It couldn’t have come at a better time. We are thankful that we managed to have a wonderful mentorship session with our sponsored students days before the suspension of public gatherings due to fears of a third wave of the pandemic. “Today we are going to have a unique kind of program, you are used to having me talk to you but today, I will join you in listening to our special guests and get informed together,’ said Wambui, our program officer of social welfare (famously known to many as Aunty Wambui) in her opening remarks.
We began with a cyber-security awareness talk from Elimu’s Cicso instructor Mr. Anthony. He engaged the students and explained to them the dangers of exposing personal information on the internet (on social media platforms). This is a generation where the majority own smart phones and teens want to be on social media, but they do not know the dangers and risks that come with it. By the end of the session they were able to understand the pros and cons of engaging with strangers on insecure global platforms. We later had a life skills talk from Mr. George, a child protection officer from the Catholic Diocese of Malindi. He had a very insightful session with the students engaging them on important topics including relationships and peer pressure.
“You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself.”
Our president carried the day; we felt her presence with us despite the fact that we are miles apart. From, Canada, she sent us her recorded video clip in which she expressed her thoughts and best wishes to the students with very powerful words of encouragement. “Thank you Ninaaaaa” shouted the students in unison once the clip was over. Finally, we dispersed, each staff gathering his/her mentees to discuss the end term academic reports and performance. It was a productive day and we believe that the students went back home highly motivated. It is sad that immediately after, we were forced to close the Centre until further notice but we hope that they will continue studying from home as we continue to develop our Kolibri Offline eLearning Innovation so that it can reach them in their homes. Someday (hopefully soon) we shall be able to help children across the country study from home by offering them free offline eLearning content.