Drama, Dance, Music, & Sport for Kisumu Youth

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!