Children of Kibera

The Children of Kibera Foundation was created by Ken Okoth, a Georgetown grad and the director of CIIE Dar es Salaam. Ken had helped us all settle into Tanzania, sharing cultural norms, helping us buy cell phones and other necessities, and even traveling with us occasionally. He offered an invitation to intern with his organization in Nairobi, dealing with education in the slums. At the time I was still waiting to hear back from the United Nations, the organization I had originally planned and hoped to be interning for. During the month leading up to August I still had yet to hear either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from the UN, so I sent Ken an email, asking if the position was still available.

And I am glad it was. Not just because I now actually have something to do while in Nairobi, but also because the organization has been a good fit. With such a small staff, there has been a good balance between structure and freedom with projects. Instead of simply making photocopies all day or filing things for other people, I get to do what I want, with only the bare minimum of guidance. For example, my first week at the office, my boss told me I would have the secondary school scholars for a week, and that I should plan a workshop for them. With that, I took it and ran (see entry above) in the direction of college applications, a concern a few of the students had shared upon meeting me.

The Children of Kibera Foundation focuses on education in Kibera, Africa’s largest slum. In addition to funding a primary school, it sponsors 20 of the slum’s top high school students to attend the country’s best schools. The organization also helps schools and other organizations open up technology labs throughout Kibera. Our most recent addition at Ayany public school will be one of my main projects.

Although I came onto this organization planning on doing more administrative work, I could never actually let go of teaching completely. Once a week I have been teaching a dance class to the junior high students, and we’ll have the opportunity to perform for an audience the first weekend of October! One of my main projects also involves teaching the teachers at Ayany basic computer knowledge (more to come on this). During the break I tutored our secondary school scholars in English, though this didn’t last long, considering my lack of understanding of many grammar rules (who versus whom, for example) and the lack of connection I felt with the students’ teachers (“you shouldn’t have gotten this wrong” was a common phrase while going over exams). By the end of the break, we were going more the creative writing route- writing stories and editing them to better please the audience.