Climate Action Kenya Project #23930

Increasing forest cover through play in Nairobi

by Green-Kenya

Increasing forest cover through play in Nairobi

Project Report | Dec 14, 2021
Demolition in the Middle of pandemic

By Immaculate Auma | Project leader

demolished houses

Time really flies, we are in the festive session and on behalf of the Green-Kenya team we would like to wish you happy holidays in advance.

In the past 3 months, we have had memorable moments during the on field sessions with Children in different parts of Mukuru informal settlement, our community Coaches have worked tirelessly to keep Children safe while helping them to relieve stressful moments as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many students have not yet reported back in schools because of either school fees or because the family relocated to a rural home. We have had the lowest number of participants who took part in our programs ever recorded in the past 4 years. There has been a significant drop in the number of girls who attend the sessions which is a worrying reality.

“It is challenging to keep these Children in school without enough food that was there before and enough teachers, even though it is more safe to keep them here than at home when their parents are not around during the day” said one of the teachers.

As if this situation was not enough, the government through the county government came with bulldozers very early in the morning to demolish a huge part of the informal settlement which inhabits around 700,000 people with a court order. As a result of these occurrences, Green-Kenya convened a special meeting with the leadership of Mukuru kwa Ruben to discuss the security of the Children, their parents and property.

After a long discussion, Our community Coaches in consultation with the Green-Kenya committee team agreed to stop all football sessions in Mukuru community. Most of the Children who have been affected by the demolition participate in our programs. Some of their parents had to seek refuge in the community field where we conduct football sessions. “I think it is not safe for Children to go to the field at this moment because there are riots, the residents are demonstrating against the demolition, let their parents settle first” said Joseph Kip’ ngame Chairman Mukuru Kwa Ruben, Wesinya community.

The coaches are still visiting the Schools to talk to few Children who are present and assuring them that football sessions will be back after the holidays are over. The demolition has been stopped to give people time to look for somewhere to relocate. We are thankful that our participants are safe, though there were fatalities during the demolition. The Covid-19 infection is slowly going down, there is hope that infection rate will be controlled with the availability of vaccines in the country. The government of Kenya through the ministry of health have directed that no one will receive government services without being inoculated.

Community Impact Program Session

Arial view of Mukuru informal settlement

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Aug 25, 2021
Resilience amid tough times

By David Mulo | Project leader

CIP 1

I hope you are all doing well and keeping Safe wherever you are.

Just to begin with, we have had a wonderful time with Children in the field but not as much it is supposed to be in the work plan. The school Calendar has been disrupted because of Covid-19, many Children have either dropped out of school because of school fees or they are in the rural.

Another challenge is that the government through the ministry of education has given all teachers an ultimatum for all of them to be vaccinated by 24^th of August, these has led to many Children missing classes because there are no teachers in school, which technically makes Children to miss after school football sessions. But the situation will improve as we move a long because of vaccination is being rolled out in different places in Nairobi.

As far as community impact program is concerned, it has been a good feeling to see Children again in the field playing and relieving stress that they are going through at this time. We are now working with a small group of participants compared to the previous years, we have ensured that there are hand washing stations, thermos guns and sanitizers an indicated by the ministry of health.

One the finding during monitoring and evaluation is the decreasing number of girls in the sessions, the decrease is coming from schools especially adolescent girls “many of these girls are helping their parents at home, to cook for the young ones as their parents go out to do manual work to feed the family”, said Mrs. Veronica of Brains wealth. This is just but one case on 4 schools that we are working with in Mukuru Slums.

As a community Coach, I feel for Children who are living these communities, there are situations that need more intervention to be able to support pupils to go to school, at times we ask ourselves whether to buy soap for washing hands or buy food, or pay for school feel. These has been one of the difficult moment in the lives on many young people who are leaving in challenging environments.

We would like to thank all of you for your support during these interesting times, through your support we have been able to keep these Children closer be giving them moral and psychological support to live one day at time. We are optimistic that as the vaccine become more and more available, it will ease the burden that the whole community is going through and eventually bring back the tranquility in our lives.

CIP 3

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May 3, 2021
Sharpening the skills: Working with Children

By David Mulo | Project Leader

Time flies, the first quarter of the year has just elapsed, we have faced insurmountable challenges but our tenacity and resiliency has proved that tough times never lasts but tough people do and you are one of them.

We have had different kinds of moments that came as a result Coronavirus pandemic, Green-Kenya community coaches begun community impact program in February with an array of hope that they year will be different than the previous one, we had a total of 147 Children across three community schools and conducted 20 sessions. This was one of the lowest numbers of participants that we have worked with for the last 3 years.

Many Children were either stuck in the rural home because their parents lost their jobs, these parents could not afford putting food on the table leave alone taking their Children to school any more. Some of the parents were scared to let their Children attend the sessions. I have witnessed many of these parents at their weakest moments during these pandemic not mentioning how emotional and uncertain of what what is going to happen next.

Despite all these challenges, we have put a brave face while we were not sure what is going to happen next, many Children have experienced stressful moments especially during lockdown, just in case you are not aware of these, our program is taking place in Nairobi which the capital city, which is one of the most affect counties and just recently, the President had announced the secession of movement in and out of Nairobi, the good news is that the ban has been lifted, we are now looking forward to begin our sessions after reviewing Covid-19 protocols with youth leaders, physical education teachers and the stakeholders who are engaged in sport for development.

Having said that, Our community coaches have been going through a refresher training on how Children learn, the training is a bit different from the normal sessions where the coaches use cones and balls, it is about how to capture the attention of Children, different kind of learner, values and identity, values from Olympism and the biggest elephant in the room which is Safe guarding and Protecting Children participating in sports. The lessons are being conducted by one of our Board member Cliff Parry, who has over 30 years in education and working with Children.

I am looking forward to see the adrenaline of the Children once we go back to the field again, this moment will be one of its kind, Thank you for your big heart even during one of the challenging moments in our life time, we are in this together and this is the message that we will pass to all our participants when we resume.

To all of you, we say “Asante sana” / Thank you very much

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