CoKF April Camp

For the last week of April, Interns Joscelyn Truitt and Jackie Espana and former CoKF Volunteer Tamara Drossart ran a workshop for the ever expanding group of high school scholars. CoKF believes in taking full advantage of the time we have with the scholars during their breaks. We create a space for the scholars to bond and share their experiences at school, learn from each other and camp facilitators, and have fun while they're away from school.

Day 1
The camp began with a check in and a competitive fast-paced name game to help our new Form 1 scholars and CoKF veterans get to know each other. New students reported that their first term at school was "the best time of their life," but they were also missing home and naturally, still trying to find true friends.
The first day of the workshop was focused on catching up with each other and setting goals for the workshop. Students were able to do a self-portrait art project to exercise their self awareness. Students were encouraged to express themselves as realistically or abstractly as they wanted and to display physical features or personality traits that makes them who they are.

Day 2

Students warmed up outside with a yoga routine and shown some stretches that they could replicate in their dorms when they need help re-focusing while studying. Next, Form 1 students and older students were paired off to have peer interviews. Younger students were able to get first hand advice as far as how to deal with peer pressure at school, make friends, and keep grades up.

Older students were reminded what it felt like to start school, and encourages to relate to their younger peers, who Form 1's report are not always treated with respect from their elders. The scholars found this experience to be very valuable and shared in the group what they learned from their partners. They spoke about learning to deal with students who may come from wealthy families and make them feel inferior by keeping in mind the place they came from and the work they have accomplished even to get to school.

Day 3

Students thoroughly enjoyed their warm-up of "The Strong Wind Blows," where one person in the middle calls out a feature, and those possessing that feature must switch chairs in a musical chair fashion. The game went in interesting directions as the strong wind blew to a range of people either wearing a certain color, or people from a certain tribe or family make up, continuing our journey of learning about each other. Facilitators held a review of self awareness, peer pressure, and decision making lessons. Students learned practical skills on how to deliver assertive messages, verses passive or aggressive ones, through skits they performed for each other.
The rest of Wednesday was all fun and games as the scholars competed in a ring toss and three legged race before playing a friendly game of football. Winners were given prizes and everyone was handed out a chapter of 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa by Stephanie Nolan for homework. They were given the chapters of this inspirational book of personal stories to prepare for their lecture on HIV the following day. Students were meant to come back with questions, and an open mind to talk about HIV/AIDS in their community.

Day 4

Students warmed up with a game called "The Longest Line" where students split up into teams and must make the longest line with anything on their bodies. They also shared their beautiful self portraits from earlier in the with each other, pointing out symbols in their art and why they chose to use them.


Trained HIV educators Ann and Eric gave an inspiring and informative lecture on HIV/AIDS. Scholars asked many questions about the origin, prevention, and prevalence of HIV. Ann and Eric discussed stigma as the greatest killer when it comes to people living in HIV and encouraged students to take responsibility for their own health and the health of their community by getting themselves tested. In fact, students had so many questions for their fellow Kenyan educators, that they were lucky enough to have our generous guests come back the following morning to wrap up the discussion!

Day 5

After Ann and Eric left, we continued to discuss the people they read about in 28 Stories. Students were able to put themselves in someone elses shoes and learn what it really felt like to contract the virus. They discussed the reactions of the people's families and communities, how those infected dealt with their new lives, and what inspirational changes came from some of their diagnoses.

Scholars ended their week together by reflecting on what a positive Kibera would look like, and turned their ideas into a mural. They worked together to plan out their mural and used paints, pencils, glitter, and other mediums to create a beautiful collective piece.

And of course we had fun during chai breaks!

We hope our scholars have a wonderful second term and have more to share at the next workshop!