East African Congress
Background Information
In January 2008 I was elected as a department leader in my Church (Mamboleo Harvest Church) to head Sabbath School through December 2008. Part of my work involved:
Identifying Bible school teachers for the morning services
Promoting Bible study
Effective class teaching
Encouraging Community outreach
Friendship evangelism among a host of other duties.
This was no easy task given that the church has over 100 children (0-12) and 200 adults. It was not difficult to get adult teachers but it was challenging to get people to work with the children. It is against this backdrop that I took it upon myself to dedicate myself to children's matters and I also came to realize how the community neglected young people. Through prayer and faith, I managed to get two volunteers to teach them.
From the outreach programmes, I managed to learn more about these children and get to know first hand information about their families. Through children's testimonies, confidential information given to teachers and observation made during sessions with them some got to open up in many matters concerning themselves and their parents.
Although there structures to deal with such cases lack of seriousness on the part of their leaders of those department and experience over the same hinders their effectiveness. Since I sit in the church board I decided to mobilize the Women, Youth leaders and the church members for resources for some of those people inform of foodstuff and clothing. This programme offers the following:
Provision of clothing i.e. school uniform, casual ware, bedding and shoes.
Provision of foodstuff i.e. maize meal , vegetables and cooking oil
Psychological support – spiritual guidance and counseling services.
In conclusion I am also driven by the fact that I suffered as a child in life. I had to work to be able to eat. Because of this and other experiences of my past, I am here for children who still have the opportunity to grow up in a caring ~ learning environment before being burdened with the cares of being an adult; and here for women who lack information to be all that they dream to be; and here for youth who need encouragement.
Mission/Vision.
To serve, protect, care and support the Women, Children and youth who need information and basic needs.
Core Values
- Team work
- Honesty, Transparency and accountability
- Service with compassion
Key strategies and Goals
With the already initiated program of supporting OVC in place, I hope that needy children can be effectively tackled and that those in need are being assisted through well wishers.
I’m intending to work with two more social workers as volunteers to address the needs pf Girl-Child as they are vulnerable in almost all aspects within the community especially in care and protecting, provision of sanitary towels, building of Girl-Child friendly toilets and provision of lunch feeding programme in schools. Lunch feeding programme in schools is a challenge to most urban poor parents because the cost of food is too high for the parent to offer extra money for the child to eat because the family is already living under a dollar a day. This has exposed the girl child as some might opt for easy way to earn money by being enticed into relationships. Apart from the church leadership I’m working with Afya Bora Women Group registered under the ministry of social services of which I’m the chair.
Empowering the Vulnerable
Aim: My main aim is to strengthen the capabilities of orphan and vulnerable children to access essential services like education, healthcare and know their rights especially the Girl-child. Most of the girls suffer sexual harassments and menstruation issues of which they do not know how to deal with. I intend to provide first aid facilities before making refers. The girl child in Nyanza remain vulnerable because it is believed that if you are married to a man who is endowed with riches then you automatically be rich therefore many fall into traps of second and third wives. This has derailed the economy of the region and promoted HIV and AIDS. Most households believe that the boys should be given priority when it comes to education. Women need to bee empowered since they can be able to educate their children without discrimination.
Collaboration and Networking
For effective equal distribution of resources and sharing of experiences on how to tackle these issues, I’m collaborating with Mission for Africa Children’s Home and Mamboleo Adventist Youth Development Group in the following Areas:-
Children’s leadership
Facilitating child friendly centres with skills on child to child talk
Provision of psychological support.
Target group/ beneficiaries.
Currently I’m supporting 15 children only but I am intending to support 60 with more focus on the Girl Child which shall in turn reach more than 10,000 girls with sanitary towels campaign and toilet friendly project.
Capacity
Through consultation the program has more human resource which is backstopped by the imitator with:
A Diploma In information Technology
Various Seminars and training on family matters and youth programmes
Two years of running a club with 55 members drawn from the High school in conjunction with the CSA
Head of Computer Studies Department from 2004 to date
Responsibility as a mother
Responsibility bestowed upon when I was a Child drives me to assist those in my situation.
Consultancy Services
