Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

Well I'm back in New york. It took me a while to adjust but I can live. I miss Kenya so much. All the people I met, all the friends that I made but I got their contact info. I'm going to check out Youth Alive! Kenya's website for the application to get an internship in Kenya. The work that these people do and if the funding was possible they could do so much more. Life back in New York doesn't feel the same anymore. I feel like a total stranger to this place. I'm happy to see my friends and everyone else but it's not how I felt before I left. When I got back unpacked and put everything away. As I was doing that I felt like, I don't even know how to describe it. I felt like Kenya gave me that extra boost that I was looking for. It also served as a getaway from home and my life. Now I'm back and I'm going to do all that I can. I'm going to graduate go to college do my career and live in Kenya. Open up my own school, but I'll need to learn the language but hey it's all worth it. That's what I want and I'm going after it all. Well that's all for now see you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Lindsay HRAP at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey it's O'tillia, Sorry I'm late for the post Kenya reflection. It's been hard adjusting to a different environment after we came back and I realize that things are just not the same. I miss Kenya sooooo much that I really wish we were still there. I've come back to homework, and boredom but I haven't stopped seeing my Kenya family. We've gotten so close that they are a second family that I don't and won't ever forget. I really want to thank Kevin for making this trip possible, without you I would not have had a different life for two weeks and a culture shock as well. Catherine also deserves some thanks because she helped get things ready before we came and without her we would not be a complete family. And Tabitha thank you soooo much for coming with us, not only because you filmed it and kept our experience real but because you were a huge contribution to the trip. Meeting people like the kids from Kibera (a slum located in Kenya) that were so smart and influential to the trip (working with Youth Alive Kenya), or the women from the Kikuyu village working together with the Green Belt Movement to make trees sustain their lives as well as their families, or those girls from ADRA that brought Gabriel to "tears", or the little kids from the MYSA library that we read for (or vice versa actually) and those teens that danced and sang for us really impacted my life because they were so talented it brought me to tears that the government isn't realizing the state in which they live and trying to help them. But they actually don't need our help they live that way and live happy on top of it. We need to make the children here in the U.S. realize how much these kids go through and make them stop complaining about what they don't have when others in the world don't even have a home. Bye all, O'tillia aka O.T. aka Otown lol

Posted by O'tillia HRAP at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Group shot at the Bomas of Kenya: Established to preserve, maintain and promote the rich diverse cultural values of various ethnic groups of Kenya and to act as a tourist attraction center. Bomas of Kenya is expected to preserve the authenticity of Kenya’s cultural values and to portray them in a pure form.

Posted by Kevin GK Staff at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Group shot after the student led workshops at Kibera Glory Secondary School in Nairobi's Kibera slum. These kids were awesome on many levels: they were very thoughtful, insightful, intelligent, charming, eloquent, the list goes on and on. They are Kenya's future, if only the ruling elite would not marginalize them and their community and give them the opportunities they need to take the reins.

Posted by Kevin GK Staff at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Group shot after we met with Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Kenya to talk about Female Genital Mutilation and met with two inspiring and courageous young women from their center in Kajiado for girls who have escaped FGM and early marriage.

Posted by Kevin GK Staff at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By now you've all heard a lot about this remarkable young man, well here he is:

Posted by Kevin GK Staff at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is officially my second time blogging whoop! whoop! GO ME. So I'm just giving the world an update on how I'm doing and letting everyone know some of the things I learned and that I miss my K.K.G.C.L.N.O.T family. The trip to Kenya was extremely emotional and was definitely life changing we bonded with so many people and learned so many things from them. Like when we went the Kikuyu homestead with the Green Belt Movement we learned how everything they do is in one way or another done to help make life easier. For example the when they plant trees in strategic places to provide shade while working and when they need to make a fire or build a home they chop branches off and feed the leaves to the animals and the animals poop it out and they use it as fertilizer for the next generation of trees for fire wood or houses or shade for farmers like Njoroge (shout out). Like O'tilla said plant a tree save a life. We also learned how resilient people are and no matter how bad someones life may seem to you its much better to learn from them than to feel sad for them. I think on our trip their were so many good examples of this; like the kids from Kibera Glory Secondary School. Kibera is a slum in Nairobi where people live in shacks and walk on waist because the government has almost forgotten about these neighborhoods. Despite living in dangerous surroundings and not having access to the best education the students we met are brilliant. We held two workshops one lead by Kojo and Lindsay and the other was access to education lead by O'tillia, Nurys, and myself both work shops were good but ours was better lol. I honestly think that spending so much time with all the students I learned more from them than they learned from us. During our stay in Kenya we met so many great people and partnered with a bunch of wonderful organizations. Shout out to Kevin for making this trip so amazing, shout out to Cathrine for coming early and preparing things for us and shout out to Tabitha for coming and filming the trip so the world can really see how much the trip impacted us all. Shout out to the whole team for staying open and allowing us to become the family that we did. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!! ......from Gabriel

Posted by Gabriel HRAP at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a family and members of global kids we are highly motivated and inspired by your efforts.This trip has emotionally affected the way I view things and out here in Kenya people are willing to go to school to make social change in their communities. Living in Kenya is very challenging because of corruption in their government. Kenyans are willing to make a creative change in their government and we as well trained students and with the help of our Global Kids leaders, are able to empower the youth in Kenya to stand up for themselves because each individual can make a great significant change in their various communities. Poverty is one of the big issues in Kenya and young people drop out of school because they are unable to afford school fees.Everyday people starve to death and even little kids sniff glue to avoid getting hungry. We as individual citizens of the United States of America can help these wonderful people's life and education.

Posted by Kojo HRAP at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Helloooooooo, So today we Came back from doing a workshop on Youth Activitism and yesterdays workshops were on Human rights & Education. The kids in Kibera are great and extremely intelligent and just by talking to some of them you can tell what they are going to be in the future, they are really amazing and so happy even knowing the conditions that they live in, they still manage to smile and just enjoy life how it is. Also in the beginning of the week (monday) we woke up super early to go to Nairobi's national park and we saw a lot of cool animals but I kind of expected more animals but then we went to their zoo and we saw more there and that was pretty cool. Later that same day we had to be at a meeting at 3:00pm and the meeting was about "Female Genital mutiliation". That meeting really impacted me in such a huge way it made me open my eyes on the real world and just so many other things and just how ungrateful we can be with some things. It really hit me hard, almost like a slap in the face and I had no choice but to just cry...and I cried A LOT that day even when we left I was just thinking about some things; personal things. Kenya is the real deal, people are starving, and some are working to just eat and support their family and these girls are getting circumsized and being used basically as sex symbols because they are valued as nothing in some of these tribes and they're in a lot of pain; emotionally & physically and they still manage to put a smile on their faces and sometimes us as girls complain for littlest things that are so unnessary and when I say us girls I include myself too. I think it's time we wake up and smell the coffee because this is it..the REAL WORLD people are putting their lives at risk every single day and we just go through life like its just fun and games and complain because we wanna live in a bigger house with lots of rooms and more cars and more money and etc, meanwhile people are living on sheet metal and wood and are still happy and enjoy life... I hope that when i get back i could do the best i can to help some of these children and girls, I wanna open my own book foundation to help MYSA's library and hopefully it will be a success thats the 1st thing im going to do once I get back and I hope that I could get the most help as possible from my family and friends and that includes GK of course...This trip is really opening my eyes on the real world and I know I have more days to go this is just the beginning, Because I've got work to do when I get back! I'm extremely grateful to be here in Kenya dispite all the downs we had it all happen for a reason. If it werent for GK taking me on this trip i think I would still be the same person..and I now know whats real and what to expect from life and to appreciate the things I have especially the little things like hand sanitizer because over here people were so surprised to see the hand sanitizer because they have never seen it before and I was just so shocked how surprised they were to find out about this liquid that cleans your hands without soap and water... Soooooo im done for now but i'll be back again who knows when; thanks for listening again =]

Posted by Nurys HRAP at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been great here in Kenya, I really didn't expect to experience what's been going on and just see the different ways that people live. We really need to realize that there are people living with what we consider nothing and turning it into whole bunch of something. I'm very blessed to be on this trip and with the help of Kevin, Catherine, and Tabitha this could not be a better trip.
The other day we planted trees with this organization called the Green Belt Movement formed by Wangari Mathaai (Nobel peace prize winner) and you might not know this but there are really people living in the village we went to, as well as throughout Kenya, that use these trees to survive, so I'm thankful for planting that. I also came up with this quote on my own I'm telling the truth: "Plant a tree and save a family" rhymes right???!!! I made it up on my own, you can ask Kevin it's full proof it should be a leading phrase.
Then the next day was very emotional we went to a slum hosted by an organization called Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and we watched and listened to these really talented kids sing and dance. I don't know why but i started to cry when this boy sang for us playing a guitar with his partner. After that we toured the place, then walked to a library that they have open for kids of all ages. You won't believe this but there was a girl that I was reading with and she was amazing but you could probably not guess her age (8 years old) the book was big with a lot of crazy big words and I was just in a state of shock people, then they performed for us 3 poems about AIDS, Rape, and Prostitution it was crazy it got me crying and I will never forget that moment (and if I do which is bound to happen (memory problems) we have it on tape) so maybe you guys will get to see it.
Other than that I'm having a great time we've gone through many emotional days together but we are a family and we will always support each other when we cry or in Gabriel's words (tearing). Recently there's been a visit to another organization called Adventist Development and Relief Agency that mainly focuses on FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and it is something that many females throughout the world go through and I'm sure you would never want to happen to you. The rest of the trip has been mostly talks, we enjoy each others company and there's many experience that will never be forgotten
Love, O'tillia

Posted by O'tillia HRAP at 8:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)