Empower, Engage, Educate in Rural Kenya!

LitMoms learn and laugh! We have a new LitMom group who recently read "Wangari's Trees of Peace" by Jeanette Winter. Eunice, one of the moms shared, "Through the read aloud I have learnt that when I plant a tree, I should take care of it so that it can grow." Felistus, another member said, "I have learnt that when I plant trees, they prevent soil erosion and preserve soil nutrients that makes crops to grow healthy and yield bountiful harvest." The LitMoms, who meet weekly, read a story and discuss it. In addition, the LitMoms also create. As a way for this new group to get to know one another they created comic books about their life. For many of these mothers, it's the first time they have used art supplies and it is clear they enjoy using the materials.

Meanwhile, our student LitClub program is thriving. This is an afterschool literacy enrichment program where students create friendships, build confidence, read stories to one another and make art. Using the LitWorld curriculum of seven strengths, Belonging, Kindness, Curiosity, Friendship, Confidence Curiosity and Hope, these students learn together during this two year program while becoming readers. They are encouraged to check out books and to share the stories with one another. Recently, the newest cohort of LitClubs learned about kindness and love and created pictures to share with their family.

Finally, we were thrilled to have a special "Lit" Tour! The award winning and NY Times best selling author, Kwame Alexander visited Wamunyu with twenty writers, educators and librarians. Among the group was the Newbury Award winning author, Jerry Craft. Kwame and his group visited schools to inspire the students to be readers and writers and held professional development workshops for teachers and librarians. It was a joyful visit filled with traditional song and dance, learning from the Wamunyu Woodcarvers and Women Weavers, and many stories being shared.

Literacy is at the heart of learning, and Kenya Connect's multi-pronged approach is providing access to high quality books while also nurturing and teaching about the importance of reading with teachers, parents and students. Your generous support ensures that we can continue the LitMom and LitClub programs while also having our mobile "Magic School Bus" library visiting 35 schools for book check out. 

This summer, as you pick up a book to read, think about how your donation is providing books for students in rural Kenya to read! We are deeply grateful for your support!

Play is vital for development and education as it allows children, youth and adults the opportunity to use their creativity while developing their imagination and physical, cognitive and emotional strength. In the Kenya Connect Makerspace, we provide a supportive environment for learners to experiment, work together and learn through making. This also involves making games for fun too! Recently, our students did a guided activity on how they can create their own game using materials that are easily available. The activity involved learners between PP1 and grade 8 who really enjoyed working and playing together. They learned various lessons in the process and had an opportunity to actually think and share about different ways to use the materials presented to make a game. They made good guesses!

How good is your aim! They created the ring toss game using paper plates to make the rings, aluminum foil tube to make the stake and cardboard for the stand. They connected the foil core to the cardboard using hot glue. The paper plate rings were created of different diameters. They took turns tossing the ring into the stake/tissue paper core. It was great fun!

We tried aiming with the ping pong toss game using plastic party cups and a ping pong ball. In two teams, they placed the same number of cups on each side. Each participant on both sides took turns aiming a ping pong ball into a cup. The team that exhausted the cups on the opposite end won.  

Can we play with a balloon without using our hands? We used yarn and balloons of different colours. Students created a web and used a game where you mention your favorite colour, food etc before you threw a ball of yarn to someone else. The trick was to ensure that the web was spaced enough to hold the balloon and bounce it without using your hands. Students worked together to ensure the balloon doesn't fall and also close up any spaces that made the balloon fall. Afterwards they just played with the balloons as they normally would (throw and catch)

“Let’s see how good we are at working together!” I said. To experiment this, we used straws and different colour construction paper to play a straw sucking game. Students cut evenly sized pieces of blue and pink construction paper and numbered them 1-50. Paired into two groups, they helped one another identify the numbers in order and one player would suck the paper and carry it into a bowl. They took turns doing this and the group that finished first was the winner.

We also tried working together in a game we made using toilet paper tubes and yarn. The students organized themselves in 2 groups and on one end, I placed the same number of tissue cores. They worked together to ensure they passed along all the tissue cores from one end to the other. They first team wins.

This activity helped students learn how teamwork can make work easier and faster, how we can take care of our environment by upcycling different materials such as cardboards, paper plates, tissue cores. The students also learned easy ways you can make your own game and play by yourself, with family or friends. In addition to this, they learnt the essence of turn-taking by giving each other an opportunity to play. Since the activity was all inclusive, they learnt that helping one another is good and so is asking for help whenever you feel stuck. The upper grade students helped lower grade students in playing. They also got to learn new terms such as ping pong, stake, base/stand, ring toss and what they mean. For many of these students, Kenya Connect's makerspace is the first time they have used these types of materials for learning OR play!

Learning is fun, and thanks to you, we have incredible staff like Sharon Mwende who runs our Makerspace activities. Donations ensures that we have the staff and materials to provide educational enrichment in our makerspace, EdTech Hub and Library! We are deeply grateful!

We hope you have time to play in your life!