UNICEF education staff share their stories

NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.

Tizie Maphalala
Education Specialist
UNICEF Ethiopia

© Wossen Mulatu/2011
Ethiopia, 2011. Neima, 13, at the Children’s Race, Addis Ababa Stadium.

It was overcast and rather chilly on Saturday, 26 November, the day of the Children’s Race at the Addis Ababa Stadium. The stadium was alive with excitement; it was a day for children to enjoy themselves.

The final event of the day was a 200-metre race for girls and boys with disabilities. The last two runners were the ones that caught my attention. The second last was a child in a wheelchair, whose teacher was pushing him toward the finish line. The last one was a girl with one leg balancing on a crutch and hopping steadily – with a caregiver/teacher just a few metres away to give support.

About 20 metres from the finish line, she hesitated and stopped, exhausted and seemingly ready to give up. The crowd wasn’t sure how to react. I shouted, “Go girl, go!” but in my head I prayed that she would not give up. After hesitating for a few moments, she managed to regain her composure and hop steadily towards the finish line. With the crowd cheering her on, and children clapping and dancing, the girl won the race.

Afterwards, she told us, “To tell the truth I was scared at the beginning. I was not completely sure that I could do this… But the crowd gave me moral support. There was clapping and shouting to encourage me to continue and finish the race. It makes me believe that if one tries, disability cannot stop one from accomplishing what he or she wants.”

I was filled with pride that I was part of the UNICEF team that gave these children an opportunity to feel “ordinary,” and also be accorded the opportunity of doing what other children do.

Dr. Vijitha M. Eyango
Chief of Education
UNICEF Cameroon

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-2032/Sweeting
Cameroon, 2009. Teacher assists a student with her reading assignment at the public school in Perma Village, North Region.

Dembo is a multi-grade school hosting a significant number of refugees from the Central African Republic. The first time I went three was in November 2010, where I witnessed first-hand the resilience of a determined school principal and teacher and the local population as they hosted the refugee children sharing their precious school space.

Visualize a school comprised of one multi-grade classroom with only two teachers (one of whom also served as school principal) divided into six discrete classes. The refugee students accounted for almost 40 per cent of the students enrolled. Instead of seeing anger, frustration and resentment – as one might expect when a poor and vulnerable local population is forced to share their small cramped school, materials and teachers with refugee students – I saw harmony, community engagement and resilience.

Fast-forward to April this year, when we launched the Cameroon chapter of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative in this very school – our “School of Hope” – which now boasted new classrooms and a water station.

My most inspirational moment was watching the Minister of Education, U.S. ambassador, and UNICEF Representative walking towards the podium amid that same sea of faces I’d seen the previous year. Faces of resilience had been transformed to faces of joy and hope for a better future. The journey wasn’t easy but the result made it all so worthwhile.

Louise Mvono
Chief Basic Education and Gender Equality
UNICEF Zimbabwe

© UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0403/Pirozzi
Zimbabwe, 2006. Students at a UNICEF-supported primary school in rural Murambinda Growth Point in the eastern Manicaland Province.

“This is the first time in my life that I have a full set of textbooks.” – Hearing this from orphans and other children in Zimbabwe has provided me with great inspiration, courage and faith in what I can do for children who cannot even afford to hope.

Through the Education Transition Fund, a $50 million project for development partners to support the Ministry of Education, UNICEF and partners provided more than 21 million textbooks and stationary to all primary and secondary school children.

Now working in Sudan, I received a message from a former colleague: “Today was a great day – the start of distribution of secondary school books. The Prime Minister spoke of how children with absolutely nothing, not even shoes, now have a full set of textbooks! The Education Minister specifically mentioned you, thanking you in absentia for the amazing work you did and for having started such an amazing programme.” This is one of my most precious memories. For me, working for UNICEF is fulfilling professionally but also personalally; it provides me with the opportunity to help the voiceless. I feel so thankful to UNICEF, its mandate, vision and credibility that provided me with the opportunity to contribute to such amazing results. Together we contributed to ensuring that primary and secondary school children in Zimbabwe will have access to textbooks for the next 3 to5 years.

Amina H. Ibrahim
Education Specialist
UNICEF Kenya

© UNICEF/NYHQ2004-0146/Furrer
Kenya, 2004. Children work in groups during an exercise, in class at Kihumbuini Primary School in Kangemi, a neighbourhood in Nairobi.

From 1990 to2006, less than five girls from all ten girls’ secondary schools in the North Eastern Province of Kenya qualified to join university. The equity gap was severe in both secondary and higher education for women from nomadic communities. UNICEF and its partners came up with a girls’ scholarship program which increased the number of girls attending university and give them confidence and aspirations for the future. The scholarship program addressed the decades-long gap in higher education for girls and women in the nomadic communities.

The success of this program led to the birth of Northern Kenya Education Trust (NoKET) – a program that institutionalized scholarships for nomadic children. Launched in November 2011, NoKET is scaling up advocacy efforts and lobbying to reduce disparities in secondary education. Lessons and technical knowledge from Kenya were also shared with the UNICEF office in Somalia, where a similar girls’ scholarship program was developed in Somaliland and Puntland.

I feel blessed, proud and humbled to be part of UNICEF family and experience the birth of NoKET, a program that will changes the lives of many excluded girls for many more years to come!

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By Daisy Serem

TURKANA DISTRICT, Kenya, 11 November 2011- Lowa Lokopu, lost her husband four years ago after he fell ill. Forced to take up the responsibility of running a family alone, she struggles to provide for her five children.

Lowa’s eldest daughter, Sheila, a student at Napuu Primary School, was only 13 years old when her father died. Her educational pursuits became increasingly challenging as the family did not have enough money for food and school supplies. Sheila would walk almost five kilometers to school and back home every day as she could not afford boarding at the school. It was during this time that she conceived her first child at the age of 15.

”I didn’t have money for boarding and the school was far,” said Sheila. ‘The person who impregnated me used to wait for me when I walk back home and give me money. He used to entice me with money but when I became pregnant he disappeared and it is my mother who has supported me.”

Back to school

Almost two years on, her daughter is healthy and happy and innocently unaware of the challenges Sheila and her grandmother have faced bringing her up. Despite her struggles, Sheila is determined to secure a better life for her and her daughter and has even resumed her studies at Napuu Primary.

The Napuu Primary School in Turklana District, Kenya, is benefitting from the partnership between UNICEF and the African Girl’s Education Initiative (AGEI)aimed at promoting girl-child education.

The school has had its fair share of teenage pregnancies leading to school drop outs. Early marriages are also a common barrier for the girls who seek an education. It takes great courage and commitment for young mothers like Sheila to return to school, leaving their children at home to concentrate on their studies. For many this is an impossible feat.

“The issue of pupils dropping out of school especially girls has been brought out by the factor of poverty which is affecting almost all families in Turkana,” explained Napuu Head teacher, Gabriel Ekalale.

Making education a priority

UNICEF has partnered with the African Girl’s Education Initiative (AGEI) to promote girls’ education and ensure it is a priority in Turkana County. They have supplied sanitary towels for girls and boarding equipment such as beds, mattresses, bed sheets and mosquito nets in a bid to lessen the burden on girls seeking an education.

Anne Ekai, 15, says the sanitary towels and hygiene facilities have made a great change for the young girls in the school.

“Before UNICEF brought for us the sanitary towels we used to just stay home when menstruating and come to school when they finish,” she said. “It used to be very difficult but since then there has not been even one girl missing school because of their periods.”

Never too late

Back in Napuu Primary School, the evening is drawing in and Sheila has settled in to her bed at the school’s girls’ dormitory while her mother is at home taking care of little Napus. A few years ago she could not afford to board but the Government’s low cost boarding initiative has cut down on these expenses. And with the supplies from UNICEF, Sheila is even more motivated to stay in school. Some would say this is a little too late for this young mother, but for a girl who is determined to see through her ambitions, it is never too late.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-1345/Antony Njuguna
Kenya, 2011 - On 17 August, a boy drinks a high-nutrition porridge at Catholic Integrated School in the drought-affected district of Wajir, in North Eastern Province. Hundreds of children are receiving porridge at the school, part of a national policy to continue school lunches during the summer vacation to ensure children are fed.

Press release

NAIROBI, Kenya, 20 October 2011 – The massive international response to the child survival crisis in the Horn of Africa has already shown some positive results, but much more needs to be done to save hundreds of thousands of children at risk of dying from malnutrition and disease, UNICEF said today according to a progress report three months after famine was declared in parts of Somalia.

See the full report here [PDF]

”We have saved many children, in Somalia, in the refugee camps in neighbouring countries as well as in the other regions in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti hit by prolonged drought, escalating food prices and conflict,” said Elhadj As Sy, UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, releasing the report: Response to the Horn of Africa Emergency.

“Due to the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis, we have to increase our immediate response and at the same time lay the foundation for long-term development to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening again.”

“We need more support to scale up even more our integrated interventions in health, nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, education and child protection to create a better future for the children in the Horn of Africa.”

Some 13.3 million people need assistance. More than 450,000 Somalis have fled to the refugee camps around Dadaab in northeastern Kenya, including 100,000 since June. Another 183,000 Somalis have fled to Ethiopia, including more than 120,000 to the refugee camps in Dollo Ado, 20,000 refugees went to Djibouti.

Thousands of children have already died, and more than 320,000 – half of them in Central and South Somalia – are so severely malnourished that they may perish as well in the coming weeks and months, if relief operations are not scaled up rapidly.

The report found that the international response was extraordinary. Thanks to all the support, in the past three months UNICEF and partners across the Horn have achieved important results on which to build, including:

• Almost 10,000 metric tonnes of life-saving UNICEF supplies delivered to the Horn of Africa by air, land and sea routes,
• 108,000 severely malnourished children treated through therapeutic feeding centres,
• 1.2 million children vaccinated against measles,
• 2.2 million people provided with access to safe water and
• 48,000 children with access to child-friendly spaces or other safe environments.

The report also found that community-based systems like the Productive Safety Net Programme and the Health Extension Programme in Ethiopia have been instrumental in preventing higher death rates.

In Central and Southern Somalia, where access for humanitarian agencies is limited, UNICEF has been able to reach 350,000 people with supplementary feeding and some 30,000 families with cooked meals while they were on their way to the refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Forecasts for the October-to-December rainy season indicate that food security may improve in Kenya and Ethiopia, where rains have recently began. Still, experience also shows that seasonal rains, after prolonged drought, increase the risk of flooding and outbreaks of deadly diseases such as cholera, malaria and pneumonia.

In Central and Southern Somalia, the situation will rather deteriorate further if humanitarian access cannot be improved rapidly and significantly.

“We need to go the extra mile to reach all children and their families who need our help. The crisis is far from over, and will definitely continue well into 2012,” said Elhadj As Sy, who is the UNICEF Global Emergency Coordinator for the Horn of Africa crisis.

“One thing is clear: with continued support from our donors and partners, our combined efforts to save lives, livelihoods and ways of life will make a difference.”


For further information, please contact:

Michael Klaus,
UNICEF ESARO,
Cell + 254 716 431 880
mklaus@unicef.org

Patrick McCormick,
UNICEF New York,
Tel +1 212 326 7426
pmccormick@unicef.org

Marixie Mercado,
UNICEF Geneva (on mission with UNICEF Somalia),
Cell + 254 705 188 134
mmercado@unicef.org

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By Rob McBride

WAJIR, Kenya, 26 September – 2011 – In a futile attempt to save the last of the goats, Ali Yusef Omar, 16, and one of his younger sisters had no other option but to feed the ravenous animals handfuls of shredded-up cardboard boxes they had scavenged from the local town. Kept in a make-shift pen made of thorn bushes, only three remain out of a herd that had once numbered two hundred.

“Of course these goats are going to die,” said the boy with a resigned shrug of his shoulders. “You think they’re going to survive on boxes?”

Burdened with the adult responsibility of providing for his mother and five half brothers and sisters, Ali was sent to town to attend high school, with the hope that it would lead to a job that could support his family. When the rains dwindled, however, so have his chances of remaining in school.

A monumental challenge

Here in Wajir, in the drought-ravaged north east of Kenya, Ali and his family live in a camp mostly populated by other displaced families like his own. Many have arrived in the last few months, in an attempt to escape the ravages of the emergency. Most of the men still tend to what remain of goat herds, while looking for food, work or both.



© UNICEF video
Ali Yusef Omar, 16, and his family have been displaced by the severe drought in north eastern Kenya. Despite these devastating circumstances, he tries to keep up his studies because he dreams of finishing his education.

“The living conditions are terrible for the people,” said a solemn Ali. “All we have is porridge to eat. I feel so bad about it. My family is hungry and there is nothing I can do.”

Trying to get an education had already been a struggle – now it’s a monumental challenge. Sharing a simple hut made of branches and straw with the rest of the family, Ali is forced to do his homework by flashlight.

Hope for the future

Still, against the odds, he has been getting good grades – his last report card detailing all A’s and B’s. “The subjects I like best are science and math,” he explained. “Because, whatever you do, they will help you most to get a job.”

With his family’s fortunes suffering along with the rest of this community’s, a job for Ali is their sole hope for the future, and one that is dependant on him staying in school.

“For me, it’s good for me to do my hard work,” he said in broken English, one of the subjects he is striving hard to improve in. “To save them (the family) for future life to get educated is also important. I want to be an educated man.”

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By Manuel Moreno and Kyle O’Donoghue

DADAAB, Kenya, 9 September 2011 – For children around the world, the end of the school holidays usually comes with mixed feelings. That was surely the case as schools re-opened their doors this week in the Dadaab refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya.

The difference here is that many of the pupils are new arrivals who have travelled from Somalia with their families looking for safety from famine and violence. Most of them are not even familiar with formal schooling.

“We normally get children from Somalia who do not know what education is. They only know about fighting and conflict,” says Ahmed Hassan Mohammed, head teacher at the Illeys School in Dagahaley camp. “So many of them do not know what a school is,” he added. “They do not know what a teacher is.”

According to the latest estimates, 156,000 children of school age are now living in the Dadaab camps, but only a third of them are in school.



© UNICEF video
Noor Dawud, 15, fled Somalia six months ago and trekked with his cousin to Dadaab, Kenya. His father perished in the conflict in Somalia and he does not know where his mother is.

Accelerated education

One of the newly arrived children, Noor Dawud, 15, came to Dadaab after a trek from Somalia with his cousin. Noor’s father died in the war in their home country, and he does not know where his mother is. Two months ago, his brother arrived and went to collect him from the cousin.

The brothers now live together in a little house made of a few branches tied together on the barren, windy plains.

Since his arrival, Noor has been determined to get an education. To that end, he enrolled in a UNICEF-supported accelerated learning programme at the Illeys School. The programme is designed to fast-track new arrivals into mainstream classrooms.

“For now, all I want to do is learn. Maybe in the future, I can become a teacher,” says Noor.

‘A smooth transition’

UNICEF Kenya’s Chief of Education and Young People, Suguru Mizunoya, underlines the importance of the preparation programme.
“In Somalia, only one third of children are attending school,” he explains, adding that “the difference in the language for the new arrivals is a challenge. So the accelerated learning initiative is really necessary for a smooth transition into the education system.”

Illeys is one of two schools in Dagahaley that are running accelerated learning through a partnership between CARE International and UNICEF. The school was established in 1992, when the first wave of refugees arrived in Dadaab, fleeing the civil war in Somalia. It was selected for the fast-track programme because it is the nearest school to the camp’s outskirts, where the vast majority of the new arrivals live.



© UNICEF video
Only one third of the estimated 156,000 children of school age in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya have access to education.

Coping with enrolment

The Illeys School currently accommodates some 4,036 pupils and 58 teachers in just 25 classrooms. The student-teacher ratio is 168 to 1, and many children have to learn outside in the heat and dust. In preparation for the new term, UNICEF has provided basic education materials and erected tents to cope with the increasing enrolment.

One of Noor’s favourite teachers at the school is Hassad, who sees education as an important step in rebuilding the Somali refugees’ fractured nation.

“Some of [the children] are stressed, some of them are traumatized, others are discriminated against, others are lost children. So they are confused,” explains Hassad. Education will help them understand the important role that they and their peers can play in the future of Somali society, he adds.

New beginnings

The World Food Programme provides an after-school feeding programme to help the education process along in Dadaab, and the UN refugee agency covers the cost of the incentives that Hassad and other teachers receive on a weekly basis.

Schools in the refugee camps also provide vital opportunities to promote health and hygiene as part of an effort to avert disease outbreaks in the camps. In addition, they afford important protection for children amidst the mass population now filling Dadaab.

Now that the new term has opened, Noor has been able to join the regular classes. He is a fast learner.

“Children went through very difficult times to arrive here, and today is their first day of schools,” says UNICEF’s Mr. Mizunoya. “For me, today is a very good day, almost like a celebration. Here is the place where their new life starts.”

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© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0999/Kate Holt
Somali children waiting to register for food and other aid in the Dagahaley refugee camp in North Eastern Province, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The camp is among three that comprise the Dadaab camps, located on the outskirts of the town of Dadaab in Garissa District. In Kenya, 1.7 million children have been affected by the drought, including 220,000 Somali refugee children in the north-eastern town of Dadaab.

By Rudina Vojvoda

NEW YORK, USA, 12 September 2011 – As the emergency escalates throughout the Horn of Africa, the numbers of those in crisis continue to grow. Currently, 13.3 million people in the region are in need of humanitarian assistance. Somalia is the worst-affected country, with more than 750,000 people at risk of death.

This dire situation poses some crucial challenges to the education services. Due to displacement and lack of security, more than 1.8 million children are unable to attend school in Somalia. Meanwhile, in drought-affected areas in Kenya, there are significant shortages of school facilities, teachers and learning materials due to a large number of refugees that are seeking education.

Listen to the Podcast in Streaming MP3 format

To discuss the beginning of the school year under these extreme circumstances and the importance of education in emergency situations, UNICEF’s new podcast moderator Femi Oke talked to Mr. Jumma Khan, Education Cluster Coordinator for Somalia and Mr. Garisa Omara, a Senior Assistant Director of Education in the Kenyan Ministry of Education.

Education situation dire

Years of conflict, back-to-back droughts accompanied by food crisis, poverty and lack of funding have put the education of children in south and central Somalia in a desperate situation. Approximately 25 per cent of children were attending primary education before the crises and this number is expected to drop at the beginning of this school year.

“We are very worried about the education situation in that area [south and central Somalia] because there is no Ministry of Education there,” stressed Mr. Khan. Traditionally the education system in these areas is supported by Community Education Committees formed by local leaders, parents and teachers.

“Now the communities are unable to pay the fee,” Mr. Khan further explained. “Teachers have been displaced because they don’t have any livelihood there.”

Immediate assistance needed

Running from famine and violence, many children from Somalia are going to schools in Kenya.

“We need teaching and learning materials,” said Mr. Omara. “Putting up infrastructure such as classrooms and supporting mobile schools are essential because most of the people are on the move”.

Supporting this idea, a recent publication by the Education Cluster in Kenya calls for immediate support in order to establish temporary learning centers, and provide classroom space to accommodate new students in host communities. Furthermore, assistance is needed to ensure adequate water and sanitation facilities and provide essential teaching and learning materials for children and teachers.

]]> http://www.educationandtransition.org/resources/the-on-going-drought-in-the-horn-of-africa-threatens-the-new-school-year/feed/ 1 http://www.educationandtransition.org/resources/podcasts/a-world-fit-for-children-podcast-4/ http://www.educationandtransition.org/resources/podcasts/a-world-fit-for-children-podcast-4/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:34:49 +0000 unicef http://www.educationandtransition.org/?p=434


© UNICEF/2007/Galanek
Podcast moderator Amy Costello hosts a UNICEF Radio discussion with 13-year-old Duhabo Goleecha of Kenya (left) and other guests.

NEW YORK, USA, 19 December 2007 – Providing education to children in regions and societies affected by conflict – or emerging from it – is a major challenge. Yet communities in conflict-affected areas consistently rank education as a high priority. And they demonstrate astounding resourcefulness and resilience in seeking out and providing schooling for their children.

Education to achieve goals

It has been five years since ‘A World Fit for Children’ was adopted as the plan of action emerging from the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children.

Last week, as in 2002, young delegates convened in New York – this time for ‘A World Fit for Children Plus 5’, a follow-up meeting with the General Assembly to discuss the issues that matter most to them: protection against violence, abuse and exploitation; prevention of HIV; and access to a quality education.

Dahabu Goleeca talked about how critical education was in achieving her goals. “First we want an education,” said Dahabu. “If you educate, in your future, your life will be normal.”

‘Better than diamonds’

While delivering education to countries in the midst of conflict can be complicated, aid agencies have demonstrated that it is not only feasible, but critical to achieving the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals.

“You might have to do it slightly differently if everything was a stable, normal situation,” said Tove Romsaas Wang. “But it is possible. And we have to be willing to take that risk.”

“The children of any country – these are the assets of that country,” added H.E. Dr. Minkailu Bah. “We call them the gems of the country. They are better than diamonds.”

About this Podcast

A discussion about educating children in some of the world’s most challenging contexts, featuring these guests:
H.E. Dr. Minkailu Bah, Minister of Education, Sierra Leone; Tove Romsaas Wang, Chair of the Rewrite the Future Campaign and Chief Operating Officer, Save the Children Norway; Alan Court, Director of UNICEF’s Programme Division; and Duhabo Goleecha, 13, from the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.

Listen to the Podcast in Streaming MP3 Format

Listen to the Podcast in RealAudio

‘A World Fit for Children’ – Podcast 4

Click here to listen to other podcast in the “BEYOND SCHOOL BOOKS” series.

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© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0171/George McBean
Shoes are piled near a group of children attending a UNICEF-supported temporary school in a camp for the displaced in the western town of Nakuru

By James Elder

NAKURU, Kenya, 19 February 2008 – When Yvonne’s family fled the violence that ravaged their village, the eight-year-old lost her home, her precious plastic necklace, her school uniform and her classroom.

“We don’t have much,” she said, “but we always had our school.”

The violence that swept through Kenya after December’s disputed presidential election occurred as children such as Yvonne sought to start a new school year. As UNICEF strives to provide safety and stability to hundreds of thousands of Kenyan children, education is fundamental

.

Last week, Yvonne was finally back in school – in a UNICEF tent classroom at one of the camps here the conflict-torn Rift Valley. She was elated.

“I have two dresses that my mother saved from our burning house,” she said. “This one is my favourite. It’s my Sunday church dress, but coming back to school was special so my mother allowed me to wear it to school.”

Classroom as sanctuary

As Kenya’s crisis continues, UNICEF is urgently seeking $6.6 million for emergency services. Much of the money would go toward protection, education and assistance for more children.

“The classroom is a sanctuary for so many children like little Yvonne,” said UNICEF’s Representative in Kenya, Olivia Yambi. “It’s safe, secure and somewhere they can begin to play and learn, and move beyond the horrors that they’ve experienced.”

Pinto Omondi, 13, is a student at a school in Nairobi’s biggest slum, the scene of the capital’s worst violence. More than 300,000 Kenyans have had to flee their homes over the past six weeks. As many as 1,000 have been killed. The number of reported cases of rape has doubled. UNICEF estimates that 150,000 children are in makeshift camps spread across the country – and more than half of these are children under the age of five.

Real progress in difficult times

So sudden was the eruption of violence that many families fled their homes with only what they could carry. Now living temporarily in fields, showgrounds, schools and churches, the children play in dusty patches amidst the elderly sleeping on their mattresses and those who simply sit, reliving the terror that befell them. Families’ meagre dinners burn over open fires, and toilets are overcrowded and unsanitary. These are the people UNICEF seeks to support.

This past month in Kenya, UNICEF has:

• Provided nutritious foods to 70 per cent of the children in the camps
• Ensured that more than 15,000 children are going to school in UNICEF tents
• Provided over 50,000 people with access to safe water
• Supplied 50,000 family kits, which offer shelter materials, cooking pots and utensils.

“We have made real progress in a short space of time and amid great logistical challenges,” said Ms. Yambi. “But we have many more children who need our help, and they need it today.”

Three young girls stare at the remains of their grandmother’s home. UNICEF is urgently seeking $6.6 million for emergency shelter, education and protection for Kenyan children affected by recent violence. Selfless acts provide safety

While Yvonne was back in school and talkative, her friend’s fearful expression told another story.

“She saw her uncle cut up and killed by youths with machetes,” one of the girl’s teachers said. “She hid with her auntie, but she saw it all.” In response, the teacher visits the girl most nights in the camp, tries to help with her homework and gives her what food she can.

It is a selfless act, like others that are being repeated across Kenya daily. Despite having their lives thrown into disarray, Kenyans are ceaselessly stepping up to help each other. Here are just a few examples.

Francis, 17, spends his days helping children in a newly established camp next to his hometown. “This is a time for forgetting about me and looking after others,” he said.

In Kenya’s largest slum and the scene of much fighting, a teacher, Leah, housed and fed 20 children for two weeks when the violence threatened their lives. “These children live in horrid conditions every day of their life,” she said. “How could anyone seek to make their pain even greater? There was no question that I would do everything I could to keep them safe.”

And then there’s Anna, 9, who goes from door to door with her friends asking neighbours for any socks they can spare. She then hands them out to girls in the camps. “Socks keep your feet warm at night,” she said. “Next, I want to collect shoes for them.”

That would greatly please Yvonne. “Some of my friends have no spare clothes, no books, no shoes,” she said. “Some are in school, but some still aren’t. I just want us all to be together again, safe in school and in church.”

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UNICEF tent schools provide sanctuary for Kenyan children displaced by violence

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