CMET program changing lives in Mathare

By Felix Omondi

In 2006, Titus Kuria, Benedict Kiarie and a Canadian woman, Victoria Shepherd, came up with the Canada Mathare Education Trust (CMET) scholarship program that is now changing lives in Mathare.

Driven by the challenge of providing post-primary education for the children, which they supported at the Mcedo Beijing primary school in Mathare, they decided to come up with the scholarship trust.

“The CMET program is for bright and needy students from Mathare where there are sponsored through high school and through university ,”says Kuria, one of the co- founders.

Ten years down the line, this program that started humbly with only two scholars now boasts of 130 scholars having gone through its system. 55 of them are still in secondary school while 75 have graduated from secondary school and are in tertiary institutions of studies with 8 currently in university, while 9 more expected to join this year.

16 year old Quenter Atieno, enrolled into the program in 2013 after she was able to score 306 marks out of the possible 500 marks in the Kenya certificate of primary education (KCPE). She studied at Salama primary school, a public primary school.

She said she got to learn of the program from posters advertising the program and through friends who were alumni of the program advised her to apply.

“This program has really changed my life a lot since my parents were unwilling to pay for my secondary education since the fees were too high,” says Atieno.

She was given a fully paid scholarship when she qualified for the CMET program and she is now in form 3.

During the holidays, the scholars are required to attend a one-week workshop, where they get to learn skills in leadership, mentorship, photography and videography, through a partnership with the Mwelu Foundation and Slum TV.

A day is set aside to give back to the community through activities such as tree planting, visits to children’s home or community clean-up.

Titus Kuria believes that one of the milestone made is people taking pride in the fact they come from Mathare because now they are well-educated like the rest.

“Many of our graduates are now proud to be from Mathare and are able to make well informed decisions.” He says.

He adds that many are able to make great decisions pertaining to life now that they are well educated by shunning drug abuse and criminal activities in the area.

Jesse Jackton who is a beneficiary of the trust and also the chairman of the Alumni program joined the program in 2011 and went to Mwer Boys High school in Siaya County. He attained a mean grade of C+ in the 2014 KCSE and through the program he is currently studying Bachelor of arts in secondary Education at Kenyatta university.

Jackton says that the alumnus of the program are tasked with many projects and also giving motivational talks to inspire the scholars.

Future plan

The program is currently fully-funded by well-wishers from Canada who make donations towards the scholars’ school fees.
CMET’s 10-year future strategic plan, is to seek for more funding for this program by developing partnerships with local organizations.

One on One – Tripple W

By Shem Wamani

Tripple W is a very promising music band, where did you guys start from?

We started the band in 2006 by then it was called “Wastardi” together with Leveex Mathayo and as time went by more artists joined especially dancers and decided to change its name to Tripple W (Waledi Wakali Wao ) music band.

What is your genre of music?
We do hip hop music and we have branded it hip hop halisi since its very inspirational carrying messages against gender based violence, crime, drug and substance abuse and bad politics and governance.

What inspires your music?
Our genre of music is inspired by our environment and our day to day challenges. We use it to bring hope and inspire more youth in Mukuru and other slums in general.

What has been the response rate of your music in the slums?
We have created our music with the intention of spreading the message of peace to everyon. With our target audience consisting of everyone from the mama mboga to the youth and child in the slum, our music is being received well and more and more people are encouraging us to keep on producing music.

How many songs have you recorded and realized?
We have done and recorded many songs but still in audio form. You can get our songs from mdundo at http://www.mdundo.com/a/3291, they are patriotic songs, that have a message of peace love and unity.

The music band has spearheaded the say no to violence campaign in Mukuru slums and its environs, can you tell us more about that?
The say no to violence campaign is a brain child of three groups the cop dancers, Amush youth organization and us. Our main aim is to bring artists together from different slum and all the country to stand together in one voice and speak against violence. The campaign is a peace initiative and also it provide platform for upcoming artists to showcase their talents.

Other than music, what projects are you involved in?
We sell t-shirts and wrists band with peace messages to slum residents. The promotional material helps when we have to produce our music, we don’t want to beg but rather think in an innovative manner in terms of coming up with the money of producing the music.

What are your musical challenges?
Our major musical challenge is adequate finance to do video shoot for our songs and also we lack platforms to showcase our talent.

What advice can you give to other upcoming artists like you guys?
All we can tell them is to work hard and focus on their musical goal. Let money and fame not be their priority in their career but only a reward of their impact to people lives through their music.

From career threatening injury back to fitness: Washington Ogonyo’s story

By Vincent Elegwa

A leg injury for any football player can mark the end of his or her career. This was the case for 18-year-old Washington Ogonyo popularly known as “Martial”, where a heavy tackle from an opponent during a friendly match, sent him writhing in pain on the pitch.

“The injury occurred on 20th of September 2013, when Nairobi Aviation college football team was playing against nationwide side Umeme FC at the Dandora stadium in a match, that was meant to strengthen the college boys’ technicality,” said Ogonyo.

After a medical stint at the Mama Lucy hospital in Komarock Estate, Ogonyo was transferred to Nairobi hospital for specialized treatment

“I was treated for three months for a bone injury on my right leg at Nairobi hospital, said Ogonyo.
He found the PlayStation game, FiFA, a therapeutic way to keep in touch with the game throughout his recovery period. The struggle was yet to come where he needed to get back to fitness prime.

“I linked up with county-side heavyweights Pellico FC, who at that moment were training at the Ziwani grounds. I got an opportunity to play alongside my age mates and instill into myself the confidence I needed, to move on from the injury which had lowered my confidence in fifty-fifty tackles,” explained Ogonyo.

It is at Pellico FC that he also got the opportunity to participate in the famous annual Kothbiro tournament.The tournament is known to produce talents.

Under the hawk-eyed coach, Fredrick Okoth, he was soon sported by Kariobangi Sharks who took him for trials.

“At Kariobangi sharks, I had a hard time breaking into the first team, because I was not a Kariobangi resident as previously thought by the technical staff. With that I knew my time at the club would be limited,” revealed Ogonyo.

Ogonyo is currently signed to division one side, Umeme FC that is currently fourth on the table standing, with 27 points from 18 matches behind leaders Rongai stars, second placed NYSA FC and third placed Zamalek.

Although he still regrets missing out on an opportunity to sign for premier league side, Ogonyo is focused on shining for his current side and making a name for himself in Kenya’s football hall of fame.

Breaking the Autism glass ceiling

By Veronica Kaveza

The news of having a baby to a new mother comes with a lot of excitement and joy
to both parents and family as a whole.

The mother’s anticipation overshadows the pregnancy blues: the cravings, the upwards and downward emotional swing of moods and physical changes experienced.

But what happens when the baby comes with complication or a disability? The reality of giving birth to a special need kid or a child with disability can be traumatizing and heartbreaking.That is what happened to Jenifer Ngina when she had her first born.

“When l gave birth to my daughter she didn’t cry and that was an alarm that something was wrong. She weighed two kilograms. She had to stay at the incubator for two weeks and later discharged” Ngina reminisces.

According to Ngina, the doctor had assured her that her daughter was well. No sooner had a week passed, than they were back to the hospital.

“The doctors told me that my daughter had rickets, several days later my daughter experienced convulsions,” says Ngina as she tries to control the tears in her eyes.

This time the doctors told her that her daughter had cerebral palsy.

“It was hard for me to believe, but l come to accept the condition of my daughter and I have moved on with life,” narrates Ngina.

But this was just the beginning of her many trips to the hospital.

July 2016 Issue

The July 2016 issue is out! Our stories this month we will debunk the myth surrounding autism, how one organization is planting tech-savvy youth in the ICT field, and many more stories about Nairobi slums….Read more on: july_edition