Mercy's experience with the Sauder Initiative

Mercy Wairimu

2nd year of her Bachelor of Commerce

Strathmore University

On one lovely morning, I was going through my mails and found a friend of mine had informed me about the Sauder program. The friend had been asked to find individuals who would be interested in teaching social entrepreneurship in Kibera and Mathare. For me, teaching hasn’t been a challenge and since I was a apart time student in Strathmore University, I felt taking this opportunity on my table would really be a nice experience for me to serve people (the community) by imparting the knowledge I have gained in school to the youths, mingle and also learn new ideas and concepts from the Sauder team.

I was eager to be part of this initiative as I would at least touch a life directly or indirectly and positively influence it in our quest to improve the living standards in our slums here in Kenya. My thoughts about the program were that it would serious business from day one, that I would be required to have all the details of the curriculum on my finger tips. Later on I discovered it was just a manual to guide us through the classes and also a learning tool for the students.

The first dinner that was set for both the Sauder team and Strathmore team to meet was pretty exciting. Meeting new faces, new people and hoping to make new friends was the motivating factor. The name tags we had made it easier to take the first step of attaching a face to a name. The most interesting part of that night was when I heard we were also to have fun as much as achieving our objectives. My ears had just heard what they wanted to hear and you how that felt…AWESOME!

Morning came and day one was here for us to start our main agenda of the 3-week program. I was to teach in Mathare, and that day class was full of young people ladies and gentlemen who appeared thirsty for knowledge and their eager faces displayed delight in what they would benefit from the program. Their concentration in class was great as it was depicted in their participation in answering questions. Meghan started us off well with the business canvas model and introducing the marketing concepts for the first week then week two we started with the accounting part of a business. This involved lots of calculation and we all know mathematics is not a favorite subject for majority people.

I was charged with teaching income statements and cash flows statements. This was really challenging at first. To stand and explain accounting concepts to those students by breaking it down to the simplest way possible really required me to have a lot of courage and patience. Ensuring everyone was at par with what I was teaching and keeping them attentive for the afternoon bit was a bit hectic but we managed as my team (Sheen, Meghan, Luke, Akash, Faizal-princess) was really supportive and engaged everyone to make sure they all understood and answered their questions using the simplest examples.

The Canadian team was awesome, very friendly and optimistic even when it took longer than planned to put across concepts. The jokes and fun made the whole experience worthwhile and created a good atmosphere for the students to freely relate with us ‘teachers’. They were all I expected them to be and when you leave I will surely miss you guys.

From this experience, I viewed life from a different perspective. I APPRECIATED more the things that I had at my disposal that at times I took for granted. I talked to one of the students who told me he had been to school up to class two. He explained how important this program was for him because he got chance to be in class to learn again. He inspired me a lot as he never gave up and always tried to learn from programs and similar initiatives that came to his home place at least at no cost. This served as my highlight for the 3-week program.

I have learnt to be patient at all times and also know that we people were created differently, each of us with different strengths and weaknesses. With this we should not look down on someone based on his/her dress code, his/her abilities or judge them by their weaknesses but appreciate everyone, treat everyone with respect and equality.

By default, I would wish to part of this program again if given a chance. There is no better way to fulfillment than being far front in educating people in the society for their own benefit and expecting nothing in return. The little acts of kindness bring us a lot of blessings from the Almighty and we encouraged to always do good. A famous Swahili saying goes ,’tenda wema nenda zako’ to mean do good and take your leave even if you not recognized or appreciated.

The only thing I would like changed a bit is the time. I felt we had so much to learn and teach within a short time. Time would help teachers go a little bit in depth and impart more knowledge from just what is set in the curriculum. All in all, it was a great opportunity to work with the Canadians. They are indeed lovely people.

For a follow up, we should at least get the contacts of all students to find out if the started there own businesses, how well are they applying what they were taught and what are the challenges they are experiencing. We would also be able to offer guidance where possible and appropriate advice on decisions they may have to make with regards to their businesses.

To conclude, I must say am very lucky to have been part of this initiative. I have enjoyed the whole experience and hope to be part of it as often as possible. For the Canadian team, it was great meeting you guys, you are my newest friends and I hope you don’t go silent on us when you go back to your country. Wishing you God’s blessings in all your endeavors.

Thank you very much.