Sam during her cultural immersion programme in the Ntashat village over the hills of Ngong

In the village of Ntashat, over the hills of Ngong where the Maasai inhabit, Samantha Corfield is getting ready to dress up in traditional Maasai attire. She’s had her breakfast under the acacia tree right beside the cowshed. The acacia tree is home to tens of the superb starling birds. The birds are whistling  as they hover around their nests. One nest is green. It’s recently woven signifying a new life for one superb starling. I am keen to ask samantha if there is a “green nest” in her life since coming to Kenya.

“I am starting to realize more and more that there is a huge difference between what we want and what we need”.

On her first week Samantha visited Jamiii Children Home, a Centre for abandoned children. She was hit hard to realize that some of the rescued kids did not go to school because of lack of school uniform.

“Seeing that there are these children desperately wanting to go to school and the only thing that is stopping them is having a school uniform hit me hard”, says Samantha.

She could not believe that a pair of school uniform could stand in the way of a child’s future. Samantha explained that in the western culture kids are always complaining about going to school; “they don’t want to go to school.”

“Here the kids are just so desperate, they want to get an education and it is just sad that fifty dollars for uniform can stop their chances of having an education and a better life. It’s really sad” Samantha sighs in sorrow.

A qualified secondary English and Drama teacher from Australia, Sam, as we fondly call her, has taught English for the last three years in different countries including Singapore and the United States. She currently runs a program with girls to help them build self-esteem and confidence and will be in Kenya for six weeks to teach English in rural schools.

Rescued kids from the streets of nakuru. Sam was able to send them back to school with all the school supplies they needed.

The sad story of the four boys; Nixon, Sidney Dan and Njoroge moved Samantha to donate two hundred dollars towards their education. This enabled the boys to sit for their end-term examinations. The four boys are happy to catch up with their peers although it is the last week of the school term.

Away from the overwhelming needs Sam has come across, back in the village of Ntashat, over the hills of Ngong, life is so relaxing and nice.

The memories are nostalgic and infectious as Samantha leisurely relives them: “It was actually kind of really nice sitting around the Manyatta at night… and we have no electricity… so we just have like a candle going… and the rain is like hitting the roof… it’s really loud and we are sitting around talking… it was just really relaxing and nice.”

It has been raining the whole weekend and the roads are really bad. On our way out of the village Sam is forced to cross a river. She does it with the resilience of a determined woman. Life in the village is an experience that will stay with Sam for a while.

“Coming here, people are just so happy with so little. It just makes you kind of reassess what is important in life.”

Crossing the river in Ntashat village where Sam immersed herself into the Maasai culture

The cultural immersion programme that we offer expose our volunteers to the diversity our world offers and the experiences are always life changing.

Samantha came to volunteer in Kenya through the Institute of Field Research and Expedition (IFRE). It is the most affordable volunteer program abroad. Samantha leaves Ntashat village with a new perspective and a new name. Her Maasai name is Naserian which means “Peace”.

After Kenya, Samantha is going to Tanzania and volunteer in our program there before tightening her boots for the adventure of a lifetime; climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro!

Look out for Samantha’s volunteer experience video that will be out soon.

Injustice hurts all of us

I am always amazed at how justice is simple, so simple to a fault. Amazingly its simplicity has made it so complex all over the world. From a religious standpoint, justice is doing unto others what one oughts to oneself.

Simple things like saying “I am sorry” when you realize you’ve hurt someone else, is justice that heals. Imagine the millions of people suffering today because of the deficiency of “I am  sorry?!”

If I am to present Social Justice Advocates Africa (SJAAFRICA) in its simplest, I would say SJAAFRICA is you and me standing in the gap and saying “I am sorry” in the many ways possible to a hurting society. Our mission is to heal the world, heal the souls of children and their generations.

We advocate for and empower grassroot organizations standing in the gap for others. You too can do it.

I have a dream that one day we’ll wake up to a society that says “I care” through their daily lifestyle.

Let us work together and inspire a just and responsible society.

Shaken residents view the body of a women killed by a stray bullet

Cité Soleil in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince may be the most dangerous place on earth by United Nations rankings but Kibera slum in Kenya’s capital Nairobi is by far the most dangerous place to live your dream.

Today the Ghosts of Kibera Slum came for their dues and four bodies lay dead in a mid-morning gunfire exchange between youthful criminals and the police.

What is disheartening is that an innocent man and a woman fell victims to stray bullets.

The woman and a middle-aged man lost their lives when they got trapped in the scene of death after the police and the armed gangs started trading bullets. In the ensuing exchange, the policed killed two young men believed to live a gangsta lifestyle.

March 14: End of the road for a youth living a gangsta lifestyle

According to eyewitness, the woman was trying shoes at the street market while the man was at his daily business premise.

In Kibera young men have become easy targets of police killings. It is actually taken that life expectancy for Kibera youths is 25 years. It is sheer luck to cross that age alive.

One young man summarizes it this way: “We do not run to the scene of crime, we are the scene.”

Crime in the slum is a daily occurrence and gunshot sounds are part of the lullabies for infants.

Youth silenced by a bullet. lack of skills to earn income attracting slum youth into crime

Asked what could be the problem, the youth themselves claim that the high unemployment rate among them is the root cause.

Last year I lived in Kibera for 120 days starting April 1 and I came out alive by the skin of my teeth. Daytime gun robbery is a dress rehearsal.

My question always is, is there someone out there willing to rescue a life out of Kibera before another bullet silences their dreams and hopes?

It is possible to trade guns with skills among the youths for a just and responsible society.

Christina at a daycare for orphaned children

The help you give to someone else may seem insignificant to you but it could be a matter of life and death to them. This is what a 22-year-old bank clerk from Munich Germany experienced on her volunteer work in a slum in Kenya.

When Christina Lehner arrived in Nairobi Kenya, she had no idea she was about to rescue a woman who had been refused by doctors and send back to the slum to die.

All Christina, a 22-year-old from Munich, hoped to do was to meet great people, experience a new culture, help a bit and maybe give love. She did much more; she gave life!

Christina arrived in Kenya On January 7 ready to volunteer in any way but never imagined she would lift a woman out of her death bed back to life.

I placed Christina with Living Positive Kenya (LPK) a non-government organization (NGO) that seeks to improve the physical and psychological health of women and children infected and affected by HIV/AIDs and living in the slums. The program is designed to teach women to become self-sufficient and to empower them economically with skills.

Christina immediately took charge of Noreka who was bedridden after defaulting on her HIV medication and discharged from the hospital for dead. Noreka had despaired and only waited her death every passing day.

Noreka was discharged from the hospital after doctors had written her off for death but Christina cared after her and now Noreka is walking!

Through the home care program of LPK, Christina faithfully visited the Mathare slum and Noreka’s house to take care of her. Some of the things she had to do for this woman who was in an advanced stage of the disease cannot be described. The many days of neglected care caused her body to stiffen and her bones take a dying posture.

As days went by, Noreka started responding back to life. She could move her limbs. It encouraged Christina and she kept nursing Noreka with the hope that one day she would rise from that bed and walk on her own.

Christina’s faith in action worked: she dedicated her six weeks, giving daily homecare to Noreka; washing her, her clothes, feeding her and helping her take her HIV medication as required. Noreka is now back to life and she is learning to walk again.

“You have made me feel like a human being again”, said Noreka when saying goodbye to Christiana who left Kenya back to Munich German where she works as a bank clerk.

“You have made me feel like a human being again”, Noreka said to Christina on her goodbye words.

Christina’s volunteer work has impacted a life. Noreka would have died and left her four children orphaned. But with the love of Christina, she is back on her feet again and will be around for her four children.

Once Noleka is fully recovered, she will  join the women empowerment program at Living Positive Kenya and learn a skill to earn her daily bread for her family.

The help you may give to another person may seem insignificant to you but it could be a matter of life and death to that person.

When Christina met Noreka, she could not move out of her bed.

In the Biblical Story of Jacob’s family, Yusuf had a dream. He was a favorite son of his father but his 11 brothers except Benjamin betrayed him and sold him off to the Egyptians. In a twist of fate, Yusuf comes from prison to become the Prime Minister of Egypt and his God-given dream and leadership talent saves the whole world from a seven-year famine. That may be the Yusuf of Israel but he’s not that different from the Yusuf of Kitengela and his unusually talented son. Parents, when it comes to the future of your children, the back stops with you.

A child prodigy: The ten-year-old who is constructing apartments

He was nine when he drew a giraffe though he had never seen one. This caught the attention of his class teacher. The class teacher took the drawing to the school head teacher. The school head realized that Yusuf Karanja was not an average child; he had a God-given talent of drawing things. He gave Yusuf five drawing books and a pencil to nurture his talent. He also sent for the boy’s father to discuss about his son’s exceptional talent.

His father never showed up. The teachers always asked YUSUF to draw them, something he did to everyone’s amazement. At ten, Yusuf’s family moved from Pumwani to Ngong.

At Ngong, no teacher ever took interest in his talent. It was the end of a dream but a lesson on parenting and family.

He was the next Michelangelo who never became but his son is the next master architect who will become. Ten-year-old Ismail Mbugua is a budding architect and he is building apartments in Kitengela where a construction boom has pitched tent.

Ismail Mbugua is named after his grandfather and so he has been nicknamed Babu. He is a normal child when you meet him. He is always with his toy racecar raising dust in their half-an-acre compound in Kitengela, Kisaju area. He is the second born in a family of four and lives with his father Yusuf Karanja and mother Fatuma Njoki. He loves soccer, he’s a Chelsea fun and Didier Drogba is his role model. His dream is to play professional soccer and become a star like his role model. But Babu as his father calls him, has a God-given talent; he is an architect.

“He started by making cars; he always dismantled toys and assembled them again, that was when he was 9. When he turned 10, his interests shifted to building houses”, says Yusuf, the boy’s father whose talent was cremated forty years ago.

At Pumwani primary school, Yusuf had the support of his teachers but when the family moved to Ngong, the teachers there were different.

“In the new school, no teacher took interest of my talent and that was the end of a dream”, says Yusuf who is now a painter.

In the Kisaju area where his family settled, he gets small jobs of painting houses or fencing plots. Kisaju area of Kitengela has seen a construction boom lately. But Yusuf is determined to see his son develop his talent unlike him.

The ten-year-old’s piece of architectural genius, one month since he started.

“I will not do what my father did; ignore my talent.”

As I talk to the father, Ismail, the boy, is unaware of the possibilities ahead of him. He is climbing trees, flipping and jumping off them just like any normal child. It concerns his father that the local schools falls short of his son’s ability.

“We do not have talent-based schools here”, the father says.

Ismail attends Kilakir Academy but the father sees no hope in the current curriculum.

“The schools should have something for kids like Babu.”

At class three, Ismail says his favorite subject is mathematics.

“My class teacher is called Nancy and I love Mathematics”, says the shy child prodigy.

His father says that Babu used to play soccer all the time and used wires to dismantle and assemble toy cars. But when Yusuf started to build the family house, Babu took interest.

His father wishes Babu would get a school that can meet his needs where he is part-time in school and part-time nurturing his talent.

“Our education system is all about books, there is no chance to develop any skills for children like Ismail. There should be skill-oriented lessons on mechanics, electrical wiring, construction, sports but many schools do not have such arrangements”, argues a bitter Yusuf.

These skills are introduced too late when the child has already lost interest, says Yusuf, the boy’s father.

Ismail’s current project is a three-storey apartment building. He started the construction last Monday of December 2012 and in four weeks; the building is 70% complete. He should have been given the vice-president’s palatial home to build. The former vice president, Moody Arthur Awori would have enjoyed this house that took forever to complete.

Babu’s apartment building is made of real sand, concrete and cement. His father has been nurturing his son’s talent by providing him with the necessary materials he needs.

“I make sure I provide everything he needs like water, sand and cement. I also let him use my tools to do his construction. When cement is over, I go buy a new cement bag and put it in the house. We have water here”, explains the father.

Ismail at his construction site. His dad, Yusuf has been very useful in providing his son with the right construction material to nurture his son’s talet

His father has also bought him drawing books.

“We sit down with him and I show him how to design a house.”

Fatuma Njoki, the boy’s mother is proud of her son.

“Sometimes, I have to get him off his project when the sun is too hot.”

When Ismail starts working, he gets absorbed to such an extend that you can’t get him off the construction site. His mother has to force him to take a break.

“He constructs something, if he doesn’t like it, he dismantles it, picks his drawing book, designs it afresh and starts again until he is satisfied”, says Fatuma, the mother of four.

The family wishes their son would get the right school so that his talent can be nurtured.

“As a father I feel my son is missing something. I am giving him the best I can right now but I don’t want him to end up like me”, the father says.

Yusuf Karanja ended up doing house painting, erecting perimeter walls and once in a while, whenever he is called, do some roof work and electrical wiring on houses around Kisaju.

“I am proud of what I am doing for a living but I could have been better. That’s is why I am supporting my son actualize his God-given ability.”

I encourage my son to have a positive attitude towards the construction jobs, says Yusuf.

“I explain to him that construction work pays well as it is a booming industry right now.”

Kisaju in particular, the bungalow appetite is well articulated from the genius pieces of architecture that dot the area. Perhaps, this is the inspiration that drives the 10-year-old Ismail Mbugua, the kid architect whose talent needs a mentor. Like clay, he can be shaped at his tender age. His father is trying all he can as a parent.

“The success of a man is not cars or buildings, it is his family.”

In a recent story, I watched a video of a boy who had used discarded electronics to come up with a radio. He wants to be a DJ. He was lucky to be spotted by a PhD student in Massachussett Institute of Technology. He secured him a visa to Boston and the boy had an opportunity of his lifetime. But there are many kids who never get discovered and their talents sink into oblivion.

For parents, I have four indicators I gleaned from one Harvard Business Review podcast that I think you can use as a guide to look out as talent traits in your children. The four traits are: Experimenting, Networking, Questioning and Observing.

One group of exceptionally talented children ask unusual questions like, “mom, where do children come from” but not-so-bright parents answer their children “the supermarket!”

Other types of prodigy kids experiment like Ismail. He is experimenting by breaking apart toys and building them back. Most parents reprimand their children when they dismantle that new toy that cost the parent a leg and an arm.

For some kids, they are the neighborhood Kofi Annan’s. They are notorious in getting other kids to their house to the chagrin of the parent. Frowning on your child’s ability to make friends is discouraging them from learning networking skills that form the DNA of innovators.

The other trait among innovative kids is the observer skill. There are kids who are keen on a process, adapt it and start doing things their unique way.

Once bitten twice shy and Yusuf is not going down the path his father took and killed his son’s dream.

At this point, I leave Kisaju thinking of Eleanor Roosevelt words “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” The father’s dream is to see his son’s architectural talent nurtured and not neglected like his own talent was.

The cry in the desert has been heard and I hope parents will get to know their children with the four innovator’s DNA.