a competition would be held for the best group to make collaboration on a world wide platform that would include the young generation from Haiti and Dominican republic.

INDARAS ENTERTAINMENT

 

Faith indara(middle) takes a pose after mentorship

 

 

Faith indara is not new to our faces, as she has always yearned to be part of the mentorship sessions. Having learned so much from the talks that she was given in school, she is giving back to the society in the same way.

The last time indara talked in our forums she was a student pursuing a degree in Business commerce. As we talk now, she is a business woman with an entertainment business. She has a lot of work that she is doing and working with different people to realize their passion and talents for singing.

Faith Indara, being a young musician and an example to the young musicians that she helps realize their talents is making it big in the events organizing industry where her specialty lies.She is an event organizer and will make the best out of a simple event. She specializes in all events from, weddings, graduation, baby shower, homecoming, house warming and many others. She will decorate and make the event glamorous.

On this day, as she spoke to the young men of JOHN PAUL II secondary school, she talked to them about the different opportunities that the world has. She highlighted the following:

Opportunities- She talked about understanding oneself as a man. The world has lots of opportunities as long as one is ready to maximize all that comes their way.

There is no tolerance of lazy people in the world today, unless one wants to be a failure. G

Responsibilities- There are going to be numerous responsibilities as a man in the future. These responsibilities the world will expect you to tackle no matter what, and if you ran away from them,  then you are deemed as a failure. The most important thing to do is work hard, extra hard to get to the point where responsibilities will not be too much to handle

Consequences-There are consequences to every bad act that you do. Make sure that obedience is  a virtue that you instill in yourself so that you can be successful.

 

During this session we only talked to the boys since they wanted a chance to be listened to. On many occasions, we spend so much of time talking to the girl child ignoring the fact that boys also need an opportunity to be heard and talked to. They had so many questions written to indara and the team that came. We were able to answer most of the questions.

Teaching these young men to be responsible men in the future and in their young lives was the topic of the day. They don’t have people to talk to and end up messing a lot. Our happiness on this day, was to see these students happy and satisfied at the answers that we gave them.

NELSON’S FIRST, OURS TOO

 

Little did i know that on this planned beautiful Thursday September 19th i would be disappointed by the guest speaker that i had invited and known all week to come was going to be fixed somewhere else. She had been the perfect choice for this occasion i so thought, as STARAYS high school waited with baited breath for our first appearance and presentation. I immediately thought of Nelson, he had never mentored before and i thought it would be the best time fro hi to do this. I called him up to save the day since the other lady was not going to come. As an organization we had so much concentrated on bringing in proffessionals from outside that we alsmost forgot about the young mentors volunteering at KIF.

With a nervous but caragious Nelson he walked to the podium after my introduction and for the first time started his presentation. He smiled at the form four students who apparently looked older than him and greeted them. I had given him a wide but specific topic to tackle to these candidates who needed something from the ususal. ‘WHAT TO DO BEFORE EXAMS’ was  the topic of the day. Guidelines on how to tackle this had been given and he was to tackle:

1. Small introduction 2. The secret  of his success 3. personal use of resources 4. Discipline 5. How to read for exams 6. Dealing with previous failures

These were points enough for Nelson to tackle very wella nd discuss   with the students of Starays. Nelson gave a smile each time he started talking, tackling all the points so well and fifteen minutes down the line he had indulged the students in the discussion and forty five minutes down the session there was already a debate among the students on the best technique of revising for exams two days before the exam date. Nelson handled this very well as he gave many examples on revision, these options gave the students a reason to keep silent since all their techniques were met and conclusion was that ‘what you find best for you, does not always works best for another,  the best way is , when you realize what works best for you, you work with it’

One hour later, i was a proud person, having seen Nelson take control of the session on his first attempt was amazing. I am sure he made an impact to the students at this school. This makes me realize that, K.I.F molds aspiring public speakers to be more confident and eloquent in their presentation skills.

SILOAM FELLOWSHIP ACADEMY GET LUCKY

 

The happiness can be portrayed on the face of this young student as she recieves a book from one of our visitors.

Today we woke up with the happiness of getting into SILOAM secondary and teach the students pretty much about communication and networking. This had been a topic that we had so much prepared and wished to share with the students. As we prepared for this day, little did we know that we would have a visit on short notice from our friends from Growth hub. We therefore  got even lucky as  five friends who are Business students and are doing their masters degree came to visit with us . This had been a special day at the school because, after the communication session that was filled with wise questions from the students and answers from the knowledgeable panel of visitors, they were given a pen and notebook. This was a symbol of motivation from our visitors  as they appreciated the students enthusiasm for information from abroad, they were really happy to have time and interact and share about their different cultures.

We thank, Jeff, Rick, Michelle, Marie and Victoria for taknig their time off and visiting Siloam  secondary on a chilly saturday morning alongside the informentors mentors who are always passionate about mentoring.

MENTORSHIP AT MAKINA SELF HELP

 

The speakers were Joash, Mike and Adam who are friends of the organization.

They talked to students on communication and importance of networking in a very simple language.

we spent forty five minutes with the kids and half of the time was dedicated to the visitors to interact with the kids so the they could talk about culture in the slum areas

RED CARD CLUB AT JOHN PAULS: CRIME PREVENTION AND HOW TO AVOID ENDING UP IN PRISON.

 

Shibero is a professional counselor and runs an organization that deals with stress management.  On this occasion, she gave a special visit to girls of John pauls secondary school  to talk on a very important but usually ignored issue.

REASONS WHY WE CAN END UP IN PRISON

Lack of education- Lack of education is the most important thing that individuals can have. We should take care of our lives , 42% of women are going to prison nowadays and most of them are very young and not educated. While in jail these women even give birth. 53 children have been born  in Lang’ata women’s prison. This might seem like a very small number, but in real sense it is huge. The question is, Who will take care of these children when these women are serving their jail term? Will these children get proper parental care and education? Poverty is another thing that makes women to be imprisoned, poverty pushes people to commit crime e.g they are caught in theft cases.

WHAT IS CRIME? Crime is something that is against the law and the society e.g murder, rape, robbery with violence, kidnapping, drug and substance abuse, prostitution, loitering, child neglect and child trafficking among many others.

WHY DO PEOPLE COMMIT CRIME? • Peer pressure • Bad company • Poverty • Stress • Wrong relationships • Making quick money.

CONSEQUENCES OF GOING TO PRISON • One thinks of committing suicide • One thinks that God has abandoned them • In prison, there is bad food • One is teased and bullied • People live under a very unhygienic environment • One misses their family • There is a tendency of not being visited in prison.

HOW TO AVOID CRIME . One should get themselves into legal business .Respect for oneself is very important.One should not make others decide for them, they should be the final decision makers. Avoid bad company .Watch the kind of friends that we keep and walk with. Be careful with the relationships that we have. Avoid unnecessary loitering.

Her talk was very important and there was so much concentration of girls during the session. The girls also got an opportunity to ask questions that were relevant to the topic. This was a very important talk that we would like to take to the schools that we mentor. Little do these youths understand that going to prison is very easy

SPEAKER: SHIBERO

TALENT IDENTIFICATION

 

This is the first day that we went into Raila Education Centre, here we invited a speaker to talk to the students.  Sally Nandwa is a continuing student of architect at Bifa University and is also working with an interior design company. She enjoys drawing and has a passion for good houses. There is always a criticism on the houses that she passes around Nairobi and says that the first house that she will get to build will be the best. Sally enjoys mentoring young people so that they can understand the importance of education in their lives and would like to encourage young girls realise that courses like architecture are not only for the gentlemen.

Sally on this day talked about talent identification and these are some of the issues that she touched:

1. One should choose a career in relation to their passion.  This will be very easy for an individual to enjoy what they are doing. They will not get bored to do the daily routine of the job that they are doing.

2. One should not choose a career due to the pay. There are days when the pay will not satisfy their desire of doing the work every day. In order for one to find happiness in what they are doing, they should enjoy.

3. Individuals should identify  their talents before they choose on their career

4. One should get a mentor who is in the same career that they want to pursue, this will help with being guided on the way forward on pursuing this career.

Questions that were asked during this session were answered by the speaker, they were as follows:

1. Should an individual choose a career that does not go hand in hand with their talents- one should do what they are passionate about and not look at things in the basis of money. 2. What if an individual is not sure of what they want to do? If an individual is torn between different careers- one should look in the job market at the moment One should also focus on what they are really good at.

SPEAKER: SALLY NANDWA

THE RED CARD CLUB AT JOHN PAUL (II) SECONDARY SCHOOL

 

The red card club at John Paul II school today had the privilege of having Betty as their speaker. Betty works with  APA  insurance company and has done social work and community development in college. She currently has a pre-school that runs education programs in Mukuru kwa Njenga. She enjoys educating young people and has a passion for informing young girls on different subjects. Motivating young girls living in the slums on the ways of working hard towards the achievement of their goals is at heart. When we invited Betty to give a talk on issues affecting the girl child, her response was very positive and could not wait to come and interact with these young girls. She chose a topic of discussion which affects every young girl in high school level.

THE TOPIC TODAY

HOW TO PREVENT EARLY PREGNANCIES

Myth or fact about pregnancy 1. A lady can get pregnant by kissing or swallowing semen? 2. If a girl misses her periods she is definitely pregnant? 3. A girl gets pregnant when they have sex standing out? 4. A girl cannot get pregnant when they have sex during her safe days? 5. A girl can get pregnant the very first time they have sex? 6. If you take a lot of tea after sex you will avoid pregnancy? 7. The first semen in boys cannot make a lady pregnant?

What is the major causes of pregnancies? • When a girl sleeps with a boy and has sexual intercourse one gets pregnant.

The SWAT abstinence technique.

1. S-say no 2. W-why you are saying no 3. A-alternative, e.g watch a movie, go hiking, swimming etc. 4. T-talk it out Having talked on this topic, the girls were able to write questions on pieces of papers, thereafter, the questions were answered by Betty. We were not able to answer all the questions but promised to do that the next time we meet.

GUEST SPEAKER: BETTY NDINDI

Journalism Club

Journalism Club

Patience Nyange  a broadcast mentor with BBC, Nairobi Kenya,with the journalism club members on our Sunday session. We usually have sundays preserved for these girls to learn more on journalism skills. They had an opportunity to learn on this day the following: -what happens behind the scenes when anchoring news. -communication skills. How to pronounce words well. -How to give a the best report. -How to do documentation of the report. from having the raw reports to the final documentation. The editors are supposed to make sure that they are precise and straight to the point.

The girls had many questions for her. They were so curious and asking questions about what effort they should put so as to be journalists. We nurture these kids so that they are able to present on a weekly session in assemblys at their school. They get five minutes to read a report at the assembly ground in the morning hours. This is done every friday and therefore they need mentorship for them to give the best presentation. We are happy at the way things are and would like to have more journalists to come and give more exposure to these young aspiring journalists from the slums of Kibera. Thank you.

The Red card Girls Project

 

The Red Card Project, Empowering Girls from Kibera slums!!