EDUCATION & TRAINING

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” (Nelson Mandela)

Young people should be filled with hope, where they can look to a future where their talents are developed and they can live fulfilling lives. Rafiki is a mentor, developing and nurturing the talents of children and youth through education and skills training.

What We Do

Rafiki encourages families to send their children to primary school, and supports adolescents and youth to pursue education beyond primary school. We engage Community Health Workers and Community Paralegals to make home visits to work and talk to families about children’s right to education and the importance of their enrolment in school. When kids are not in school, it is because families lack the funds to meet their basic needs, including school uniforms or supplementary school fees. Whilst Rafiki’s ultimate aim is to build the capacity of families to meet their own needs, we recognize that, without some level of immediate intervention, families would neither manage to break out of the poverty trap nor would some children be able to attend school. In response to this, Rafiki provides some support to help families meet the basic needs to enable children to go to and to stay in school.

Mentorship

Rafiki acts as a mentor for local schools and the communities’ Psychosocial Support Centers to enhance children’s and youth’s participation and learning in their different club activities, eg. child rights, agriculture (4K) and business. By integrating participatory learning processes into education, children and youth become engaged in a holistic way, influencing their personal, physical, social, emotional, moral and intellectual development. By encouraging children and youth to be active participants in their own learning and reinforcing their responsibility for their own development, the overall well being of children and youth in the community is improved.

Infrastructure

Rafiki has played an active role in improving educational infrastructure. Between 2003-2004 we worked with the community, UNDP, and the Embassies of Finland and Switzerland to do a complete renovation of Lusi Primary School.

Since 2008, Rafiki has been constructing a community Training & Resource Center that will house Rafiki’s Youth Polytechnic for skills training in tailoring, dressmaking, carpentry, masonry and weaving. There will also be health training center, computer center, library, and classrooms for entrepreneurship and training for capacity building of local grassroots civil society organizations. The aim is to provide adolescents and youth with the opportunity to access educational opportunities that will develop skills to help them become ready for work and able to compete with their counterparts from more affluent and developed areas of Kenya. Our work with local grassroots civil society organizations aims to encourage local ownership of development initiatives that address local problems. We believe the best solutions to problems lie within the heart of the problem itself. Rafiki’s role is to encourage innovative local responses, while at the same time protect and enable growth in associational life.

The Training & Resource Center is expected to be complete and operational before the end 2012. Please support our efforts: donate