ConTribute Kenya - Journey in Mombasa

24 March 2015

Country On Track to Achieving Universal Primary Education, UN Says

Nairobi — Kenya is on the right track towards achieving universal primary education senior UN official has said.

Nardos Bekele-Thomas, the UN Kenya Resident Coordinator said at a media briefing in Nairobi that Kenya's progress towards achievement of the millennium Goal number two was inspiring.

"Since the introduction of the Free Primary Education programme in 2003, primary enrolment raised from 5.95 million children to 10.2 million children in 2013. The Net enrolment ratio in primary education has increased from 67.8 percent in 2000 to 95.9 percent in 2013 which indicates that Kenya is doing well compared to Uganda where net enrolment ratio has slowed and declined slightly to 83 percent in 2009/10 from 86 percent in 2002/03," Ms Bekele-Thomas told a press conference at a Nairobi hotel on Monday February 16.

She however noted that although Kenya is on track towards achieving the goal, disparities in access to education still exist in the Arid and Semi-Arid Areas as well as in the informal settlements.

Ms Bekele-Thomas said that overall Kenya had made steady progress on achievement of the millennium Development Goals since their declaration signed by 189 members of the United Nations in the year 2000.

The Declaration resolved to put in place actions that will lead to the reduction of extreme poverty by creating an environment conducive for human development to be achieved by 2015.

She however warned that the government needed to accelerate policy reforms and resource mobilization in order to fully achieve the MDG'S.

"Kenya is on course to achieve three MDGs on poverty, school enrolment and gender equality. However, the country must intensify action on high maternal, infant mortalities and poor sanitation," she said.

The UN agencies in Kenya last year launched a joint development assistance framework to address pressing challenges like diseases, hunger, climate change and illiteracy in the east African nation.

Bekele-Thomas said UN agencies have partnered with the national and county governments to streamline implementation of development programs at the grassroots level.

"Kenya must invest in food security, education, health and environmental conservation to achieve sustainable development," Bekele-Thomas said, noting that innovative partnerships were crucial to accelerate progress on MDGs.

Country On Track to Achieving Universal Primary Education, UN Says

11 March 2015

St. Joseph House of Hope

The St. Joseph House of Hope is situated in the village of Majengo that is a suburb of Mombasa. From our hotel it was a travel of around 30 minutes by car to Majengo. Muslims mainly populate the village, which becomes obvious as you can already see the minarets of the large mosque upon arrival at the Main Street leading through the village.

From the Main Street you basically have to go straight and you will pass many carpentry and small retail shops in the village’s “Shopping Street” which is not drivable by motoric vehicles. For sure, these shops are not shops like they are in Europe. These are more or less wooden sheds, which are often not only the business place of its owners, but also their private living space. The people in Majengo are very welcoming, friendly and curious towards strangers and always willing to show you the way.

St. Joseph is basically situated in the centre of Majengo. The schoolyard is grassland. The students are aged between 3 and 16. If they are not in class they sing, dance or play football outside or just take a rest. On the schoolyard, goats, sheep and chicken are running around. Standing on the schoolyard you can see a lake, which is not too far away. The schoolchildren are told not to go to the lake as crocodiles live in. I am not sure if that is the truth or the teachers are just concerned that the children will drown while swimming in the lake.

Carol is the owner of St. Joseph House of Hope. She is very enthusiastic about the school, the children and the various projects the school is involved in. Next to the elementary school lessons, there is also a sewing class, where laptop bags and several clothing items can be produced. Furthermore, there is also the opportunity to produce soap bars with a wonderful and unique African smell. Unfortunately, at the moment Carol has major problems keeping manufacturing these items. All financial resources are spent for the basic lessons, so there are no resources available to be spent for production of the items. Therefore production is standing still and some of the students cannot be taught. Furthermore, the current security issues in Kenya heavily affect the Coast of Mombasa. As mentioned before, Majengo is a Muslim village and therefore target of recruitment of the Al-Shabab militia (the Al-Kaida branch in Kenya’s neighbour country Somalia). Majengo has a high rate of youth unemployment and therefore young adults; especially men represent an easy target for terrorist recruiters.

For the Academic year 2014/2015 ConTribute Kenya has assembled a team that is working on solutions for the St. Joseph House of Hope. In order to make the production line work again, the St. Joseph team is looking for private and corporate donors who are willing to support a re-launch of the production facilities, giving young adults the chance to learn a profession, so they can provide their families with a regular income and showing alternatives to religious radicalism.

Long-term goal will be to offer the produced items to European customers. We believe that the products produced at St. Joseph have a good quality and deserve a fair chance on the European market. The St. Joseph Team of ConTribute Kenya will therefore set the drive to import and market the products in Europe as soon as the production facilities at St. Joseph are ready to act.

23 January 2015

Maran Academy and Orphanage Home Progresses Through Simple Forms of Cooperation

Posted on January 14, 2015

The Maran Academy and Orphanage Home project team would like to say welcome to 2015! Looking back at the monumental development – from knee high walls to the beginning of a roof – that occurred over the course of 2014, we are reminded of the achievements that can be attained through even the simplest forms of cooperation.

One such cooperation was with the IBSU Charity Team, who, in October, generously offered to hold the annual Charity-Snow-Ball in the name of the Maran Academy and Orphanage Home. We welcomed the Charity Team with open arms and maintained realistic expectations, but were about to get more than we bargained for. When the clock stuck 12 the night of the ball and one of the project team members went on stage to say a few words of gratitude for participation in the event and contribution to the project, we were all surprised to see the IBSU representatives hand over a large cheque for €2500. It was a truly amazing post-Sinterklaas/pre-Christmas present. However, little did we know we were in for an even greater surprise when the IBSU Charity Team had calculated their final sums at the beginning of 2015 only to discover that 420 tickets were sold and the true sum raised was in fact €3000! We are so thankful that this achievement could be attained through such a simple form of cooperation.

Back in November 2014 we were able to send €800 from the ConTribute Kenya Foundation to the project, and at the same time received some additional support from a generous donor in Austria. Again, an achievement attained through a simple form of cooperation. These funds were used to purchase 20 bags of cement, 2000 limestone building blocks, 3 truckloads of sand, necessary transportation, and labor required to transform these materials into the top of the wall above the structural ring-beam. The labor to complete this step began on December 15th, was put on hold during the Christmas holidays in Kenya, and resumed in 2015. We just received confirmation from Jackson Mjape (Kenyan project initiator) that this step should be complete by January 15th, at which point he can proceed to the next step of erecting the roof. This is where the funds raised by the Charity-Snow-Ball will be put to use. The construction of the roof is estimated to require over 3,700m of wood (of various dimensions), 350 iron sheets, 120kg of nails, 80 ridge pieces, necessary transportation, and labor. The total budget for this step is a staggering €10,800. However, to protect donators from misappropriation of funds as well as to reduce the burden carried with being responsible for the appropriation of funds we will develop the step of erecting the roof in stages and closely monitor progress.

Once the roof is completed, which, understandably, will take quite some time and is heavily dependent on available funding, the next steps will be to install electrical wiring, install water tanks, install toilets, plaster the walls and floor, paint all surfaces, acquire necessary furnishings, and finally setup the compound and structures as a school and orphanage home.

In the mean time, the Maran Academy and Orphanage Home team comprised of IBS Honours students, will continue to maintain the project portfolio, acquire funding, and seek long-term partnerships necessary in the operational phase.

We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this project and want to emphasize that it can best be achieved through the simple forms of cooperation that have propagated thus far. If you are interested in becoming part of the project, would like some additional information, or have possible funding suggestions, we will welcome you with open arms just like we did with the IBSU Charity Team.

Last but not least we would like to leave you with the following quote that often guides our actions:

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value” Albert Einstein

9 December 2014

Welcome to our first Newsletter

31 December 2013

Final words for the year 2013

'With every end there comes a new beginning and with the end of 2013 the perspective of an exciting 2014 is looming ahead for us at ConTribute Kenya.

This year has been phenomenal; if one looks back to a point just one year ago several of us were facing insurmountable challenges.

With the strong belief and commitment at that time the efforts of a group of students were turned into something wonderful. We throughly went the extra mile or even many extra miles as seen in the charity bike challenge to Amsterdam to raise funds.

With time flying past us we suddenly found ourself in Mombasa (Kenya) which with its beauty just blew us of our feet. Here again tumultuous challenges built themselves up which scared some but electrified others, hence we as a collective group of 11 students sat together every day to discuss certain anxieties and struck a collaborative note of drive and passion to overcome these challenges.

The three great projects (Teaching Assistance at St. Josephs, setting up of an Accounting-System Blue Bell Nursury School, Marketing Mombasa Firestation) in Mombasa we implied ourselves on day and night have proven to be fantastic experiences.Wandering around Mombasa City talking to Government officials, waking up at 06.30 to teach business to high school students as well as sitting down for hours on end teaching excel to computer-newbies are just some of the things we found ourselves in.

The experiences we made in Mombasa have been rewarding in many different ways to us. Seeing things grow together through our provision of time and know-how, the gratitude of the people we helped and the personal development each one of us went through will be looked upon with a great smile by each one of us at the end of 2013.

After our return ConTribute Kenya continued to flare. Inspired by our experiences and the great possibilities for us students to really contribute and make changes has let the seed of continuing this project and make it even more sustainable, grow in all our mind. With many other ideas in the pipeline for a possible return to Mombasa a greater number of students have increased efforts and rolled out extensive promotional, fund-raising activities.

In the aftermaths of a six week stay in Mombasa and continuous awareness raising efforts our reach has grown increasingly widespread, which have resulted in lots of offers for help and support which have all been received with much appreciation and smiles.

All this has accumulated in us finally managing to register ConTribute Kenya as organization which will administrative, organizational issues even more attainable.

From where we are now, ConTribute Kenya had a phenomenal year and has grown from a seed to a grass-root-level project with hands on impact and rewarding experiences small and big, just waiting to grow even further.

With the end of 2013 and beginning 2014 we want to thank every one of you for all your support and backing. You, us, we all have made ConTribute Kenya a great success.

Lets continue "beeing" like bees, swarming out to touch people like bees touch the flowers with the work we have already done and fly back to make this great project grow even larger and richer leaving sweetness and health with the people in needs.

Thank you all and have a Happy New Year.

(written by Robin)

28 September 2013

Facing problems, solutions and education

Now, two months after my return from Kenya, I finally want to reflect about my time there and which impact it had to my life.

There are two major points that became obvious to me. The first point is facing problems and solutions. Now I am doing my internship in Berlin. It is an internship at an IT company and I have absolutely no clue about computers and technical devices in general. Perceived, the company launches a new product every week, so I have to fight with new technical terms every day. Usually, I would lose patience at one point and just do my work in a way that is hardly sufficient. It would be a real problem for me to constantly work on something unknown until I am able to understand the topic.

In Kenya I saw an obvious contrast how people face problems compared to Europeans. We, as Europeans, always have a problem. When the train is one minute late or the computer does not work the way how we want it to work, we directly have a serious problem. In Kenya I saw people who have real problems like that they do not know how to feed their children in the evening or that teachers have to teach children in classrooms without electricity and holes in the rooftop. Just imagine a teacher at Hanze who should teach a class without power point slides. It would directly be a major problem. In Kenya I never saw someone complaining. People seem to live according to the motto: „I do not have problems, I just have solutions!“. This is something I want to keep in mind and I also want to live according to that motto. I already noticed some progress. My start in Berlin was also not easy. I left many of my friends in Groningen and I have never lived in such a big city before. So, always when I start complaining I remind myself that I only want to focus on solutions instead of problems from now on. I have to admit that this philosophy makes my daily life easier. Especially at work with technical devices.

The second point is very touching to me and showed me something about the importance of education. We visited the Blue Bell Nursery School together with Salim, a Rescue Diver from the Mombasa Fire Brigade. I was standing at the schoolyard looking at the buildings that were built how I built tree houses when I was 14. I was so impressed how the people managed to took their fate in their own hands and built such a school out of nothing. In Kenya it is not like in Europe that money will be spent to built schools. I heard from Condor representatives with how few resources they did it at Blue Bell, so my appreciation doubled.

While standing at the schoolyard a little boy came to me and just took my hand without saying anything. He was quite small, much smaller than the other children running around the schoolyard. He was maybe around 3 years old. From one second to another 20 children ran up to me, hugging me and trying to pull me down. I had a lot of fun, but I also got worried about the little boy who was holding my hand. The other children were way larger than him so I was afraid that they would hurt him by mistake. So I was looking around and could not see him and I tried to calm the other kids down, but if you start playing with a mob of Kenyan children, they will never stop. Then, I was looking down directly in front of me. The little boy was standing directly in front of me. Smiling. Laughing. And now holding BOTH of my hands. He was so small, but he managed to establish himself against all the other children who were way older and stronger than him.

This moment was very touching for me because I saw my own life in the eyes of this little boy. I was born in a slum of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. In the days after my birth my future was already clear. I would never have an education and a good job. It was not even clear if I would live for more than 10 years. I had the luck of getting adopted by a wonderful family who took care of me and gave me the chance of education. In this moment I realized how important schools like Blue Bell are in a country like Kenya, where many people even cannot read or write. I am sitting here right now and writing a blog about my experiences in Kenya. My voice was getting heard. Schools like Blue Bell give children, like the little boy who held my hand, the chance to start learning when they are very young. So Blue Bell gives the little boy the opportunity that his voice will be heard, too.

(written by Brian)

23 September 2013

Humbling, love/friendship, culture, difficult/sad, uncomfortable/scary

Before going to Kenya I tried to read blogs, watch videos and talked to people who went on voluntary trips. The main thing that those people were trying to explain was that volunteering in a developing country is definitely an emotional roller coaster, but at the end of the day none of them regrets doing it. I also understand now that you can never be quite prepare yourself for the kind of experience that change your life, you just have to jump head first and hope for the best.

In order to describe my personal experience I have picked words which describe my 5 weeks in Kenya. 

1. Humbling

For the first time I discovered what poverty really is. In Europe, we don't realise that we are so incredibly lucky to be born in families that can afford a roof, food, medicine.... Clearly we don't realise that many young Kenyans of our age would gladly take our spots and benefit from a paid education. We have so much and yet we are greedy, we complain about small things and don't appreciate how good our life is.

In Kenya, the people we met were happy, hopeful and grateful for the small things that they could afford. The people we met and worked with taught me the great lesson of always appreciating what I have. I hope in the future to be able to give back.

2. love/friendship

The most obvious was that the group got pretty close during the trip, despite the ups and downs of living together for 5 weeks. We also were very lucky to meet people who were helpful and nice to us.The greatest feeling during the trip was to develop friendship with the local people, out students and the kids of the village (Majengo). I will always cherish memories of playing with kids, singing with them, having "drawing classes"....

Without a doubt my best memory is when one of the little girls of the village fell asleep in my arms as I was rocking her and singing.

3. Culture

I'm so happy that we got to experience some of the Kenyan culture. For example through the food (my personal favorite is Ugali). We had the chance to visit different parts of Mombasa; from small villages, to beautiful beaches, to the old city center. We also had the opportunity to go to church in a small village, which was a great opportunity to understand the importance of faith in Kenya. Lastly, with the help of our students and friends, we all tried to learn some Swahili words such as "sawa" (ok) "habari gani" (how are you)

I also have to mention some less positive aspects:

4. Difficult/sad

It was extremely difficult to see the poverty and not being able to do a lot. Especially with the kids. While working at the feeding center playing with children of the village heartbreaking to see kids in ragged clothes, many of them were very skinny and had cuts on their feet from walking barefoot. The hope I had concerning this situation was that some people like the ones running the feeding center or Carol (who founded the St Joseph House of Hope school) work hard to improved the situation of the community (around Mtwapa and Majengo).

Secondly, I must adress that I was very shocked and disgust at the behavior of some westerners (often older men) who clearly come to Kenya for sexual tourism. The harsh reality of Kenya is that many girls of my age or even younger try to make it by prostituting themselves. I am not trying to judge those girls by any means, I completely understand their situation.

5. Uncomfortable/scary

I must admit that sometimes I didn't feel completely safe. Being a white female in kenya, you tend to attract a lot of attention. We were never in dangerous situation, but I know I wouldn't have wanted to go outside at night by myself or without one of the guys. I sometimes felt very uncomfortable with the way some men were looking at us, random men following us in the street or in the beach trying to talk with us.

I also remember that the other girls and I were quite upset that some of our students tried to flirt with us or get our numbers, which was very inappropriate in my opinion. I think that we were just the victims of the stereotypes of many westerners who come to Kenya to "have fun", and I understand that to some locals we represent money or a chance of a better future.

This experience was definitely "an adventure" and I know I will always remember it.

(written by Anne-Sophie)