Kids in the Spotlight in Kenya
By Jessica Harbert: The face of a smiling child transcends all language barriers. And being the reason for that smile truly makes an everlasting mark on one’s life.
Kids in the Spotlight (KITS) is a local program taking place for the last 24 years in Gabriola Island, British Columbia. The program just took its first venture abroad, partnering with Kenyan-based organization Partners in Community Transformation (PiCT). The eight-day program worked with primary and secondary students, ages 3 to 23, in the small village of Kit Mikayi, home mostly to people of the Luo tribe in Western Kenya. The KITS program brought 11 self-funded members from North America, most who had never traveled to Africa before. The KITS program teaches children about leadership, personal growth and development and interpersonal relationships, focusing the participants on an end goal of performing a creative production of a musical. This time around the group performed an original take on the novel Les Miserables, with a relatable story line addressing struggles and injustices familiar to the youth in Kit Mikayi.
The group faced challenges, both logistical and cultural, and worked in a new environment changing their own perceptions and expectations for the trip and the program abroad.
From day one to the end of the program, it was a journey in itself to watch the children open up. Experiencing a childhood in a much less fortunate economic area and facing many hardships in the duration of their lives, these children began the program withdrawn and quiet. After just a few days of the program, and the children observing the KITS leaders smiling, dancing and enjoying themselves and each other, it was apparent that the true impact of the program was achieved. These children’s faces began to soften and their smiles shone brightly. It was undeniable of the positive impact this program had on the young faces of Kit Mikayi. With well-worn clothing and few apparent material possessions, the program helped bring invaluable and intrinsic values to this community, including respecting oneself and each other.
The KITS program abroad
Despite any expectations or hopes, venturing to a small town in Western Kenya to facilitate a program designed for a Westernized culture was beyond anything imaginable. With a group of 75 participants challenges were constantly arising. Initially, it was difficult enough to find a space at Kit Mikayi Secondary School to house this large group. But all challenges aside, the program proved to rise above and be a success in an adapted version from the program that regularly takes place in British Columbia.
The program also encompassed a vast range of ages so the students were broken down into age groups, offering time as a whole group and then time for younger students to spend time playing games, drawing and playing football (soccer) and the older students to spend time in lessons on leadership and personal growth.
Although the program traveled to Kit Mikayi, Denise Goldbeck, founder of Kids in the Spotlight and coordinator for this trip to Kenya, admitted that it was a new incarnation of the existing program back in British Columbia. The KITS program typically consists of a youth intern program the week leading up to the KITS program, to give the older participants some training prior to running the program with various age groups. And during the KITS program, Goldbeck leads a parent’s workshop to give the children’s parents coaching and their own learning experience. But neither of these specific aspects of the program was able to happen in Kit Mikayi, due to handling unexpected problems that arose and limited time in the community.
“The program I created may one day be taken across the globe but I think that will take a considerable amount of time and effort,” Goldbeck said. “First of all, we would need a facility where parents and children can interact throughout the program. I don’t believe I met one parent of one of the children or seniors. This is unusual as I generally enjoy meeting all the parents of the children in the program.”
But although the program took on a new look while in Kenya, the purpose was not at all lost. In fact, it was a wild success in its own right, morphing and evolving to the new culture and group of children. Elisabeth Edelen brought her children to the KITS program in Canada for years, and now traveled to Kenya with her two grown children who helped facilitate the program. She worked throughout the trip abroad making connections and forming relationships with teachers and community workers in Kit Mikayi, helping with logistical details of the journey.
“I consider the program a success only by the faces of each participant who worked towards the production of KITS – Kenya,” Edelen said. ”This was a situation where they stepped up to participate and experience being a youth leader. It was very gratifying to experience so much poise and enthusiasm in the final production. This is a group of very talented young people of Kit Mikayi and I got to experience, firsthand, their enthusiasm and courage.”
The KITS program and Goldbeck are working to organize future programs abroad, not only hoping to venture back to Kit Mikayi next year, but also looking into other options for taking the program abroad.
As a long-time participant of the KITS program in Canada, leader Mackenzie Dickson was at the forefront of the program in Kit Mikayi. He is a main facilitator of the program, coordinating children and leading hours of the workshop with his enthusiasm and energy. His experience in Kenya was different from that in Canada, where he helps run the KITS program every year.
“In Kit Mikayi I was able to see an awakening in the youth we worked with,” Dickson said. “Many of the concepts that I took for granted for example talking about how you are feeling were foreign and new to them. The youth were very appreciative and were excited to share their new findings with others around their community as they wanted to take the program around Kit Mikayi while we were gone! It was very impressive! This awakening was inspiring, both for us and them, as I think it opened their eyes to new potentials and possibilities as they were given more tools to be able to build their lives within the way that they want.”
KITS members traveling from North America included Goldbeck, Dickson, Edelen, Jack Harbert, Jordan Landholm, Jordan Ross, Celeste Charizard Birzgalis, Florence Cosulich, Ian Baldwin and Mike Wetton and Jessica Harbert.
Each and every one of these leaders was crucial in the execution of the KITS program as it played out in Kit Mikayi. Some of these leaders had worked together previously in Canada, and some were new to the group, added for the program abroad, creating a new dynamic in the leaders themselves during this new endeavor.
Partnering Organizations
Without partnering with PiCT, the opportunity to bring the KITS program to Kit Mikayi would not have existed. Logistically, PiCT members helped with nearly every aspect of the KITS program. The group billeted and organized the children enrolled in the program and orchestrated host families for the KITS leaders traveling from North America to stay with.
From trips to the nearby town of Kisumu, ventures to the market and grocery store and coordinating necessary supplies and transporting the 11 KITS members to and from the airport, Vincent Owino a member of PiCT was a driving force in fostering many details of the initial KITS program in Kit Mikayi. Along with Owino, PiCT members Patrick Mbullo, Paul Kombo and Jeremy Penner, co-founder of PiCT and Goldbeck’s nephew, were also on hand and helped with aspects of the KITS program.
“I know that the PiCT didn’t really know what to expect or know what they were signing up for,” Edelen said. “I think that it was very courageous of them to both invite us to present the program and to support us every single day in so many ways, from getting the necessary equipment for the production to making sure we were well and had food and water. It was really a profound, personal level of support and I’m so grateful to the entire PiCT Team for their ever present support.”
Bumps along the way
Many of the challenges faced during the KITS program could have never been predicted.
While battling the new environmental elements, including a new arsenal of African insects and the beating equatorial sun, the KITS team was pushed and challenged every day. All of the children spoke Dholuo, their native tribal language, and in school kids are taught Swahili and English. Translation was a major part of the communication barrier, with three languages swirling around at any given moment. The days were shorter than back at home, and being out after dark in the village was not encouraged. So the team completely adapted their schedule, making time to plan and debrief after each day of the program. Also, in the Kit Mikayi community there is no running water and little electricity, which presented obvious challenges to the leaders who are accustomed to those living with those amenities.
Also, the school itself was very basic. Classrooms with desks and chairs were the extent of supplies. Faded chalkboards were the only means to write, with chalk itself a treasure. The KITS program brought pens and notebooks, which seemed to be a luxury among the Kit Mikayi students.
Another challenge presented to the group was a last-minute change in the school’s schedule, which put a cramp in the previously planned agenda of the KITS program. If the schedule had gone as planned, there would have been time dedicated to prepare before the program began after arriving in Kit Mikayi.
“Culturally, there are more social obligations to meet (mostly from our host families) that were difficult to deal with because of our time restraints,” Dickson said. “I felt bad about this and I’m worried that we may have disrespected them with our expedient departure. Logistically, there was just not enough prep work done. I think that the KITS team should have arrived in Kisumu/Kit Mikayi a week before the program started in order to be able to adapt to the cultural differences as well as be able to prepare logistically for the program.”
Instead of having a week to prepare, all of the details of the program were ironed out as it happened. The stage was built days before the show, and didn’t arrive at Kit Mikayi Secondary School until the day before the performance. The speakers and sound system, which could have been purchased prior to the program, were bought while the program was in progress. But despite all these technical and potential problems, everything ended up sorting itself out and the KITS leaders and participants made the best of what was available.
Another cultural difference that presented itself was certain gender roles in the community. The women and girls were typically very quiet, whereas the boys and men are very dominant in the culture of Luo in Kit Mikayi, Goldbeck said. And this presented challenges, seeing as our program was headed by a woman.
“Often I judged I needed to be direct and pushy in a way that wasn’t always too comfortable for me,” Goldbeck said. “I think it would have been a less stressful experience for me personally were I a man.”
Sacrifices were made by each and every member of the KITS program traveling from North America. Both time and financial constraints were present throughout the trip. The team’s time was limited in Kit Mikayi since everyone on the trip left various responsibilities back home, including school obligations and important jobs.
“All 11 of us leaders were self-funded and were giving our maximum amount of money and time to be there,” Goldbeck said. “Many people there asked us for money, scholarships and help of other kinds. It was difficult to explain that for us just getting ourselves there was the maximum we were able to offer at that time. I realize that I have so much, but I still have a mortgage, two children to educate and a looming retirement to plan. This is the reality of desiring and needing to take the program and the leaders to Kenya.”
Ultimate Successes
At the end of the six days of the program, the positive impact was undoubtedly apparent. Students in Kit Mikayi who had never met before were able to form a bond and get to know each other, teachers and community m embers were also able to make connections that will benefit the area. The KITS leaders were able to see the benefit of bringing the program to a rural community, such as Kit Mikayi, even if only realized after reflecting back on the trip. Not only had the KITS leaders from North America taught values and lessons through leadership and action, the learning had gone both ways. Students of Kit Mikayi taught the KITS leaders of the Luo culture and language, bringing their own music to play during the program and choreographing many of their own dances. The students also taught the leaders new games, and inadvertently pushed the leaders through their own path of personal growth. The pilot KITS program in Kenya was a success.
“My hope was that we would be able to leave behind a group of youth who were more aware of themselves and others and who would now have more skills to be able to work as a team and be able to lead a group,” Dickson said. “I hoped that we could then inspire them to share their knowledge with others to empower the youth of the whole community to be able to achieve their goals.”
This goal was achieved, and even if the end result wasn’t obvious to the KITS leaders at the time, the program has made a mark on the community of Kit Mikayi that will hopefully last longer than could have ever been expected.
The KITS program and Goldbeck are working to organize future programs abroad, not only hoping to venture back to Kit Mikayi next year, but also looking into other options for taking the program abroad.
For more information, check out the organization’s Web sites.
Kids in the Spotlight: kidsinthespotlight.ca
Partners in Community Transformation: transformation-kenya.org
The Haven: haven.ca
NOTE: Jessica Harbert, the author, traveled with KITS to Kit Mikayi, Kenya. This article is a part of a series of three, detailing the group’s experience and the program’s achievements and future plans.
