|
Moving Young People into Education and Jobs - |
July/August 2011 |
KYEEI Update
The Kenya Youth Empowerment and Employment Initiative will celebrate its first birthday this month. We reflect several successes, challenges, and new directions that have been part of the first year. Below you will read more about what Kenyan youth have been doing over the last year and a vision for where they are going. There were several successful events in July including the launch of the empowerMEnetwork, a value addition training with an agricultural youth group: Janibichi, and also preparations for SlumFest, an annual event organized by the Slumcode group in Huruma. KYEEI staff and partners will be travelling around Kenya in August. We will be meeting with youth groups in Samburu, Garissa, Voi, and Nairobi. If you would like us to meet with your youth group, please email us here.
Several of the public and private guests committed to supporting the empowerME network. The supporters are: Abdul Sidi: Abdul Sidi Rally Academy, Stephen Oland:International Justice Mission, Prof. Leah Marangu: ANU, Mr. George Yogo, Martha Bore: MOYAS, Dan Leteipa: ClarityAfrica.com, Catherine Nyawira, and Siprose Rabach: Africa Inland Church. KYEEI and the empowerMEnetwork would like to thank all of these participants for their support and commitment to Kenyan youth. The presentations at the launch event focused on the day’s theme inspire me, connect me , empowerme...wakati ni wangu. One of the youth members (Eve: Face of Value Addition Workshop Entrepreneurship Seminar Report at USIU on 29TH July, 2011
Reported by: Wycliff Ogutu Kourage Launch: Kenya’s First Running Apparel Brand Joseph Kisuli, 23, Kourage Athletics fashion designer said, “We combined the fit of your favorite t-shirt with the best performance fabric in the world. Kenyan runners are world-class. We wanted to create an equally impressive garment.” Hussein Kurji, head of Kourage Athletics Kenyan operations remarked, “We tested Kourage Athletics garments under extreme conditions, in snow on Mt. Kenya and in the heat of the Maasai Mara. Kourage Athletics garments are perfect for any athletic endeavor.” Kourage Athletics doesn’t just want to sell apparel, the organization seeks to change lives in Kenya. Revenue from each Kourage Athletics garment is injected into the Kenyan economy with the goal of creating jobs within Kenya. Chris Markl, 31, Head of the firm’s American operations said, “From our garment’s fit and feel, to our organization’s commitment and ideals, Kourage makes you feel good.” Why the name Kourage? “Kourage is about doing something outside of one's comfort zone: going back to school, training for a 5k or a marathon, traveling outside of one’s country for the first time. Kourage is how we change the world,” said Markl. Kourage Athletics garments are for sale exclusively at kourage.org. For more information about Kourage: contact Hussein Kurji at seinium@gmail.com or 0733826506. SlumFest Slumcode will be hosting its 5th Slumfest on 15th October 2011. The event is organized to showcase, display and also acts as a platform bringing together community-based groups of young innovators, entrepreneurs, artisans, artists, health and advocacy groups, academia and business community to a one day full house to discuss development issues, network and market products and services. Slumcodes partners include, Community Outreach Programme of the Strathmore University, Kenya Youth Employment and Empowerment Initiative, Hope World Wide Kenya, Youth Peer Education Electronic Resource – YPEER (K), Kenya Model United Nations, The Positive World, and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. For more information about the Slumfest please contact Albert Nashon on email albertnashon@gmail.com or phone 0722604451 or visit www.slumcode.org. |
On 8th July 2011, the empowerMEnetwork launch event was held at Serena Hotel, Nairobi. The event brought together 10 empowerMEnetwork youth groups with three representatives from each group. There were also participants from both the Public and Private Sector in attendance. There were several presentations at this event including: Professor Leah Marangu: Vice Chancellor of Africa Nazarene University (ANU), Linda Ethangatta: KYEEI Director, Benson Kimithi: Youth Development Program Specialist for the Yes Youth Can program with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Ken Njiru of Ungwana Initiative. The guest speaker was Mr. George Yogo, a Motivational Speaker and Author on motivational issues and self driven entrepreneurship from the Prime Ministers Office. 
Kenya) thanked all present for their support in making the event a success. She specifically thanked Eddie and Shimika Kennison for their inspiration and valued mentorship during their visit in Kenya. Also, she thanked Mr. James Posey and the 
participants included Africa Nazarene University, CSHEP, Equity Group Foundation, Arise Jesus, Talent Quest and 
Africa Nazarene University students attended an entrepreneurship seminar in July. They were exposed to an interactive environment among various universities and colleges whose students who attended the event. They exchanged ideas and knowledge on entrepreneurship especially with those students who are already in the business. This was a motivation to them and they were challenged to start their own ventures through the little resources they have available to them. They also interacted with successful entrepreneurs like Ms. Esther Passaris of Adopt A Life, and Ms. Doreen Sabwa of Mega Skills Training Company and were taught the following lessons from them:
of running apparel. Employing modern, fit, fashion-forward designs and performance quick-dry fabric, each Kourage Athletics garment is suitable for either completing a long-distance run, aerobics or just a quick workout at the gym.
empowerment and leadership. Their success is firmly rooted on partnerships, opportunities, programs and projects aimed at improving the welfare of our under-served society by enhancing entrepreneurship. Slumcode’s vision is "a better person, a better place" while its mission is “to create a space for innovation and creativity amongst underserved persons to realize their full potential and resources through education, employment and empowerment”.|
By James Thuo
The Kenya Youth Empowerment and Employment Initiative (KYEEI) encouraged the youth to register and since then has acted as a mentor to the group. Janibichi has managed to make significant progress in the few months it has been in existence. Some of the achievements include:
Janibichi’s main area of specialization is agribusiness. The group has chosen to venture into agribusiness because of the potential agriculture has in providing sustainable employment to youth in Kenya. Janibichi teamed up with KYEEI, CSHEP and ANU and organized a one day workshop to train youth groups from Kajiado County on value addition on agricultural products. The training was held at ANU on 23rd July 2011. Since there are many agricultural products in Kenya that are perishable, farmers deal with extreme losses and waste of crops. The only option farmers seem to have is to sell the products below cost or in some cases feed the products to cows due to lack of market. The value addition training taught the youth groups how to view such trends as a business opportunity and gave them practical lessons of how to add value to tomatoes by making tomato jam which can be preserved and has a six month shelf life. The tomato jam can be branded, sold and generate additional income to agribusinesses. Janibichi will organize future trainings to empower the youth from all counties in Kenya with skills of adding value to agricultural products they grow and sell. James Thuo For more information about Janibichi: contact Jame Thuo at yonathuo@yahoo.com or 0752441924. |
Janibichi is an agricultural youth group registered with the Ministry of Gender and Social Services. It was formed in December 2010 after the founding members, students at Africa Nazarene University (ANU), were advised to involve youth outside of the university in their greenhouse project.
Youth Making a Difference By Cassie Bixler “Kenyan youth don’t have many people to inspire them. We need inspiration to develop ourselves and develop our country.” These are the words of Peter Okero, founder and chairman of Inspiration Kenya. Peter founded this group to connect Kenyan youth leaders and Peter was born in 1988 into a farming family from Kisii, Nyanza Province. As one of eleven children, Peter grew up thinking that tending to animals was the most important job in the world. When he began primary school at 7 years old, Peter began to realize his skills and potential for leadership extended well beyond farming. In 1998, Peter relocated to live with his brother in Nairobi. He went back to school and immediately noticed his talent for building bridges between people. He was appointed the Class Prefect and urged his fellow students to stop fighting and begin working together and talking through their issues. Later when Peter got a chance to go to provisional school, he was elected Class Prefect again. Since then he embraced his role of leading and inspiring his peers to believe in a world of possibility and opportunity for Kenyan youth to improve their circumstances. As he got older, Peter realized that many of his peers were drawn to alcohol, drugs and other distractions rather than school. He felt as though someone needed to talk to them about making better choices for themselves and their futures. Peter decided to start talking to and encouraging them one-on-one, and was eventually able to reach many of his peers. When they would ask Peter how he was able to get involved in so many positive activities, Peter realized that what they really wanted and needed was mentorship. These youth had their own ideas and dreams, but didn’t know how access the resources needed to transform their lives. The post-election violence of 2007 led Peter to focus his attention on the relationship between youth and the government. Since so many youth were involved in the fighting, Peter wanted to figure out what they wanted and needed from the government so that he could start a conversation about how to mobilize this energy toward creating positive working relationships between Kenyan youth and elected officials. He ended up engaging the responses of 1,000 youths and making a report for UNICEF, which led to Peter becoming a representative for the organization. Through this position he was able to speak with government stakeholders and national leaders about the future of Kenyan youth. This experience led to him to found Inspiration Kenya, an association of youth leaders nationwide with many members. Peter believes that by connecting youth leaders with one another, individuals can share resources and serve by motivating each other to reach common goals. Inspiration Kenya focuses on youth specifically because they are majority of the population, and if youth are not brought into the proper channels and are able to have a close relation to the government, Kenya’s future will not be a bright one! Peter is grateful to KYEEI for inspiring a diverse group of Kenyan youth and providing the mentorship and training resources that are so needed. He says that KYEEI brings a “dream vision” to inspire youth through events and opportunities to interact with business leaders and government officials. The youth of Kenya have tremendous potential and by including them in decision-making processes, we can use their talents to grow the prosperity of this country. Peter Okero can be reached at: peterokello08@yahoo.com or 0721848239.
|
inspire his peers to promote Kenya’s future and become one the greatest nations in the world.Strategic Enterprise Area Update By Rosemary Bett KYEEI works under five Strategic Enterprise Areas (SEAs) i.e Environment, Health, Agriculture, Infrastructure and Business and Technology as part of meeting its goals and objectives of the YES Youth Can program through USAID. The goals of KYEEI are to prepare youth for the world of work and to facilitate job creation in Kenya. Each SEA is headed by a Chairperson who is assisted by a youth subchair. Their roles are to contribute further to the SEA goals. |
||
Mr. Daniel Airo represents the Business Strategic Enterprise Area and as the Chairman and has been a very essential and remarkable partner to the initiative. Daniel through his own efforts has enhanced his support to KYEEI to give KYEEI publicity, advocacy and awareness through partnership with The Standard Group, one of the largest media houses in the country.
This partnership will open opportunities to link KYEEI youth with the media and other corporations. The Standard Group and DTV Activate Limited are Stakeholders in this Initiative and are Official Media Partners responsible for the “villages” activations that will bring the youth together through graduations and other platforms for communication and proposed empowerment products exhibitions countrywide respectively. The “Village” concept will provide an opportunity for partners and groups to showcase their products and services.
The Village came to reality during the 14th Africa Nazarene University graduation, where tents were set up and different partners of the University showcased their products and services. Our appreciation goes to Mr. Daniel Airo for giving KYEEI project media publicity and advocacy in reaching out to the youth
Chairlady: Siphrose Rabach of Africa Inland Church Youth Sub Chair: Godrick Barasa of Blue Cross North Nairobi
Blue Cross Nairobi North is organizing a Crime Prevention Program in Kasarani district. The youth have met with the District Officer and the Heads of Police in Kasarani to share their ideas and plans to cut crime in their community. This is a major step forward as it removes suspicion from the police as youth mobilize the community around this program. Arrangements are underway around a second meeting with the District Commissioner in Kasarani. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture was also present and have shown significant interest in helping the youth develop a program and initiate projects to sustain youth in Kasarani. This partnership looks promising and the program will likely take place on August 23. Stay tuned for a report on the event. Like the other SEAs the group will continue to have meetings to follow up on their progress through the development of work plans. KYEEI continues to look at opportunities to hold a Solid Waste Summit with Environmental and Infrastructure Ministries and appropriate businesses and NGOs in Kenya. Initial meetings are being held to discuss the concept and involvement of government, businesses, and youth. We will share more as this project develops. |
|
Chair: Dr. Peter Ngure (Daystar University)
KYEEI has worked with Youth for a Greener World, a collection of youth from 11 universities in Kenya, over the last year. The youth group will be formalizing their organization with the government this month. This will allow the youth to function separate from the universities and seek resources and support outside of their educational institutions. This is a major empowerment opportunity for this youth group and KYEEI will provide guidance to the leadership on how to move forward.
Chair: Joseph Macharia (JKUAT) Youth Sub Chair: James Thuo of Janibichi
The SEA has had a series of meetings with local partners in the agriculture sector as well as a major value addition workshop that was held on 23rd July 2011 at Africa Nazarene University with support form KYEEI. The group is located in Kajiado North county Ongata Rongai area. JANIBICHI is a name that means, green leaf, which symbolizes the group’s area of specialization, which involves agribusiness. The group deals in training youth groups on horticultural farming through the use of green house technology, mushroom farming in dark rooms, entrepreneurship and connecting the trained youth groups with the market for products they produced. Janibichi exists to empower the youths by creating employment through mass production of tomatoes and mushrooms. A pilot project for greenhouse tomato farming will be set up in Ongata Rongai and will be used as training model to train established youth groups.
|
What you can do.There is still work to be done. We need your help to move KYEEI forward to create jobs and empower Kenyan youth. KYEEI needs leaders like you to provide vision and direction to each SEA. Email Prof. Linda, if you are interested in sharing your vision with KYEEI. Interested in supporting this work?We are always looking for new partnerships, resources, and ideas to support the work to provide jobs for Kenyan youth. If you're interested in raising resources for the project, email Email Prof. Linda Ethangatta or NCMI's Jim Copple. Want your efforts to be counted?We are tracking the efforts of the youth employment programs across Kenya. If you have an innovative program that is currently employing youth, let us know! We would like to learn more about what you are doing and share your successes with others. Email Prof. Linda Ethangatta.
Many thanks and much appreciation to our Donor-USAID, partners Africa Nazarene University, Equity Bank and KWS for all their efforts in supporting KYEE. |
The Kenya Youth Empowerment and Employment Initiative is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries Inc and Africa Nazarene University and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. |