Purpose
The purpose of the project is twofold. One purpose is to bring unique proven hands-on leadership training to youth in Kit Mikayi and nearby farms so that they may bring about desired change to improve their circumstances on their own.
The second purpose is to provide a cultural and humanitarian experience for the Youth Leaders who have already mastered much of what is available in Kids in the Spotlight as it is run at Haven Institute in Gabriola Island, BC. It is an opportunity for them engage in cross-cultural collaboration as we embark on bringing the Kids in The Spotlight Youth Development Training program to Kenya.
The Team
KITS Kenya debuts with the Kit Mikayi Mission in April 23, 2011. A group of 11 self-funded volunteering leaders from North America will bring the KITS Youth Leadership Training to Kenya. Spearheading the KITS Kenya project is Denise Goldbeck, PhD cand, DipC, RCC, and Elisabeth Edelen, MA, CPA cand. in cooperation with Partners In Community Transformation in Kenya.
Denise Goldbeck is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a Masters in Developmental Psychology and is a candidate for a PhD specializing in social and moral development. She is the creator of the Kids in the Spotlight program in its 24th year at The Haven Institue and the creator of the Youth Leadership Training Program. Visit www.denisegoldbeck.com for more information about Denise.
Elisabeth Edelenhas a Masters of Arts in Counselling Psychology as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and is currently pursuing a CPA. She has been intimately involved with Kids in the Spotlight as she has brought her son and daughter from Seattle to Gabriola for 17 years to participate in the program. Her enthusiasm for this project is inspiring.
Contact Denise or Elisabeth for information on sponsorships, donations or volunteer
opportunities.
Denise@kidsinthespotlight.ca
Elisabeth@kidsinthespotlight.ca
Denise Goldbeck is a Registered Clinical Counsellor with a Masters in Developmental Psychology and is a candidate for a PhD specializing in social and moral development. She is the creator of the Kids in the Spotlight program in its 24th year at The Haven Institue and the creator of the Youth Leadership Training Program. Visit www.denisegoldbeck.com for more information about Denise.
Elisabeth Edelenhas a Masters of Arts in Counselling Psychology as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and is currently pursuing a CPA. She has been intimately involved with Kids in the Spotlight as she has brought her son and daughter from Seattle to Gabriola for 17 years to participate in the program. Her enthusiasm for this project is inspiring.
Contact Denise or Elisabeth for information on sponsorships, donations or volunteer
opportunities.
Denise@kidsinthespotlight.ca
Elisabeth@kidsinthespotlight.ca
About Partners In Community Transformation, Kenya
About Kit Mikayi
Kit Mikayi a small village of about 1000 located in West Kenya. To get to Kit Mikayi, we will fly to Nairobi. Then we will take Air Kenya which provides two flights per day to Kisumu. Kisumu is the third largest city in Kenya and is a port city on Lake Victoria.
Kit Mikayi which is a small, safe town near Kisumu which is Kenya’s third largest city. Kisumu is Partners in Community Transformation's home base for many good reasons. The people here are warm, kind to each other, and close-knit. This is a charming town, one of the friendliest, safest places to visit in Kenya. Please see the websites below for more information.
Who We Will Be Working With In Kenya
Although there are five schools in the area, for simplicity’s sake, the first year we will focus on working with children from one school. The one school is dual in that it contains Kit Mikayi Elementary School and Kit Mikayi Secondary School. Also there is a pre-school nearby.
Jeremy has said that he wants to continue with the plan to bring in children from some of the outlying schools as well. It appears that we have already got plans underway to bring children into Kit Mikayi School from 4 or 5 other schools. So we may very well be covering a larger area in terms of children. I see advantages to this since the children will not know each other as well as if we saw children who were already socializing a lot together. On the other hand logistics may make this more challenging for us.
We will be working with 30 or so children from the school. There will be children representing all the ages we work with - from 3 to 19. There will be more older children than younger children for the first year as we will need their help translating. The people in Kenya generally speak three languages - their local tribal language, Swahili and English. Many of the elementary aged children will not be speaking English very well yet.
The children we will be working with are poor by our standards, yet they are working hard to improve their circumstances. Children in Kit Mikayi have chores that must be done in addition to their daily participation in our program. Children are responsible for walking goats, tending chickens, weeding gardens etc. on a daily basis.
The school day begins very early - 7:00 a.m. Children arrive at school at 7:00 a.m. and take one class after which they are served porridge. Academic classes continue until it is time to go home for lunch. Some children remain at school for a hot lunch. At 3:00 p.m. the children play sports on the field for one hour daily and then go home to chores, dinner and early to bed. It is rare for someone in Kit Mikayi to still be awake at 9:00 p.m.
We will be immersed in the village life of Kit Mikayi. People there will be very friendly to us and will acknowledge and greet us constantly. To be polite we must greet them and say hello often. It is important that we learn some swahili or Dulou (the tribal language in Kit Mikayi) so that we may greet people properly and respectfully.
The people in Kit Mikayi are very excited that we are coming. Last year after Darcie and Mackenzie’s visit, the fact that we are coming to do a program is something that people there have been looking forward to with great enthusiasm.
What We Will Be Doing
We will be providing a modified form of the Kids in the Spotlight workshop. It will start in the late afternoon of April 25 where we will meet all the children and the parents. The first full morning of the program will be April 26. We will continue according to a schedule similar to our Kids in the Spotlight program, with an extended day for children 10 and over.
Our show will be on Sunday May 1 at 4:00 p.m. on a still to be constructed stage in the football field, which is surrounded by school buildings. After the show we will have general dancing on the football field. The next day will be our closing day where we will give feedback and share. We will leave Kit Mikayi early on May 3.
Our goal is to bring Youth Leadership Training in Kenya to provide skills for young Kenyans so that they can lead others in projects of their own which will enhance their lives and the lives of others. The skills include communication, enhanced abilities to engage in social interaction, organization, self-awareness, identity achievement, and self-embodiment. The delivery of the training for these skills involves hands-on leading opportunities and the creation, production and presentation of a show. The group building that is necessarily an outcome of the production of a one-hour show supports identity achievement for each member of the group. The co-creation, the show, is then presented to a large audience. In Kit Mikayi, a small village of about 1000, it is anticipated that the about 600 people will attend the show! After the show we will have dancing on the field for all. The last day brings a chance to get together and give each other feedback so that we can learn more about ourselves.
