8 series challenge 6

The tournament started at 3.00 pm and ended at 4:30 pm with most of the children coming from Kibera. The tournament was held at our court in Kibera for the young ones mostly under the age of 6  and 8
The children were organized in different a category that is under 6 years, 8 years, 10 years and 12 years. The under 6 and under 8 tournament was held at the Kibera tennis court and the under 10 and under 12 was held at Sadili Oval sports Academy  

                                  

The children were registered, given uniforms and later went to their different pools and the competitions started this being the 6^th 8 series challenge the children showed remarkable results as most of them had improved from the previous results. The game was intense as each player didn't want to lose the ball you could actually follow with yours eyes to see where the ball falls next and the tension in the children as they didn’t want to loose.

 

''There is a lot of improvement from the children who constantly come for practice during Saturday squad sessions, the evening sessions and the holiday camp. This being a continuing group that was started in January ,am glad as most of the children understand the basics of tennis and are consistent in their training session observing discipline so that they can excel. I would also like to thank Dr Elizabeth Odera our director for providing sports uniforms for our children the uniformity was amazing. My objective is to get my team to play tournaments outside Sadili and also participate in major championships "said coach Asha Adongo during a short interview.

Using play based approach to address WASH

Pupils of Stara during a life skills session on Hand Washing

Tuesdays and Thursdays are always packed days for WASH implementers to execute life skills and sports sessions at Stara Rescue Center and School. The new term and new games for tennis came with a clearer implication of the strength of using play to reach out to children with lessons around WASH, Literacy and numeracy.

One Tuesday, when coach Asha was held up and wouldn't make it for a session at Stara school became my center of interest to unearth how much the children from Stara School loved sport in comparison to WASH sessions. Together with my colleague, we studied the behavior of children in the absence of coach Asha and decided to further  the research

Normally, Sadili’s staff arrival at the school will attract the attention of all the children either in their class rooms or outside playing. The children would shout, and scream in joy as they chant songs because they know its play time with "coach tennis" as they had named Asha.

We decide that one day  coach Asha would be left behind so as to see the difference in our arrival at the school.As we entered the compound of Stara School, there were some normal excitements from the children, shouting the name Sadili and P.E congruently. We thereafter alerted the coach who was standing just outside the gate to join us. This made us dissolve into laughter as the children already organized in groups screamed in  excitement calling out the name coach, tennis and others shouting ‘game yetu’-our game.

Children during play session with coach Adongo

In conclusion, play based approach to address the situation of WASH and reaching out to out of school children is the best choice made by the court of dreams project that suits well the different categories in ages of the targeted groups. Children of Stara as a sample here give a clearer message that when play is involved the interest of children to learn is attained hence driving home the message of WASH, Literacy and Education.

Impact Realization

Did you know the most expensive gift one can offer to anyone is time? The wise people said “time is money”. I am not well versed with how one can convert time to money if you are not employed or trading, but if someone lends you their time, serving you and expecting nothing in return, respect the person since they have offered you a gift that can’t be quantified. Sadili Oval Sports Academy was incorporated with one vision, “To empower children and youth to improve their wealth, reduce poverty and improve learning for a better future.” Working round the clock to see improvement in the less privileged society. With this in mind, a number of programs and projects have been launched to see to it that this has been achieved and slowly but surely its happening. The Sadili staffs who are working under Court of Dreams Project have really created a lot of impact among the children in the program as well as the community at large. The self motivation towards keeping the environment clean, the toilets and also their self hygiene is something so remarkable and can confirm that there is  impact of the lessons taught under Court of Dreams."I participated during the Community Clean up which took place on the 11^th March 2019, I was tasked with assisting the participants in hand washing and after closely observing how the children were doing it, and I realized most of them were able to follow all the steps in hand washing which was so impressive. The kind of satisfaction on realizing the impact the lessons by the social educator was enough to mean the time they always give in teaching life skills does not go to waste.

I am optimistic that this impact will be sustained for a long time and with support from every stakeholder i.e Sadili Oval Sports Academy Board members, Staff Members, donors and the target community at large, a complete transformation will be realized"

WASH competitions

The day started on a beautiful note with children coming in from Kibera and Kijiji ready to compete for the price to be won. Three schools were represented during the WASH competition held at Sadili Oval Sports Academy on the 9^th of April. The schools were Ngei primary school, St Catherine, Nazarene and St Stephen.

The members of staff from Sadili and the WASH Committee club patrons present introduced themselves led by Kevin Ayuko who also introduced the schools present. Staff from Sadili started by cheering up the children and preparing them for the competitions Lorein Odhiambo teaching them a song on Hand washing and Felix Kipkoech presenting a short poem on the same which they actively engaged in doing the actions and singing along.

The children were then given time to prepare their different presentations which the judges were to choose from and the creativity from the children was mind blowing as they had amazing things to showcase. They came up with interesting dramas, poems, songs (raps) and Drawings all with the message on promoting WASH activities which they presented to the judges.

The children then presented four members from their respective schools that were taken through the hot sit where by questions around WASH were asked and they were given time to answer as the judges awarded them marks according to the way they answered the questions giving detailed information and tackling the questions exhaustively. The children confidently answered the questions with the winning spirit not letting anything put them down.

The schools were then awarded after compilation of all results and St Catherine emerged the winner followed by St Stephen, then Ngei Primary and Lastly Nazarene. There were also individual awards for the best pupils who showed exemplary results during their presentations and lastly schools were awarded for their participation. The pupils left happy promising to go practice WASH and come beat the winner next time.

What an awesome day of promoting talent and WASH.

WONDER GAMES.

fun !

All activities conducted are coupled with games just so to break the monotony of listening all through,this helps increase the concentration span of the children and also help in better understanding a mastery of lessons learnt. This is actually the most fun moment for all the kids. You can vividly tell this since as soon as a game is introduced, they all jump in ecstasy and sing joyfully. It has been so fascinating playing with the kids, and may sound interesting that I get excited about the games too. Anyway, who would not like to engage in a fun activity?

Talking of games does not absolutely mean the very widely known ones like volleyball, hockey or even football. The games played are unique and can be adjusted to suit all, including the physically challenged. And not just that, they are brief and are easily understood by the children. They include the Newcombe game, rally around, beat the bucket, find the goal line, keep the ball, boccia and activity card, to mention just a few.

What happens behind the scenes

Pupils lead in a song that they like.

The practice of safe WASH practices is a major skill on the delivery list of services for the court of dreams program The skills requires patience, persistent and a listening ear just like that of an innocent child from Kibera slum, however the environment becomes a great hindrance  to make the skills effective for posterity.

The life skills sessions which are sports oriented finds Salem (not his real name), a boy who loves sports studying at Undugu Basic Education Unit as an avenue to explore his dramatic behaviors in the field for activity assessments.

According to Salem ,who is in phase two as they categories their transition from one phase to the other, Tuesdays are the best day to be in school because of what he called P.E-Physical Exercise days in the school. He is now a regular school attendant and never misses the days when we have sessions at their school. Sometimes Salem may appear absent in class but on our arrival he is found to be present as he comes from the neighborhood and keen to see whether we are in the school playground doing setups for sessions.

One of the pupils showcasing his dancing skills.

Salem though not so much into sport but enjoys the drama he presents before the other pupils and being an attention seeker which I guess might have been achieved by us in the life skill and sport sessions, he now finds interaction into our session as the best place to showcase his humor.

The session on behavior dos and don’ts left most of us laughing and it’s was the first instance to note the humor that was bestowed in Salem. Some of the pictures presented to him on safe and unsafe WASH practices unleashed the funniest moments of Salem and the inquisitive behavior of the boy.

Salem  apart from noting the behavior to be either good or bad and for some undecided to say whether good or bad, person defecating into the stream to him was a big crime and he went further to ask whether the person had sound mind or not. Using some of the slang terms used within the community, Salem described the incidence as, “Aaaaah! Hii nayo ni noma bro, huyu jamaa ni mkali hii form’’

A pupil leading in a game.

He went ahead to ask who was taking the pictures and if possible will have notify the police to arrest the person and send him  to jail for messing up with food,(fish) in the stream. Apart from the life skills sessions and sports we also promote talent among the children that when positively tapped can take this children places.

SQUATTING AND JUMPING FINDS A NEW MEANING AT THE WASH COMMITTEE TRAINING.

Last weekend was a beautiful and successful one as  pupils from Ngei primary, St Stephen, Nazarene and St Catherine had so much fun participating at the WASH committee training for the ambassadors and the influential pupils from their respective schools.

Pupils during the training session.

Many of the children arrived in good time and before they knew it the activities began in the interest of time. Children were taken through warm up and orientation into the compound as preliminary activities before they all settled in the hall for the overview of the WASH themes namely Hand Washing, Using the toilet, Food hygiene, Water safety, Environmental hygiene and menstrual hygiene.  With each participating child having been given a note book and a pen, their enthusiasm was lightened up as they took notes during the facilitation.

Another session followed immediately after facilitation, it was the opportunity to learn how to be peer educators in training other children WASH messages using sports, play and fun activities. It was at this time that in deed children were able to make lots of fun and enjoy the game. One of the games demonstrating the use of toilet was fun and fun according the feedback from them. The game had several cones labeled with both the correct and wrong use of toilets. Children were then instructed to queue up in groups and to run to the stations of the cones, read the label and then jump over if the label indicated a wrong type of toilet or squat if the label had the correct type.

Squatting indicated using that toilet since it was the correct type. The fun of it emanated from the squatting as this is what actually happens while using the toilets but the children felt some embarrassment doing so and furthermore some children ended up squatting at the wrong type of toilet use as others jumped over the correct types of toilet use.Children then gathered into groups to develop WASH resources which they carried to school and it was amazing to see huge creativity from the children with some others making a drawing to demonstrate ovulation and the menstrual cycle in reference to menstrual hygiene that they had just learnt. Presentation of badges to WASH ambassadors, giving out of WASH materials and serving of lunch followed before the children departed to their homes. Many children were for this day well spent in learning and fun.

Warm up session .

Presentation by Felix Kipkoech who was one of the facilitators.

The pupils working in groups.

St Catherine pupils showcasing their presentation.

Ngei WASH ambassadors after receiving badges

Pupils receiving materials to help promote WASH in schools.  

STARA RESCUE CENTER AND SCHOOL

Stara Rescue Center and school

And finally we settled on our last school which is Stara Rescue Center the school is located in Darajani area Makini ward. In a short Interview with Mr. Fred Onserio who is the school Head teacher we got to learn more about the school, the head teacher informed us that the school was started in 2000 as a Pre-school and later expanded into a Primary school with the first class doing their K.C.P.E exams in 2008.The school has 14 teachers and 2 social workers who ensure that all the children’s needs education wise and psychological wise are met.

The school gives 1^st priority to Total orphans, children from single parents, HIV positive children and abandoned and neglected children to be part of the school. Providing to them quality education from qualified teachers and also meals which some of them are unable to get from their homes. The school also empowers young girls on different areas and the girls are really doing well. The school offers scholarship to children who perform well as they provide their School fees and basic needs when they join high school thus this gives the children the motivation to work hard in school.

Learning block in the school

Education is not the only focus of this school but also Sports, Drama and Music are usually incorporated which the children also enjoy and have excelled in it hence tapping and promoting talent amongst the children and helping them to sustain themselves and survive in Kibera. However the school also faces a few challenges which include water shortage, enough text books and desks for all the children as the numbers keep increasing, children missing school and not getting enough meals for children as they are provided for tea break and lunch.

Despite all this the school still aims at improving Kibera with their mission being to effectively respond to communities needs through caring for the disadvantaged.

Pupils of Stara participating in a session

WHAT IT CALLS TO BE AN ACCONTANT

Dorcas taking staff members through a presentation.

"For the 3 months I have been in Sadili, the lessons I have learnt, the places I have visited, the people I have interacted with, the exposure I have experienced and the amount of personal confidence I have gained could only be achieved in years if not a decade elsewhere. If you want to equip your child with basic as well as advanced knowledge in WASH among other life skills, Sadili is where your child should be.

Having worked with a dedicated team who never wait to be pushed to do what they are supposed to do, who are passionate about the work they do and result oriented, I must say the experience is simply amazing. As far as my role of an accountant is concerned, I have pulled together every bit of my experience to ensure I am able to present records of the donor funds records and that the figures reflect the true measure of our organization’s performance.
I look forward to more exposure to our different activities and come back with a more exciting story. I can’t wait to see Sadili scale the heights of excellence and Success that can only be geared by every stake holder pulling together their very efforts to attaining the organization’s objectives” says Dorcas Mwanu the Programs Accountant.