Red Rose School Takes a One Week Break

General elections in Kenya are known to be such a busy period with many voters traveling to various parts of the country to express their democratic right and perform their civic duty by casting their votes. 

With only three days to the Kenya general elections, schools will be closed until the electoral processes are complete. This will pave way for a smooth process as most of the public primary and secondary schools are used as polling centers. The Red Rose School will also be taking a break for one week because of the elections due to be held on the 4^th of March.

With the unfortunate events that took place in the previous general elections, the Red Rose teachers and students assembled today to reflect and express their thoughts and feelings on the forthcoming pivotal event in our nation's history as it will be our first election under the new constitution.

       “It was really sad what happened the last time, 

but I hope that this year’ elections will be smooth

 and that we shall come back to school on the 11^th.” 

Said one of the students.

The students and teachers shared their hopes for a peaceful election and promised to preach and practice peace especially at this very crucial period.

Jeff sharing with the students

Red Rose, like most schools shall re-open on the 11^th of March and resume the usual school program.

We hope to have  peaceful elections and also get a good rest during the break.

See you soon!

Hosting schools at the community clubhouse

Children enjoying a drawing activity

Every day of the week is a great day at the clubhouse as we get to have children from various community schools in Kibera visit the clubhouse for amazing library sessions!
These particular schools have very limited resources and go through quite a struggle to acquire basic school materials. With such conditions, it is extremely difficult to accommodate any kind of extracurricular activities.
Thanks to the LitWorld team, the children from the community schools are now able to visit the clubhouse at least once a week and get engaged in a myriad of fun activities and games!
At the club house, the children get to read story books, learn great songs, draw and paint, play various games and even watch movies. Most of the girls love fairly tale books and the boys love books about animals, monsters and an absolute favorite- about action super heroes! They are not well acquainted with board games yet as some are too young but they totally flare up when jumping rope, playing ball and running.
It is a priceless and the most beautiful sight to see the children enjoying themselves in the clubhouse, having so much fun and making it count like it is their last.

“Most times, it is the children who teach us to slow down and enjoy life.”
-Gena Lee Nolin

Joseph having a read aloud session in the library

Maureen reading a story to the children

“Most times, it is the children who teach us to slow down and enjoy life.”
-Gena Lee Nolin

A Visit from Norway

Mwanaisha has now been at the RedRose School for a couple of weeks. She is a pedagogic student at the Østfold university college in Halden. Østfold University College is a further and higher education institution in south-eastern Norway. Mwanaisha is young, vibrant and loves children! She has blended quite well with the students and the teachers at RedRose but the preschool children are mostly fond of her as she spends so much time with them. At Østfold, they run an intricate preschool program and the university students get to carry out research studies as a graduate requirement.

For her research paper, Mwanaisha has been conducting a study on leadership with key focus on preschool teachers and has therefore been working very closely with the teachers at the Red Rose preschool classes  to find out how the lessons are planned ,organized and the everyday preschool routine.

She is finding Kibera to be very pleasant and Red Rose to be very homely so far .She is  immensely enjoying the little pleasures such as playing with the children during recess and sharing mealtimes with them !Her favorite dish is ugali and sukumawiki.
Mwanaisha has been a great deal of help in promotion of language and communication amongst the preschool children since she has great ideas and suggestions that she often shares with the teachers.

We are happy to have her around and the children adore her so much. We shall continue to make the most of her visit before she has to go back to Norway!

A Big “THANK YOU” from Diana.

My journey with Children of Kibera Foundation started eight years ago. This amazing organization started to support me in school since I was in nursery school. I am very grateful for their help since I was able to get good education.

I am also thankful because, when I was at Red Rose School I was a member of the LitWorld Girls Club. There, we learnt many things that are very good and I am sure will help me in my life. I got to learn the values of courage, hard work, sisterhood. We were also taught  how to bake, how to knit and went for very many trips.

 As I go into high school I feel that my interactions with Children of Kibera Foundation and the activities there have made me a better person: very confident and ready to start my high school life. CoKF has promised to see me through my through my first year of high school education with support from my father. 

 I would like to work hard and become a journalist so that I can tell the Kibera story to the world so that many more Children like me can get the help they need to make it in life.

Thank you very much.

 

Diana- 2005

Diana-2006

Diana -2007

Diana -2012

Brand New Books from LitWorld!

Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson have a pig named Mercy. Mr. Watson, Mrs. Watson and Mercy lived together in a house at 54 Deckawoo Drive.
One Saturday afternoon, Mr. Watson said to Mrs. Watson, “My darling, my dear, there’s a movie at the Bijou called when pigs Fly.” “When pigs fly!” said Mrs.Watson, what an inspiring title! – Mercy Watson, something wonky this way comes by Kate Dicamillo is the name of this book; one of the many amazing books brought in by the LitWorld team!
 

Library sessions have been so much fun this week at the Red Rose School, thanks to the LitWorld team who were more than generous to add a beautiful collection of books in the Library! Great books about heroes, animals, monsters and amazing books even for the children in the pre-school!

The little ones were not left behind either...gladly reading the books

The children were all giddy when they walked in the library and were all over the books looking at pictures, yearning to read more than one book at a time, chatting and exchanging with each other about their  favorite stories, to them it was magical and felt like a book heaven.
These books are not only for the RedRose students but are also to be largely used by the LitWorld boys and girls clubs not to mention the community schools that use the LitWorld boys and girls Clubhouse on a daily basis.

The RedRose students loving the books!

It is so wonderful to see the children excited about books and so in love with reading because it shows so much promise in future.

LitWorld is an organization that believes in Literacy as the foundation for emotional and physical well-being, intellectual growth and economic security. It also believes that the right to read and write is a fundamental human right and belongs to all people.

“We believe that all children have the right to read, to write, and to share their words to change the world.”-LitWorld