College Application Workshop, Miale Award Ceremony, and New Paint Job

Last week CoKF completed a successful college application workshop with their high school scholars. Through out the four days of meetings, the students went over how to apply to both Kenyan and American schools and receiving financial aid. Each student wrote at least four drafts of an essay answering the question ‘Who are you?’ through a story. Many essays tended to include events from the 2007 election violence; being accepted into the CoKF scholars program; or basic tales of life in Kibera.

The workshop also covered interview skills, concluding with interns Drew and Brendan conducting individual interviews. The overall general feedback was great job answering the questions, but speak up! Everyone also made individual resolutions of joining another extra curricular and continuing to do well academically next term. By the end of the week, the university mystery seemed a bit less daunting and a lot more inviting.

Miale, another organization based in Kibera, kindly invited the high school scholars and CoKF staff to attend their end of break arts festival and awards ceremony. The event took place in the courtyard of the Miale campus, where they preformed dances, sang songs, presented artwork, and even had a fashion show. CoKF scholars were asked to be the judges of each event, and chose the top three in each category to receive prizes.

After the performances, four of the high school scholars gave motivational speeches to the Miale students on the importance of education. “We are all human, we all have the same capacity to think. Just because we are from Kibera does not mean we cannot do as well as those from the posh areas of Kenya”. After that, the Miale students vowed to do better next term, much to everyone’s enjoyment.

Throughout the many events of the past couple of weeks, a few painters have been hard at work preparing Red Rose for yet another term. The entire upper campus received a new paint job, and bookshelves were built for the library.

CoKF takes on new Hoya intern

Hello, my name is Brendan Thompson- CoKF's newest intern. I've recently completed my second year at Georgetown University, where I am studying culture and politics with a focus on African development. This past summer, while on a Georgetown program in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I met Ken. Inspired by his story and curious to learn more about the slums of Nairobi, I took him up on his offer to intern with Children of Kibera for the next four months.

My first two weeks with CoKF have been exciting. After being introduced to the various projects and becoming familiar with the area surrounding Red Rose Academy, I got to sit back and witness history as Kenyan's came out to (peacefully) pass a new constitution. With the promise of basic human rights, education and health care included, 95% of the people of Kibera voted positively and rejoiced as the final numbers were announced August 7, 2010.

Even though the students are on break from school, they are no where near a break from learning. Most of the students, both primary and secondary levels, come in to receive help on topics they had difficulty with last term. The determination these students have to learn will never cease to amaze me.

In the mornings I have been working with a few of the high school scholars with English- going over their latest term papers and trying to focus on how to better prepare for the next series. I've enjoyed refreshing my memory on the many and quite often idiotic grammar rules of my native language.

In the afternoons, once the grade fives and grade sixes have completed their studying sessions, we go into one of the empty rooms for a dance class. Dance, which is less of a talent and more of a passion of mine, has been a great way for all of us to shake off the classroom blues. We spent the week learning "Hoe Down, Throw Down", a Miley Cyrus mixture of country and hip-hop. The dance was a hit, and throughout the day you can hear someone humming the catchy tune.

In between tasks, I've enjoyed planning my first project- a week long workshop with the high school scholars on the topic of applying to university- both locally and abroad. During the week we'll go over the highly confusing college application process, focusing especially on essay writing and interview skills. The workshop will take place August 23-26. Reflections to come.

In other news- we have officially moved classroom materials to their new homes, opening up space for the to-be library and the new intern/volunteer office. Enjoy the pictures!

KiberaOnline Computer Lab Number Four

KiberaOnline Schools Project - This is our Computer Lab Number Four installed at schools in Kibera since 2008. This one is located at Ayany Primary School. The lab will provide Computer-enhanced education for more than 2000 children in 1st through 8th grade in Kibera, bridging the digital divide because all children deserve a quality and relevant 21st century education. Thanks to all our team in Kenya and supporters around the world for their support. Together we can make miracles happen!

Ayany Primary School a government school that CoKF is supporting by donations of books to their library, computers and staff to run their new computer lab as part of KiberaOnline Schools Project, and furniture for this improved learning resources room. The success of these children, is the success of all children and a better world for the next generation.

CoKF Poster Competition Judging

The 2010 Children of Kibera Foundation campaign, End Violence against Children! This week we had the posters submitted being judged. Participants were to submit a poster that displays the theme: End Violence Against Children. Posters should be designed to capture the attention of an audience by using bold letters, colors, and/or images. They also had to be creative and artistic but remember to make your message clear and bold.

This is the first stage to the BIG concert on the 1^st and 2^nd of October 2010 where the winners of the poster contest will be announced and all the Art work displayed for everyone to see. On the same day we will have Secondary Schools Students in Kibera show casing their talents in Dances, Songs, Choral Verse, Solo Verse and Drama all of them have to address the theme End Violence against Children. Goold luck! To all the students