From Mary Wanjiku and Betina
This being an annual event, the children look forward to have the unique experience each summer camp brings. Our workshop has always been ‘HOW DO I MANAGE MY FINANCE?’. The participants are form three students 12 of them. This is one of our exit steps as form three students get ready to join the rest of the world in one years’ time.
We had quite a lot to cover between 18th and 20th to enable the students to attend the Career Day Camp at KBN. This was not easy but the students really cooperated and thus it was a success and we did complete our workshop by Wednesday 20th-8-14. This workshop helps the students to begin getting ready for their life outside mothers Mercy Home. Facilitated by Betina and myself. We occasionally had volunteers like Stephen Naing’anda, a Form Four student who went through this workshop last year and Sarah, a very great MMH Summercamp volunteer.
We began the workshop by asking the students to pick character trait cards (only positive ones) and hand them over to the person they suit. This was amazing because we needed them to see themselves in the eyes of their brothers and sisters and the results were amazing.
We covered our major topics like the interviews, personal etiquette, budgeting, writing a CV among others. We did have a couple of games to enhance easy learning through team building. All games were unique and it was really amazing to see each one of them take part in their respective groups.
The students were very dedicated trough out the workshop and we would have afternoon sessions to cover the three days that we would go to KBN.
The students formed two groups each of this got 2000 Kshs to buy some items and the emphacy here was the power of bargaining as far as saving is concerned.
It was very encouraging to see most of the students make contribution to make their team win in various group tasks. During this workshop, we also had a session on good grooming and we invited Miriam Wairimu, a beauty student at Ashley’s Academy- Nairobi. This was very important to learn because they all plan to go for internship at some point. It is also important to teach our senior youth to give back to the community once they acquire the skills.
SUMMER CAMP CAREER DAY AT KBN.
This was icing on the cake. It was a very interactive event through which our students learnt a lot. The camp begun by team building games to help the students know one another. This was conducted so well and we did this every morning as an ice breaker.
On the first day, we had Johnstone Mwakazi who is a very successful media personality and it was very encouraging to hear him narrate his very challenging childhood in Nairobi- Kibera. This was important for our children to understand that it is not where one comes from that determines our destiny but our choices. Johnstone took it further and challenged the students to be self driven and mark their areas of interest in good time to enhance making a career decision from an informed point of view.
The afternoon session was very exciting and the children were engaged by a couple who are artists (Tiffany and Muriithi). They were taught to recycle used materials and make some good things out of that. It was very encouraging to see the results which were great items i.e. rings and wrist bands.
Dr Weche also engaged the participants in a very helpful discussion on what he does with students. He told the students that it is very important to seek for their own internships and ask for help in areas they have difficulties. He brought in students who are in the AKAD education program. He also brought some of his mentees who interacted with the students. Please check.
We also had Mr Wahome who discussed the money matters. He encouraged the students to have a saving culture because it is through saving that one gets financial breakthrough.
Mr Dalizu also spoke about entrepreneurship and he encouraged them to be more innovative. He challenged them to be solution givers in their areas of interest. He also sensitised them to patent their intellectual property to avoid losing ideas to other people.
We also had music and spoken word. This was done by Tiffany and spoken word by Dan Mwangi of NTV Business news. He gave his personal experience and said that Nation media Group spotted him while reciting his poems. He asked them to take their gifts very serious by polishing them. We had a session on sexuality and this was in two groups of girls and the other one with the boys. It was really great to see them open up and discuss issues that bother them. Some of the questions were very sad but the volunteers and facilitators handed them in a very professional and helpful way. Nicholas Maina was in this group and worked with the team too.
In general, this was an experience worth taking our children to. It is important to take our children to meet such personalities and out of such interactions they admire a better life than the one they lived or still live today.
THANK YOU TO ALL!
