Increasing forest cover through play in Nairobi

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.