It happened with dialogue, discussion, and collaboration between Canadian and Kenyan youth. It happened when both sides began to relish in the possibilities of they could achieve together. And it took off when both groups started taking responsibility for the other. That is the true essence of Tumaini—the essence of hope.
Everyone at TCP wants youth in Canada and Kenya to realize their own power, to understand that by knowing and working with the each other, they can make a difference in each others’ lives, and contribute to a change bigger than themselves. TCP wants to show that youth can change the world—their worlds. The projects that TCP undertakes with Canadian and Kenyan children and youth build on the strengths of each community and overcome challenges through collective action.
Everyone recognizes that there is need for change “out there”. Most of us have tuned in to pictures of the devastating effect of AIDS, hunger and war. Most of us tune out. “What can I do?” we, as youth ask, “I’m just a kid…” Children across the world feel the same way. When faced with these obstacles on a personal level, the children and youth in Kenya are rendered helpless by circumstances that appear insurmountable.
But what if there was a way? What if there was no such thing as “just a kid”? What if, together we could harness the power of our potential by working together?
Here are some of the initiatives facilitated by TCP partnering Canadian and Kenyan youth. The tenacity and hard work of these teams has a tremendous impact on the lives of orphans with whom TCP works.
Computer Resource Centre - 2009 to 2010
Community E-Learning Centre and Library
In partnership with the Asembo Bay Women and Development Group, TCP will be implementing a project to create and sustain a community e-learning centre to benefit more than 600 AIDS orphans and 100 AIDS widows in a rural village outside of Kisumu Kenya. The computer centre will teach basic computer skills, e-mail, and programming, as well as computer repair. Older orphans will also learn business management basics in order for them to successfully assume management of the e-learning centre as a community income-generating project. TCP will also be partnering with nursery and primary schools in the Asembo Bay region to set up the first community children’s library within the region.
Thank you to Dr. Straszak-Suri (of the Ottawa Obs-Gyn Dept) and her
Kilimanjaro climbing team for sponsoring this project!
Would you like to be part of the Computer Resource Centre Project?
Refer to our “Become a Marafiki” section to see how you can help!
Paper Bead Project 2007
(in Partnership with the Centre for International Health and Development, Ottawa)
In 2006, the Tumaini Children’s Project partnered with the University of Ottawa’s Centre for International Health and Development (CIHAD). With the help of TCP, this income generating project was implemented by 4 medical students from CIHAD in the summer of 2007.
The Paper Bead project involved over 100 children ranging in ages from 4-16 years at both orphanage sites making paper-bead jewelry (with donated supplies from many individuals and groups around the Ottawa region). The medical students also shot a documentary about the two orphanages and about the process of implementing the jewelry project. The jewelry and DVDs were sold together starting in Fall/Winter 2007, with proceeds going towards school fees, and daily living expenses for the Kenyan children.
To read more about the experiences of our Canadian Volunteers, please refer to the blogs section of the website.
PIGA PICHA‚ Photography for AIDS Orphans Summer 2008
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these kids have a lot to say!
In the summer of 2008, 5 young Canadian TCP volunteers – Alyssa, Paul, Catherine, Jenny and Joanna - developed a photography workshop at the St-Clare’s orphanage. “Piga Picha” (meaning “take a photograph” in Kiswahili) was meant to engage dialogue with the children of St. Claire’s about their experiences with AIDS as well as to raise awareness in Canada, and put a face on this devastating illness. This photography workshop was led by our volunteers and their Kenyan counterparts over a period of a month. During the project, our young Kenyan friends had a chance to learn the basics of photography. Some of the older youth had the opportunity to contribute to a photography exhibition titled “Pieces of Innocence” The exhibit was shown in Kenya before it travelled back to Canada. It has been showcased at the 2008 World Youth Congress in Quebec, Foreign Affairs Canada Offices in Ottawa, and Library and Archives Canada during Black History Month. The Kenyan photography workshop also produced some very interesting offshoots. Joanna, a grade 7 teacher in a Regent Park school in Toronto, was granted permission to run the project again with students from her class during the month of November and December 2008! In 2009, Pieces of Innocence will be showcased at UN Day of the Child celebrations on Parliament Hill.
Catch us on twitter at http://twitter.com/pigapicha,
go to our blog at http://www.pigapichakenya.blogspot.com
and see our slide show here.
Kenya Kollection
TCP provides goods and material for daily living to AIDS affected orphans in Kenya. After nearly 6 months of collecting and sorting new and used clothes, books, bags, shoes from generous people across Ontario and Quebec, and after one marathon day of packing boxes, we finally shipped 37 boxes of goods to St-Clare’s Orphanage and to the Asembo Bay and Siaya locations of the Integrated Family Support Project (a home-based care project for AIDS orphans).
Thank you to our generous donors and volunteers for helping to make this drive a success.
