By Mike Wamaya | Team Leader Project Elimu Kenya
The year 2021 was not an essay year for our school's parents, as the majority of them have been unable to recover economically since Kenya's fast lockdown was announced in 2020, leaving over 90% of them without a source of income. This has also resulted in an increase in cases of Gender-based Violence (GBV), Teenage Pregnancy Crime, and Mental Health issues among our students.
Our community has fully accepted the crucial gap our center is filling for the larger community, not only as a dancing space but also as a safe space for Kibera's adolescent females, which we would have not been able to accomplish without your continuous support.
Within the Kibra community, children with various disabilities are frequently denied the opportunity to participate in co-curricular activities. Many youngsters are viewed as outsiders and are sometimes imprisoned in houses while their peers play as a result of a variety of circumstances.
We have enabled such youngsters, regardless of their disabilities, to participate equally in all of our co-curricular activities thanks to our program's open-door policy.
Through dance, we are improving academic gains for our students.
The majority of our youngsters come from a variety of Kibera schools (13), some from high-performing schools and others from schools with few instructors. We encourage our students to share their knowledge in the group and peer discussions, as well as to recognize the importance of asking questions as part of the program. This strategy appears to have worked, as some schools have reported increased academic achievement to us.
Our dance classes are children-centered and divided into three stages.
Beginners ages 4-8. With this group, we do lots of imagination and visualization through paintings.
9–13 Intermediate We place a greater emphasis on technique development in ballet, African dance, jazz, and contemporary works.
Seniors mainly high school teenagers we focus on dance and social work.
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