Well Building and Access to Water Initiative at the BroSis Integrated School

During the 2013 World Day of Prayer and Action for Children, The Africa Interfaith Youth Network (AIYN) will support one of its members, BroSis Integrated, to carry out activities that will protect the welfare of children in Ng’ando ward, an informal settlement in Dagoretti -Nairobi, Kenya. This will be accomplished through providing safe, clean drinking water for the children and upgrading 2 pit-latrines within the BroSis Integrated School.

By providing drinking water and upgrading the pit-latrines, up to 80 children will benefit directly from the more conducive learning environment created in their school. Furthermore, because the school serves as a community-outreach centre for families within the area, other poor and/or vulnerable children will gain from these resources and their general hygiene and health will improve.

As part of AIYN, BroSis Intergrated (supported by GNRC), will build on the World Day theme to steer the activities that will take place within the school from 1st to 30th November 2013. These activities are aimed at encouraging the community to work together to uphold the dignity and rights of children (particularly those from a less-fortunate backgrounds); and to strive to become better ambassadors at protecting children. It will also celebrate and encourage the spirit of volunteerism, which is evident in the youth who run the operations of the school. Thirdly, by providing resource materials, pupils shall be able to learn more comfortably and focus on the positive aspects childhood and of receiving an education. In this regard, the youth network shall collaborate with the school administration to:

• Mobilise more youth, religious leaders and community leaders from Ng’ando to participate in the World Day
• Mobilise the pupils to incorporate the message of World Day in their interactions, through performing arts, writing essays and other child-friendly activities
• Mobilise parents and guardians to support and spread the message of World Day within Ng’ando
• Hold a 1-day celebration event in the school
• Purchase material for the storage of clean water and upgrading the pit-latrines

 About the Africa Interfaith Youth Network and BroSis Integrated:

The Africa Interfaith Youth Network (AIYN) is a multi-religious peace community of young people from different countries in the continet. AIYN provides space and opportunity for youth and their leaders to build peace, transform violent conflicts, advance shared security, sustainable human development and efforts to protect the earth. AIYN is the youth organ of the African Council of Religious Leaders—Religions for Peace (ACRL—RfP).

The BroSis Integrated School is fully run by religious youth volunteers from BroSis Integrated and is funded by community donations. It offers day learning and care to vulnerable children (3-15 years) who are drawn from families around the Ng’ando slum; many of whom are resource-poor and thus cannot afford to educate their children. Some of these pupils are orphans; others have special-needs (such as a physical disability); and a few have been rescued from situations of domestic violence. At the school, children benefit by receiving counselling, rehabilitation and formal, subsidised education; as well as other useful skills such as farming, sports, and performing arts. The school also provides a lunch-hour meal and to some of the pupils, this is the only food they eat in a day, because of the poverty within their homes.  The BroSis Integrated School, as the name suggests, seeks to integrate all children from various (vulnerable) backgrounds as Brothers and Sisters, and it acts as a bridge to reach the wider community in the area with the message of peace.