Empower My Life Training Camp Comes to Productive Conclusion

Empower My Life training camp was held at Sadili Oval over a ten day period (16^th to 26^th August 2017). The camp, the second one since April 2017, was organized by Sadili Oval Sports Academy in partnership with Swiss Academy for Development (SAD). A total of 196 children, whose ages ranged from 4 to 15, participated in the camp. Most of the kids came from two of Nairobi’s informal settlements: Kijiji and Kibera, which are only a few kilometers apart. 

Each day of the camp, the kids met at Sadili at 9:00 am and had one-hour warm-up sessions with guidance from Sadili coaches. The warm-up sessions were swiftly followed by new games, each coming with lessons. The kids were divided into 4 groups, according to their ages, and each group had at least two coaches playing with them and facilitating discussions. Judging from their enthusiasm, it was quite evident that the kids enjoyed learning the games. After each game, the kids sat down with their coaches to discuss what lessons they could draw from them. Some of the topics covered during discussions included HIV prevention/ transmission, gender equality, sexual violence, hygiene and civil courage (bystander intervention), as well as important life skills such as teamwork, hard work and confidence among others. During each day of the camp, meals including tea break, lunch and afternoon snacks were provided to the kids.

The camp concluded on Saturday, 26^th August with a basketball tournament and other fun games including potato race, sack race, tug-of-war, 3-legged race, centipede, relay race, bean bag toss, capture the flag and Guard yourself.

 "It has been a great experience, and I enjoyed learning the new games we were taught every day," remarked Steve Austine, a std.7 pupil at Kibera Primary School. "I have learnt so much about gender stereotype and sexual violence, and I can't wait to share the experience when I go back to school."

We are grateful to the parents who entrusted us with their kids during this enjoyable and highly informative camp, and we are especially happy that the children had fun and at the same time learnt a lot of vital lessons.

Empower My Life is a sport and play-based, innovative and holistic 16-months prevention program aimed at contributing to the fight against sexual violence in Kenyan schools. It promotes the right for education and health for girls and boys from underprivileged families in Nairobi.

For more pictures of the camp, please Like and Follow Sadili Oval Sports Academy page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sadiliovalsports/

The Court of Dreams Improves Health and Schooling: Success stories Part 4

Emmanuel Mayaka 

Emmanuel Mayaka is a nine year old pupil at Kid Star Primary School. The class register indicates that he is one of the pupils in his class who has been consistently attending school. He is also one of very few pupils in his school who reported to school on 4th January 2017, the official opening day for schools. Many other pupils reported the following week.

Emmanuel is just one of the many pupils in his class whose general attitude towards school has improved since they joined the programme. “Emmanuel, just like many of his classmates, likes coming to the Kibera Tennis court to play,” says his class teacher. “Playing sports, specifically tennis, with guidance from trained coaches is not very common in Kibera. This probably explains the reason they are always excited about running down to the court. The result as we have observed is increased engagement and less absenteeism”.

“I live far from the tennis court, so I can only come there during school days with the rest of my classmates. I enjoy playing tennis. Whenever we are on holiday, like the one we had last December, I always look forward to reopening of school so I can play often,” says Emmanuel. “Football used to be my favorite sport before, but since I learned how to play tennis, it has become my favorite.”

“Sometimes simply saying it is mandatory for pupils to come to school every day does not work; they [pupils] should want to come to school,” says his class teacher. “The main reason we have chosen to remain as participants of this programme is that we have seen how much it motivates our pupils to come to school.”

Peris Akinyi

Peris is a standard three pupil who goes to Nazarene Primary School. She was introduced to us by her class teacher who says she is one of the pupils in her class who have remarkably improved in performance over the past one year. To confirm this, we borrowed her performance records over the past year from her class teacher who kindly gave it to us. To our pleasant surprise, we noted that Peris has been constantly improving in every exam, and not a single result showed a drop in total marks from the previous one.

“Peris used to be the timid, antisocial and underperforming one. She almost repeated std. 1, but we decided to push her forward since her parents were against it. Right now we can proudly say that she progressed to std. 3 purely on merit,” says her class teacher. “Her parents definitely have a role to play in her improved performance as they have been showing a lot more interest in her studies than before. But at the same time I give some credit to this programme [Court of Dreams] because I have noticed in her, just like in many other pupils in my class, an improvement in concentration. She, like the others, is usually at her best straight after a session with your coaches. I must therefore admit that those coaching sessions make my work as a teacher much easier too.”

“I only knew about tennis when you [Sadili staff] started visiting our school,” says Peris. “Now I have learnt how to hit the ball and I always enjoy doing it. I wish you could come to our school every day so we can play more,” she adds smiling.

We are happy that the Court of Dreams has had some positive impact on Peris’ performance, and we are even happier that her class teacher recognizes this. It is our hope that her performance curve keeps going up.

Shanice Mansur

Eight year old Shanice is a pupil at Karama Academy who lives with her parents and two siblings a few meters away from school. She tells us that the lessons she has learnt have already made a big difference in her life.

“I practice good hygiene in school and at home. I used to think brushing my teeth every night was not important. Now I understand how important it is and I do it every morning and night, unless I forget or become too sleepy after dinner. I also use soap every time I wash my hands.” She says.

More importantly, Shanice thinks it is necessary to share her knowledge with her friends and siblings. She encourages them to practice good hygiene.

“I teach my friends and siblings to be hygienic too because they can also get sick from dirt. I am proud of myself, because I am helping other people and showing them the right way to wash their hands.”

We are excited about Shanice’s success story, and hope that there will be more stories like hers next year.

The Court of Dreams Improves Health and Schooling: Success stories Part 3

Denzel Ochieng

Denzel is a standard 2 pupil at Jitahidi primary School. Records from the class register provided to us by his class teacher shows a steady increase in attendance since he joined our programme. His class teacher believes that the court of dreams programme has played a key role in improving Denzel’s and other pupils’ attitudes towards school.

“As you can see our school does not have a playing space, and so your court [Kibera tennis court] is the only one available for them. Our pupils, particularly Denzel, have always been very excited about getting down to the tennis court,” says his class teacher. “I have said it before and I still maintain that I hope the programme will keep going on, so that our kids have space to play, and have a good motivation at least once a week to be in school.”

“During the December holidays I had time to play at the tennis court every day. Now that we are back to school, I will be looking forward to our play days [Wednesdays],” says Denzel. “I also enjoy the life skills sessions with teachers [Social educators] from Sadili. There is always a lot of singing and playing, and we have a lot of fun.”

Comparing the second and third term of 2016, the increased school attendance rate by Denzel and many of his classmates is impressive. Other factors may have played a role in this improvement, but it is an undeniable fact that the Court of Dreams programme contributed to this. We are especially pleased that Denzel’s class teacher recognizes the programme’s contribution.

Lalety Akinyi
Lalety is a standard 3 pupil at Jitahidi Primary School. She was one of the most improved pupils in class last term and is one of the most active beneficiaries of the programme. She took part in several of last year’s Sadili 8-Series challenges held both at Sadili Oval and the Kibera Tennis Court.

Ms. Josephine, her teacher, notes that pupils in her class are now more engaged than previously and are always looking forward to sessions with Sadili staff. “I am particularly proud of Lalety for her improved performance and the fact she clearly shows a lot more commitment to schoolwork. Sadili has contributed immensely to this,” says her teacher. “The reason I am saying this is that I accompany the pupils to the tennis court every time they have a session with your staff, and I am impressed by the way they are handled by the coaches and the social educators. When they return to class after games, they are always more eager to learn, listen more and are much less stubborn.”

 “I love the fact that we always have play time with Sadili staff every Wednesday, and that sometimes we go to Sadili for tournaments. I am always excited to play on the blue court [Court of Dreams] at Sadili,” says Lalety. “I can now play tennis and can help in the teaching of others.”

We hope that Lalety and the rest of her classmates will be able to maintain their good performance.

Alice Achieng'

We walked to Becky School and could not help but notice Alice Achieng’, a standard 1 pupil at the school. Her uniform is clean, her hair well shaven, and on a closer look, her nails cut short.

 “Alice’s overall cleanliness has greatly improved since our school first joined the programme.” Her class teacher tells us. Unlike before, her hair is always either combed or clean-shaven like it is today.” Her teacher notes that she takes cleanliness a lot more seriously than she did before, something we all agree with as we have known her since the programme began.

We asked Alice to demonstrate to us how she washes her hands, and she did it very well. “I always wash my hands with soap and water every time I visit the toilet and before meals,” she says, “and sometimes I insist on getting soap until my mother gets upset.”

We are proud of the fact Alice has made such progress, and we hope that she will maintain it and be able to teach her friends and siblings the same.