This year we are running a pilot project for SE101 at St. Aloysius Gonzaga School which is in Kibera (the largest slum in east Africa, and the second largest slum in Africa.) The photos show our "classroom," an outdoor area, covered loosely by an awning, which does not protect us from rain (we can move indoors in that event). It can be slightly chilly, and you'll notice the students bundled up. Our teaching "technology" involves a blackboard, chalk and flipchart paper.
St. Aloysius was created to give hope and support to AIDS orphans. All of the children who go through the school have lost one or both parents to AIDS (if one of the parents is still alive, that parent must have AIDS in order for the child to be enrolled in the school).
It is a tragic situation for these young people--to have lost one or both parents, and to have watched both of their parents be so sick. They have had to grow up quickly, and learn to care for themselves, rather than to be parented. I'm sure it makes the students on the UBC team realize how fortunate their lives have been by comparison.
Our contact at St. Aloysius is Barlet Jaji, who first started working with SE101 in 2007, when he co-taught with some of the team at the Bahati site. We met again last summer, where I learned that Barlet was working at St. Aloysius as the director of post-graduate training for students who had finished their O level (the equivalent of high school) at St. Aloysius. Barlet is passionate in his commitment to helping young people not only survive, but also to thrive.
With that in mind, he asked me at the beginning of this year if I would consider working with him through SE101 to help inspire some of the school's graduates to tackle social challenges in the slum through business opportunities. We agreed that it would be a pilot project because we'd previously been emphasizing individual businesses, and that we would take what we learned from this year's pilot project to make an even better project next year. I was excited to be presented with such an opportunity, because it closely fit the mandate of SE101, which is to empower youth so that they can try to break their cycle of poverty. The pilot project meant we would be working with the poorest individuals in Nairobi, trying to help them with the chance to succeed. It also meant taking the first steps towards helping individuals figure out how to help their community.
The challenge for the UBC and Strathmore students working at the site is to show these young students that they really want to help them, and that the help is unconditional. In society's emphasis on short-term goals (is everyone happy right now?) it is too easy to overlook that true impact does not happen in a day, a week, or even a month. It is the cumulative lessons left behind that can be reflected on over time. Our team has the opportunity to inspire these young people for a life time. I am eager to see how they rise to this challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment