C/o Los Angeles times
P.o.Box 57, (00621)
Village market, Nairobi-Kenya
Email: winslowkids@gmail.com
Contact person: Vincent N Mokaya
Introduction
The Winslow Kids (K) community based Organization was founded in 2006. It was meant to provide solutions and answers to the basic needs that were realized in the GACHIE COMMUNITY: A LOCAL VILLAGE FOUND IN CENTRAL Kenya.
This village name, Gachie, is very familiar to the ears of many Kenyans and even the foreigners due to the insecurity that is rampant everywhere
It is very evident that the majority of the dwellers of this local community hardly can afford a meal in a day and in most cases they regard education a secondary need or a luxury that is reserved for the rich. For instance, among other needs they cannot afford a school uniform, a single-simple meal for lunch to keep them in school.
In this community, most of the children from poor house holds do not benefit from the free primary education that is heavily funded by the Kenya government through the public primary schools as they cannot afford to pay for the pre school private owned academies.
Teenagers/ youth in this Gachie community have turned their hopes of survival to cruel and crude means of earning a living. Male youths have joined armed criminal gangs and even participated in drug trafficking. Where as female youths have become commercial sex workers to earn a living to support their poor families. As a result, HIV and Aids is spreading like hamattan in the Sahara consuming young and productive lives leaving behind hopeless orphans under the care of God’s mercies through a few committed people who care for their needs. Those who are lucky to have parents have remained vulnerable and destitute.
Members of this Gachie community depend on agricultural products supplied by the neighboring communities. This is due to the dry climatic conditions in most of the months of the year. As a result, the prices are relatively higher!
The issue of insecurity has threatened and scared away community / social workers from this locality.
As a needy community, the Winslow was designed to focus on the development of children and serve them well to ensure that this community’s bad image is changed
Our vision
Existing out of common compassion for the children, the Winslow Kids (K) community believes in the value of education and voluntary as a critical element for child and community development. The Winslow Kids (k) community envisions the full implementation of universal education for Kenyans for the advancement of children’s rights through the creation of self reliant and sustainable families and communities. That through holistic, multidisciplinary approach to development, families and communities will have the capacity to uphold the right of the child and meet the needs of orphans, vulnerable and destitute children.
- Our mandate
TO:
Create and promote awareness about challenges of poverty on orphans, vulnerable, destitute and less advantaged in community.
Improve the quality of life, enhance and promote education opportunities for the needy in community through economic empowerment and sustainability approaches to the poor and weak households.
Create partnerships and linkages between Kenyan communitie4s as well as the global community to facilitate cross-cultural understanding and citizenship.
Work in collaboration with agencies committed with community empowerment and sustainability focused on development and stability. The intention is to build reciprocal empowering relationships for the organizations and communities through creative projects and fund raising.
Focus on activities meant to provide solutions to the immediate and future community needs.
Value
Utilizing holistic, multidisciplinary approaches to development in order to embrace the multiple dimensions of poverty, community development and sustainability.
Addressing the local and global reality on poverty in community instability as integrally inter linked. The Winslow (K) community’s work is guided by the belief in collaboration with projects linking local and global issues.
Education and good health as a critical tool for the advancement of families and communities.
The connection for elimination of all forms of discrimination in community based economical strengths.
Programs
(i) Education center
Program overview
Winslow Kids (K) Community based education center was started in 2006. It is located at Gachie west, a village in central Kenya. It is currently serving the needy community with pre school education through an education program that is operating from the Gachie west Baptist church.
After realizing the need in this community, the Winslow organization decided to set up this education center on 04/12/2006 to immediately start serving the needy children aged from the ages of 3-6 years. The whole issue was initially run by volunteers whereby it was able to recruit one of the volunteers to serve as a full time instructor to the children. Since then, the Center has been run under the care of volunteers as there were no funds to recruit more staff.
It has been evident that through voluntary, so much can be achieved in any given society. As a result, it has since been made a policy that volunteers who shall demonstrate proficiency in their service; stand better chances of appointments in the future whenever opportunities shall arise!
The program has ever served its clientele, the little advantaged / neglected in society as much as its capability. This has been appreciated always in many ways from the community. The clientele to the program have also had their roles to play in the program. For example, they have ever been available to perform cleanliness duties at the center and also provide some reading/writing materials for the children.
During its first year of operations, 2007, 21 children were able to join the first grade in the public primary schools. This means that they became part of the beneficiaries to the Free Primary Education Program that is heavily funded and run by the Kenya government. This year, 2008, 25 of the children at the center are expected to graduate to join the first grades in the public primary schools.
To achieve its goals, the Winslow is expecting to recruit many volunteers besides full time and part time employees in the future for better services to many people who are now becoming part of its clientele. It is also expected that the Winslow education program shall collaborate, affiliate and even partner with parties of similar interest both locally and globally to accomplish its vision of serving the needy/ less fortunate class in the community!
BACKGROUND INFORMATION/ STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The Kenya Government’s expenditure on the pre school programs is only one tenth of the national education budget (or $0.61 per child per year). This compares to 60% of the education budget going to the primary education, 15 % for secondary education and 22% for universities. The great majority of the costs of the pre schools are borne by the communities and external donors (Myers 1992:23).
History indicates that the first pre schools were started in the 1940s by and for the exclusive use of the European and Asian communities. Later, pre schools were developed in Kenyan locations, in the urban areas and on coffee, tea, sugar plantations to serve the workers’ children. This means that children in rural villages whose parents/guardians were not employed in the plantations did not benefit from the pre school education. After Kenya’s independence, pre school education expanded throughout the country under the Harambee spirit (self help spirit) that was fostered by the late President Kenyatta. In essence, this meant that whenever a community defined a need, it would create a program to meet that need. In this case, many village parents united, identified a location for the class, and a woman (teacher) to care for the children 3-6 years of age. They also contributed equally to cater for the teacher’s salary allowances.
The Harambee spirit was however met with unintended obstacles leading to negative consequences on the pre school education. This idea of equal participation/ contribution did not get well with less fortunate. So the community was divided into two classes; well off class and the less fortunate who included the orphans, vulnerable and the destitute. This division changed the whole idea of community Pre School to individual commercial pre schools (academies). At this situation, the poor in community almost forgot the idea of education as it became so expensive. To worsen the matter, the government did very little to solve the problem. This implies that poor population in Kenya cannot even attend the free primary education program run by the government through public primary schools as they lack the mandatory pre school experience qualification to effect an admission in the public primaries.
At this point, ‘educational independence’ to the poor in Kenya is still a nightmare. This is because like in 1940s, children of the well off still enjoy the pre school education which seems to be reserved for them.
To fight for ‘education independence’ among the poor in the Kenyan communities, a well organized and needy focused idea like the Winslow Kids’ is required to rekindle and claim the lost hope of literacy among all children in Kenya regardless of the economic class in society!
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
GOAL NO. 1: To eliminate illiteracy among the needy in community
Objective 1: By setting up non profit education centers to serve the less fortunate class
in community.
Objective 2: By providing teachers (instructors) to the education centers to ensure
Children are served well.
Objective 3: By providing learning/ instruction materials for proper learning
Objective 5: By educating and encouraging the community on how they can apply
Similar concept to safe the needy/ less fortunate
GOAL NO. 2 : To effectively utilize the idea of voluntary as a major factor in serving the Community
Objective 1: By expanding the voluntary team by recruiting students from child
Development training centers
Objective 2: By collaborating with local churches in offering short term programs to
Train more people on voluntary.
GOAL NO. 3: To propagate God’s word in the community
Objective 1: By ministering to the program clientele through seminars
Objective 2: By including biblical lessons in the school program
GOAL NO. 4: To learn from the global community
Objective 1: By affiliating with local and global partners with similar
interest. - Clientele
The clientele to this program has been drawn from this Gachie community. These are mainly people whose economic power is never relied on as it has been crippled as a result of poverty. They include Widows, Widowers, single parents and grand parents. Needy children including orphans, between 3-6 years of age are the main beneficiaries in the education program. Parents/ guardians to these children have also been economically relieved through the same program. For example, private academies in this community charge minimal fees of Kshs. 2500 per term for each child where as the clients to this program get the same service freely. This means that in every household of the clients, there is a financial relief of kshs. 7500.
Currently, the educational program has a population of 61 needy children.
On their side, the clients have been very cooperative when it comes to playing their roles which include preparing the children for school as early as 7:30 am five days a week, availing themselves at the study center for routine cleanliness daily during week days, providing some study materials (mainly a writing book and a pencil), and also attending meetings at the school whenever asked to.
During the proposal preparation, a lot of the material was directly extracted from this clientele through interviews concerning the needs and proposition on how to get established!
The desire of many people requesting to join the clientele team indicates that the perception of the program in this local poor community is good. As a result, there is confidence between the clientele team and the program as well as a good relationship.
Methods
The primary methods for achieving the goals and objectives of the project will be:
The expansion of the existing education center to accommodate many needy households.
To recruit more volunteers to the program to enhance the workforce required to encounter the ever growing population at the center.
To raise more funds for the establishment and development of the center for better and quality services.
Moreover a Documentation/Dissemination plan will be developed by staff to guarantee the systematic collection of information about the operation of the project and provide the basis for sharing information with other similar projects.
Staff/administration
The project will employ three full time two part time staff.
Project Director (fulltime) – Responsible for hiring project staff, overseeing project development and operation, establishing and maintaining links with local government agencies, global agencies, budget and will be the main contact person. The project director will be Vincent N Mokaya (author of this proposal).
Center Assistant (full time)-Responsible for running the center, organizing for new admissions as well as teaching the children at the center.
Volunteer coordinator (full time) - Responsible for recruiting volunteers, scheduling volunteers at the center as well as teaching at the center.
Sub-staff (full time) - Responsible for maintaining the structure and appearance of the center as well as picking and delivering parcels/letters.
Governing board- A 7 member Board made up of parents/guardians and religious leaders. Responsible for sanctioning the operation of the center, providing feedback to the project Director on center policies and operation and serving as a viable link to the local community
Needed resources
Personnel
The project director belongs to the voluntary team. He has been working and running the project part time. However, there is need for him to be fully committed to the project for its well being and establishment. As a result, a monthly salary allowance is required.
There is need of monthly allowances for a sub ordinate staff.
Facilities
Land
Currently, the education program is run from a rented Gachie West Baptist church building hall (above). It is difficulty at times to handle the three classes (divided according to ages) at a time as there is no any partition to separate the classes. There is no room to construct class rooms to accommodate the many needy children who are locked out of the program due to lack of the class room facility. The class organization is not as it is required. There is need to have a piece of land for construction of the class rooms, school library, administrative offices, playground which are not available at the moment.
Equipment/Supplies
Needed equipment
Chairs/tables for the class and administrative offices.
Computer/monitor/printer/copier/digital camera
Needed supplies
School library ( text books and study materials)
Paper/pencils/crayons/chalk/duplicating supplies and materials preparation.
Sustainability
An economic activity is very essential if at all this program must transform this community. It is realized that the utilization of the locally available natural resources and labor can provide the required long term solution to the hardships in this locality.
As a result, the Winslow kids (k) CBO have identified a niche for economic empowerment; Producing and marketing of agricultural products. This, if successful will directly employ the jobless in the farm from the poor households of the Gachie community and provide ready markets for the rural farmers who cannot afford transporting their produce to the markets where they can fetch good prices for their commodities. On the other hand, the profits obtained can relieve sponsors and project financiers of more funds meant to pay for workers allowances and general running of the project. As a result, a starting capital is required! - Budget
PERSONNEL
Director………………. $ 4200 p.a
Center assistant………. Already sponsored
Volunteer coordinator…. Already sponsored
Sub-staff………………… $ 1200 p.a
Sub total………………. ($ 4200 + $ 1200) = $ 5400
FACILITIES
1. Land ……………………. $ 12,900
2. Buildings……………….. $ 3000
Sub-total…………. $ 15,900 - EQUIPMENT
Chairs/tables for the class and administrative offices…. $ 500
Computer/monitor/printer/copier/digital camera……….. $ 870
Sub-total …………………....$ 1370
NEEDED SUPPLIES
School library (text books and study materials)……… $ 2000 Paper/pencils/crayons/chalk/duplicating supplies and materials preparation…… $ 250
Sub-Total…… $ 2250
ECONOMIC PROGRAM
Starting capital ………………….$ 9,000
Pick up van …………………….. $ 14,300
Sub-Total…………. $ 23,300
BUDGET SUMMARY( year one)
Personnel
$5,400
Facilities
$15,900
Equipment
$1,370
Supplies
$2,250
Economic program
$23,300
Sum total
$48,220
Evaluation will be done by a hired evaluator. A formative evaluation will be used.
Formative primarily qualitative in nature, will be conducted through interviews and open ended questionnaires. The clientele will be asked about the day-to-day operation of the project, benefits obtained and other questions to provide feedback for the ongoing improvement of the operation of the project. The project evaluator will meet the with the project staff to share the findings from the formative evaluation effort. Periodic reports will be prepared that identify the major findings of the formative evaluation and how they have been used to improve the project operation.
Any comments are highly welcome and appreciated in advance!
Readers can contact the author, Mr. VincentThrough:
Email: sautivin@yahoo.com, winslowkids@gmail.com
I will be keeping you with about the Gachie community, Central Kenya.
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