A LOT-Change project is a community based after-school support program being implemented by Miss Koch Kenya in Korogocho since 2013. The first phase (2013-2015) only targeted adolescent girls in grades 6-8 and consisted of homework support in numeracy and literacy, life skills mentoring, parental counseling, and transition to secondary school subsidy. From the successes of the initial phase, the intervention was scaled up in phase 2 (2016-18) to include a leadership component and also target both adolescent boys and girls, with the other components remaining the same. Phase III is a follow-up study of the phase II cohort who transitioned to secondary school in 2019 and will be testing the feasibility of implementing the A LOT-Change model among older adolescents and also check the sustainability of the effects observed in phase II.
Donor: APHRC
Objective: To have an integrated approach to improve learning outcomes, psycho-social well-being and behavior among adolescent girls and boys.
Activities: Career awareness training, mentoring in soft skills, holiday homework support, digital literacy and parental counseling.
Sustainability: The project data/outcomes/model and expertise of both mentors and counselors is a long term investment in the education & mentorship program.
SILP, acronym for ‘Strengthening Innovative Learning Practices post Covid 19 in Korogocho’ is a project implemented as an upscale to a pilot project known as ‘Strengthening Home studying culture in Korogocho during Covid 19 pandemic’. The pilot project provided home studying options for learners in Korogocho who happened to be disadvantaged while other learners in the country continued to access learning through online platforms. The evaluation of the pilot project showed results that could be classified into three categories; Success of the after-school support program evidenced by; 87% of the learners reporting that they found the sessions helpful in helping them identify their areas of weakness, 85% of the learners reporting that the after-school support program influenced their attitude towards education and 95% of the learners reporting that they felt they could recommend the sessions to other learners; Achievements of the parental Engagement as shown by 95% of the learners whose parents participated in the radio sessions reporting they have received some form of parental support towards studying at home; and the need for Life skills sessions as indicated by 40.8% of the learners who felt that the sessions would have been made better had they been engaged more in sessions that involved soft skills.
The SILP project came to advance access to innovative learning practices and life skills sessions among secondary and primary school learners in Korogocho in response to the learning gap created due to learners being out of school for an extended period of time.
Objectives
To promote peer to peer learning among select secondary school learners in urban informal settlements
To advance positive behavior change among the learners through innovative life skills mentoring, career awareness, relationships and leadership
To stimulate parental and community leader’s engagement in learning outcomes through parental counseling and stakeholder engagement
To capacity build teachers in ICT and interactive teaching techniques towards reinventing the learning process within the classroom set up.
Donor - Grassroots nest for Innovations and Change (GRIC)
Kilimo Jijini Project is a project that started in 2020 with an aim of training youths and women how to do farming with the little space that they have in the urban areas to utilize it by erecting different structures. The first phase was mainly aimed at training the youths in mushroom farming and vertical gardening in the informal settlements of Korogocho. The goal of the first project was to improve nutrition in the community that this project will take place and on top of that the group should also be able to benefit out of this project by selling the mushroom and the money they get can be distributed amongst them.
The second started in October 2021 where we trained two groups, 1 women group and 1 youth group. The best thing about it is that 3 youths from the first project who were now experts became the trainers of trainers (TOT’s) during phase 2. The main goal of phase 2 was to build sustainable livelihoods for households in Korogocho and its environs by empowering women and youth in urban farming.
Donor: KCDF
Objectives
To improve nutrition in the community.
To empower 15 young people and 15 women to use their talents and skills to earn a living in 4 months.
To establish 2 entrepreneurial ventures being run by young people and women in 4 months.
Sustainability Strategies
The leadership of the women and youth groups will be trained on proper implementation of the project; they will also be trained on urban farming techniques and marketing skills. This will create a situation where produce will have an avenue to be marketed for income generation and the cycle will ensure self-sustainability of the projects, both at the urban farming learning center and individual youth and women group projects.
As the world grapples with the unfortunate crisis of the coronavirus pandemic which is continuously contributing to rising cases of job loss, the majority of families in Korogocho don’t consider sanitary towels an immediate need. Such is considered a luxury.
Also, the economic strain in families has put girls at a disadvantage where many have been cut off from essential sexual and reproductive health services as well as social networks.
In order to restore girl’s confidence, reduce cases of teen pregnancy and ensure retention in school to improve performance, MKK embarked on an exercise to mobilize and distribute sanitary pads to the needy girls in the following identified schools which are all in Korogocho- Daniel Comboni, Glory, Starlight, Big Pen, Maranatha, Rehema, Jirani primary schools and Glory Secondary school.
Donor: Africa Cotton, well-wishers
Objective: To restore girl’s confidence, reduce cases of teen pregnancy and ensure retention in school to improve performance
Activities
Identification of schools
Identification of needy school going girls
Focus group discussions on menstrual health and hygiene with the identified girls
PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY.
Increase partnerships with: companies manufacturing sanitary pads (get trainings on how to manufacture), SRH institutions
Initiation of sanitary pads drive both physical and on social media (in kind and cash)
Miss Koch Kenya, under its education and mentorship program seeks to improve accessibility to quality education for high achieving girls and boys. Miss Koch also provides holistic care and mentorship packages around scholarship.
It is through the scholarship arm that the community is aware of the need to support their children through providing scholarships to parents who may not be in a position to take their children through the 4 year course in Secondary school.
DONOR
- Atari Gaming Company
- Corporate entities
- HP Dawda Foundation
- Trueblaq
- Individual donors
OBJECTIVES:
- To provide financial help to young people to access and succeed in their secondary and tertiary education.
- To provide continuing support for those who benefit from the fund.
- To campaign for and promote the interests of young people coming out of secondary School and celebrate their achievements.
- To work in partnership with other stakeholders including former beneficiaries to achieve these objectives.
ACTIVITIES.
Miss Koch Kenya holds an annual dinner fundraiser which brings on board all partners and stakeholders
PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY.
Scholarships have always been seen as instrumental in allowing developing countries to build human capital through education. By so saying, Miss Koch Kenya uses the sustainable development goals which have always been used to specifically call for more scholarships as part of the vision for human progress.
To safeguard the population from further spread of the virus, the Government of Kenya in March 2020 put in place measures such as travel bans, social distancing procedures such as partial lockdowns and curfew to try and contain secondary spread within communities. This led to an economic recession in the country which resulted in, amongst other things, loss of sources of income and hunger within Korogocho and its environs.
In response to this, Miss Koch Kenya proposed to initiate a project known as ‘Improving quality of life for residents in Korogocho and its environs during Covid-19 period’. The initial primary beneficiaries of this project were the vulnerable aging population and destitute families affected by the economic recession. With time, the scope was widened to include child-headed families, persons living with disabilities, reformed youth, single-parent families, and select households deemed needy. In the period, March 2020 - March 2021, Miss Koch Kenya and partners had reached 8000 Households with food hampers and 800 persons through various cash transfer programs, erected 20 hand washing stations within Korogocho, distributed 1000 liters of hand washing soap, provided 4000 people with face masks and erected houses for some needy families.
Objectives
- Reaffirming the commitment to work together for a better world that is inclusive, equitable and sustainable for everyone, where the freedom from hunger is realized.
- To promote and create awareness about the need for proper sanitation practices as a means to combat the spread of COVID 19.
- To provide sanitizers, water and water points for hand washing across all villages in Korogocho.
Partners
- HP Dawda Foundation
- Team Pankaj
- Atari Gaming
- Slum Child Foundation
- Blessed to Transform
- Human Rights Defenders Coalition
- Balozi wa Amani Initiative
Miss Koch Kenya in partnership with HP Dawda Foundation, began a journey of planning for children who are 5 years and below by creating safe spaces and playing grounds that will see their creativity boosted. 2019 we began the journey to make the dreams of young people in spaces that have been reclaimed to see that children also enjoy the spaces. Through private, public partnership we were able to reclaim a space and through HP Dawda foundation we were able to put Children Park within Korogocho community in one of the villages that young people reclaimed on a river bank.
It was with this pilot project that we thought it was good to impact children who hardly get spaces for their recreation. Realizing that this would make sense to the young ones, MKK resulted in scouting various schools to see what could be done to make critical sense. And hence making change in transforming the lives of young children. Among the schools and community spaces, we came across a school within the expansive Korogocho informal settlement that struck our thinking.
The head teacher, after seeing that the Early Childhood Development (ECD) center, learners were struggling in having their space, he resulted in securing a space that could host 160 ECD learners who would have a space of their own. This caught our attention on how we could make this dream through partnership. Taking a step we visited the site for more ideas and understanding. We are happy to partner with the school in construction of a class and 3 toilets to help the young learners have their unique habitable place. We are also providing swings for the learners and also fruit trees that will benefit them in the future and add to the beatification of the place and environment.
DONOR
HP Dawda
OBJECTIVES:
- To provide financial help to young children for them to access and succeed Kindergarten education.
- To provide continuing support for children who benefit from the fund.
- To promote the interests of children coming to kindergarten and celebrate their achievements.
- To work in partnership with other stakeholders including former beneficiaries to achieve these objectives.
ACTIVITIES.
Feeding program:
School feeding program:
MKK in partnership with Lohana Ladies Circle is happy to have begun the feeding program with New Starlight ECD center based in Korogocho Ngomongo village. The discussion of this partnership were finalized in Dec 2022, and coming to agreement for 1 yr. school calendar feeding program. We hope more partners will come on board to continuously keep the children in school. Feeding a developing child is fundamental to his or her growth in the early stages for stronger bones and general health. As parents are hard pressed with hard economic times we are happy to improving mortality of the young children within the community.
PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY.
The project will continuously feed the young children through parents support
MKK Deejay Academy has been in existence since 2013. It was founded with the aim of training youth on self-employment skills to support individual households sustainable livelihoods away from crime and crime related activities. Since its inception, the academy has seen over 400 graduates. Some of these graduates have become household names in the entertainment industry working in an array of genres and mainstream media houses.
Partners
- KCDF
- Trueblaq
Objectives:
To help develop opportunities to earn a living from the creative arts and by training them in deejaying and entrepreneurship
Provide safe spaces and improve access for the young to participate in the creative arts.
Activities:
- Entrepreneurships training
- Deejay training
- Exposure visits
The goal of the project is to nurture the creative talent of young people in Korogocho and to help them become income generating artists who are also socially committed and willing to use their creative art towards working for a better life in Korogocho. The project will also increase linkage with other promoters in the area of talent development and increase their chances of advancing in the career. The project will engage the duty bearers challenging them to support young people and expand opportunities.
Donor: Kenya Community Development Fund.
Objectives
Nurturing Talent & Developing Entrepreneurial Skills to secure better incomes and enrich lives and livelihoods among Youth in Korogocho
Activities
Young talented people identified and nurtured and trained in Creative Arts and social activism
Trainers are better trained on teaching the creative arts to young people.
Train the creative artists on entrepreneurship - on how to promote their talent and safely earn a living from it and how to best manage and invest their income derived from their talent.
Linkage and collaboration with other DJs/ performing artistes for exposure and mentorship
Follow the artists to ascertain the level of success in generating income through their talents
Sustainability strategy
The action aims at building human capital through the skills, knowledge, ability to labour and exposure. The target group will be linked up to local resources and business ventures in line with their talent and learning as a platform for the successful pursuit of different livelihood strategies. This therefore ensures sustainability given that they will have attained the knowledge of ‘fishing’ on their own rather than depending on the project action for continuous support.
MKK in partnership with team Pankaj organized a physiotherapy session to support children suffering from cerebral palsy, autism and hydrocephalus of families who were in need of the support. We undertook a survey of the children within Korogocho location and its surroundings. The data was analyzed and therefore zeroing down to the need to have children below the age of 18 whom their parents would manage to bring to the center. We partnered with Daniel Comboni primary school management to allow us use the multipurpose hall for the therapy sessions.
The total number of children reached with the support were 100 in total for a period of two months. Parents registered with a hundred shillings as a sign of commitment and this was also to be returned to them once they come for the session through food incentives to feed their children. It was a success however, the two month period was not sufficient.
Interventions of such magnitude require a center that would register such needs of the cerebral palsy children with physiotherapists to support the children. Since we were only partnering with the organization for the period of time estimated, we do hope that in future we would have organizations that can come in handy to help restore good health and hope to the children suffering from; cerebral palsy, hydrocephalus and autism. It’s an area that needs concerted efforts to aid parents from heavy burden and bills to taking their children to centers that require a lot of monetary resources.
Parents are still calling if the services can be offered as they got relieved from the expenses on the tasking exercise of taking their children to hospitals. They praised the support given to them as it improved the child’s physical being in being active and jovial.
Donor:
Objectives:
Activities:
Sustainability Strategy: