Drama, Dance, Music, & Sport for Kisumu Youth

Education can be the key to a child’s future.  We know this.  A country with a well-educated citizenry has a better capacity to be innovative and productive.  The Manyatta Youth Resource Centre (MYRC), principally funded by Equip Manyatta, believes in education and does what it can to ensure that its program participants can stay in school and thrive.  Achieving that goal can be complicated.

The new school year begins in January.  Primary School is theoretically free in Kenya.  Fees were eliminated in 2003.  However, the cost of uniforms, shoes, books, and notebooks can be daunting for low-income families.  

Secondary Schools have a range of fees depending on location and quality.  Uniforms, shoes, books, notebooks, copy paper, lab fees, breakfast, and lunch must all be paid for.  In many instances tuition must also be paid as well.  A recent newsletter for attendees at a good public secondary school in Kisumu stated the student was required to provide nine reams of photocopy paper.  Of course, if your math class requires a calculator, that will cost another KES 1950 (US $13.60) according to a recently received receipt.

School fees at “county” public schools in Kenya just rose from KES 40,535 to KES 66,023 annually.  That’s around US $460.  This cannot be paid over time.  Rather it is due all at once, in advance. This represents more than eight percent of the “average” annual wage earnings in Kenya (US $5667 according to CEICData.com).  The workforce in the manyatta communities of Kisumu earn much, much less than the average.  A family is also likely to have more than one school-age child, although family size has been decreasing.  

In spite of the challenges, the MYRC is doing what it can to ensure children get an education.  The MYRC is continuously advocating for students needing assistance.  Thanks to a recent anonymous donation, a number of our students received new shoes and school uniforms.  This will enable them to stay in school.  Wellington, whom we have been helping with fees and costs, is an exceptional student and the son of a struggling single mom.  He is now enrolled in his senior year.  

Of course, we are always thrilled to get donations of football equipment as well.  Recently a non-profit in North Carolina donated 21 pairs of football cleats.  These will help our young people play better on our stony home field.  You can see our older girls’ team is in good spirits.  Having fun with teammates makes life better!

Working together we can help the MYRC assist young people of the manyatta communities of Kisumu to get an education. Their lives and their futures will be better for it.  We look forward to knowing how their contributions to society will help improve Kenya and the world we live in.  We thank you for your continuing support!

In early October, the Manyatta Youth Resource Centre, (MYRC) principally funded by Equip Manyatta, was happy to host a visit from GlobalGiving representatives Kyra and Sarah.  They were on a mission to Kenya from GlobalGiving to learn more about partner organizations who work to alleviate food insecurity.  Much of their time was spent in Nairobi, but they were also able to visit us and other partner groups in Kisumu.    

Since MYRC’s early days, we have hosted a weekend lunch for program participants, their families, and others in the neighborhood.  People of all ages come to have a healthy meal.  During the Covid lockdown, the MYRC was a trusted partner for a number of governmental and non-governmental food donors who knew the MYRC would assure that their donations would reach the intended recipients.  These included schools and households.  

Food security is only one of many MYRC programs.  MYRC leaders took the visitors around the community, showing them households, markets, and landmarks so they would have a clear understanding of who the MYRC programs serve.  We shared our history and some of our achievements and success stories.  Along with computer training, photography, music, and film production, we have been partnering with local organizations to provide information about gender-based violence, communicable disease prevention, cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and malaria and the surge of sickle cell cases triggered by these infections.  We are currently focused on plans for our year-end Life-Skills Festival.  The GlobalGiving team promised to help us expand our network so we can increase our effectiveness even more.

The MYRC group included Victor, Junior Team Coach and Office Assistant; Caren, our Treasurer and Coach; Simon, Junior Team Coach; Benjamin, Coach and Communication specialist; Lenox, Computer assistant; Emily, Health Partner; Sharon, Graduate in Medicine and Surgery; Edelqueen, a Program Participant; Christian, Film and Photography mentor and Footballer; Byron, Film and Photography mentor; and Oballah, MYRC’s General Manager.   It was a vibrant interaction with an enthusiastic interchange of ideas.

We greatly appreciate the time that Sarah and Kyra spent with us and their insightful attention to the issues we face in our community.  GlobalGiving has been a strong partner for MYRC and Equip Manyatta since our founding.  We look forward to continuing to learn from each other in the future.  

Your contributions will help continue this work, both for the MYRC and GlobalGiving.  Thank you for your many years of support!