by Mary Rowlatt
In August we held our annual summer camps in Nairobi and Kampala for the primary and secondary school students that we sponsor. The aim of the camps is to empower our students to become emotionally, socially and economically stronger. This year’s theme was “I define me”. Following secondary monitoring visits carried out in June and July, we realised that many of our students were struggling with issues of identity.
Our students embraced the theme wholeheartedly. This was particularly evident in the spoken word workshop which took them through a short poetry class and demonstrated different types of poetry and spoken word. The students were presented with the ‘I am poem’ and encouraged to use it as a template to write their own stories through poetry. The topics chosen varied from their experiences a refugee, the topic of gender, their feelings on war, the environment and more.
As well as activities focusing on identity, students took part in friendly sporting competitions and music sessions with instruments borrowed from local schools. On the final day of the camps we held talent shows to allow the students to express their creative sides through rap, poetry/spoken word, music and dance. We were absolutely blown away by the performances, many of which were self composed!
At the Nairobi camp we were thrilled to be joined by the honourable Ken Okoth, MP for Kibera. He gave an inspiring talk to the students, sharing his experience of growing up in Kibera and working hard in school to get a scholarship.
– Racheal Opiyo, Education Coordinator
