Week 14 - Children Feeding Program
Three old desktops hummed — fans working harder than the afternoon deserved. Children in Class Six and above leaned forward, fingers learning keys as if keyboards were new instruments and they were figuring out the scales, hunting letters with the same focus they use when a teacher writes an exam date on the board.
We opened computer lessons as a test run: can we teach without shaming beginners, can we keep order when curiosity outruns bandwidth, can we protect equipment in a room that also welcomes dust and elbows? The session doubled as engagement — something worthwhile to hold minds while pots finished on the fire, steam and fan-noise mixing in the doorway, patience measured in minutes until the whistle for food.
Excitement showed in quick smiles when a window opened on screen — small triumphs we want to stack week by week. ETCO’s empowerment goals are not a poster; they are a child who can type her name and mean it, uppercase where it belongs, cursor blinking like patience.
We need more mice, surge protectors, and patient volunteers who can repeat a step ten times without sighing. Extension cords trip easily when twenty feet want one socket; we tape them flat and still watch, because a bruised knee heals faster than a ruined screen.
A boy opened a spreadsheet cell and typed his mother’s phone number wrong twice; the third time it sat clean and correct, and he looked up like he had unlocked a door, the screen’s pale glow on his cheeks proof that mistakes are not the end of learning.
The smell of food climbed the doorway while lessons ran — a deliberate order: minds first, then bowls, because empty minds and full stomachs rarely arrive on the same minute. If you can donate hardware or sponsor internet days, contact us — digital skills should not be a privilege reserved for estates with fibre hanging like decoration, not here, not when curiosity is already waiting.
Project Site Visit by Rotary Club of IPSWICH (USA) and Kikuyu (Kenya)
It was a great and engaging day of partnership and learning as we hosted the International Rotary Club of IPSWICH team, led by Environmental Lawyer Chris and his wife, Jane, Former President of Rotary Club of Kikuyu Hon. George Ngotho and Rotarian Yumbya for a visit to our project implementation sites. The visit provided an opportunity to review the project areas on the ground, discuss implementation priorities, and strengthen our shared commitment to sustainable environmental and community development. We also had the opportunity to visit the Nairobi Rivers Commission (NRC), where we were hosted by Commissioner Dr. Loice Kipkorir, a member of the Ngong River Committee. We explored opportunities to strengthen collaboration and align our work with the Nairobi Rivers Commission's Restoration Framework.
Community Capacity Building Training
We are currently participating in the ongoing PROVE (Public Space Governance Research, Observation, Validation and Experimentation) Pilot Programme, a four-month initiative by Public Space Networks (PSN) bringing together 11 community groups from Kamukunji and Korogocho. The programme focuses on strengthening community organizations’ capacity to manage, protect and improve public spaces as well as restoring rivers and it's ecosystems. The ongoing capacity-building training is helping CBOs and community organizations better understand the connection between public spaces, river restoration and ecosystem conservation, while exploring practical approaches and stronger collaboration among communities, government agencies, development partners and other stakeholders.
High Level NRC & Development Partners Meeting
Representing the Ngong River Regeneration Network, I'm having the privilege of attending a high-level breakfast meeting convened by the Nairobi Rivers Commission (NRC) in collaboration with the Kenya Permanent Mission to UN-Habitat. The meeting has brought together Development Partners, Government Agencies, Private Sector representatives, and Community representatives to deliberate on the restoration and sustainable management of Nairobi’s rivers.