Introduction
- I am Joyner Odhiambo from Nairobi, Kenya, a founder and a current volunteer of Smiles of Ayo Foundation.
- I started Smiles of Ayo Foundation mainly to effect changes on the community that would transform the lives of needy children and orphans in slums of Kibera and Mathare; through education, nurturing their talents, empowering women and youth in the community, establishing health care and first Aid in schools and generally help improve and develop the community.
- During my research and community work in this two slums I came across large number of children who do not attend school and women and youths who are unemployed which necessitated offering support their families.
- The large number of children dropped out of school because of various social and economic reasons. Owing to that, I decided that I would do something to try and improve the lives of people living in the slums.
- For this to happen I decided to dig deeper and get reasons why there are kids in the streets begging and high crime rate among youth.
- This consequently leads them to involvement in risky situations such as theft and burglary which was crucial to my research and working towards finding solutions.
- It was also hard to realize that there are large families that try to survive with less than a dollar in a day.
Challenges within the Communities
Most parents or guardians couldn't afford the cost of living, leave alone to take there kids to school. Also when i interacted with the kids most of them wished all could be well and just be given that opportunity to learn. I took the initiative to look for support in order for them to go to school, hence identified 3 schools to work with not knowing that even in the schools there are limited resources for the kids to learn. There are little or no teaching materials like textbooks, desks, tables and chairs, less teachers and poor black walls to right on. Less classrooms for the kids in that in one room we can possibly have two to three different classes. One teacher attending to 3 different classes with more than 30 kids per class, and pupils from different grades share the same room.
Situational Overview
There for i believe with a construction of community center we will be able to give them an alternative and easy way to access learning materials whenever they are in need of it. Also, a fully equipped library and computer room can be efficient when we have the kids and youth who can attend free lessons, do assignment, research and other activities such as art. The kids will be able to access all they need after class and over the weekend for more studies. We will also be able to improve the socioeconomic status through our empowerment program where we give training to youth and women, help them start small business that improve their standards of living both financially and socially..
Importance of the Community Center
Typically, the community center will provide an accessible resource for the community. The center will be able to give guidance and counselling to children, youth, adults and families in need.
The community center project in line with the foundation has provided the schools with more books, pens chalks and other learning materials but still it's not enough. We are also working on motivating the teachers by offering them with the opportunity to go for training and also get better payment.This is to continue keeping the kids in school and enabling them have education which they have rights to.The community center project will even make it easier to get more kids off the street and encourage them to go back to school. Other than that, the community center will be vital in nurturing talents and skills.
As an individual and Smiles of Ayo as a foundation we believe the center will be of great help and will benefit a wider range of community members in general, hence a great step and improvement in the community.
