Vizazi Pamoja CBO

If selected as a winner, I will channel the funds to the programme of the organisation and help reach out to children in all flood camps in Kisumu County and other flood counties in Kenya. This initiative will translate into:

1. Pupils/students enabled to access gender equitable after-school study space at the flood holding camps 
2. Pupils/students affected by floods supported to access uninterrupted schooling and learning during floods
3. Pupils/students, parents, teachers and other stakeholders’ capacity enhanced on life skills to cope with displacement situation and for informed decision making.

The project will also train the communities so that the skills will remain with them and they will use them to address daily challenges. 

We will use the funds to coalesce the work of relevant stakeholders in education sector and flood response actors to develop a response plan for integrated learning. 

Vizazi Pamoja is a community-based organisation working with primary schools in low-resourced settings of Nyando Sub-County in Kisumu County, Kenya. The CBO seeks sustainable solutions to real population,
health and environmental (PHE) issues in order to build strong foundations for sustainable development across generations.

ORGANISATIONAL GOAL
Eliminate gender inequality and marginalisation through empowerment of school-going boys and girls for improved educational outcomes.
VISION
Healthy citizens that actualise their dreams and help their country to realise its aspirations.
MISSION
To create a pool of healthy and innovative next generation citizens. 

THEMATIC AREAS

1. Education in humanitarian context support

2. Environmental conservation

3.Age-appropriate sexual reproductive health education

4.Comprehensive menstrual health management

PROGRAMME IMPACT

• 400 students benefit from SRHR talks
• 8 teachers engaged in SRHR programme
• 8 PA members engaged in SRHR programme
• 130 menstrual health kits given to 130 indigent girls 
• 60 indigent boys girted with dignity kits
• A 250 litre tank donated to a school: to serve about 200 pupils
• 16 SRHR ambassadors identified among pupils
• 120 trees planted in 4 programme schools
• Two schools supported in the floods intervention programme

Floods displace households. School-going children endure long displacement periods and report loss of after-school study hours. There is no space in the camps to support their cognitive, social, and emotional development; protection from exploitation and/or violence, and access to psychosocial support. Learning outcomes thus decrease.

Displaced but Accessing Learning Space (DIALS) provides space in the camps for study. Students in submerged schools are supported and helped to integrate in nearby institutions so as to mitigate dropout risks. They receive life skills education and social emotional learning. Parents/care givers also receive parenting education to improve the overall ecosystem of the child. 

As at May 2020 floods had affected over 233,000 people across 36 of Kenya’s 47 counties, including more than 116,000 people displaced, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society. At least 85,000 people ere sheltering in displacement camps in the western region.At least 54 per cent of the displaced population are female-headed families (KRCS). Kisumu County is in West kenya with three sub-counties experiencing floods and reporting damage to schools, homes and farmlands.

Globally, some 24 million people are displaced each year by ecological disasters such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels, (Institute for Economics and Peace, 2020). 

DIALS' unique approach is in addressing the education gap in the flood humanitarian response programme in an innovative and simple way. It maps and secures community resources that can be modified and resourced for out-of school learning programmes. Where resources are not available, the community members are supported in creating a temporary space dedicated for learning and education.

All actors in the flood humanitarian context focus on health, sanitation, settlements. provision of food items and non-food items and recovery of livelihoods. The education component is not addressed. Equally, parenting in such congested and fragile ecosystem becomes a challenge and children could easily fall into all forms of exploitation and abuse.

DIALS project is a simple resilient learning model that strengthens achievement of SDG4 and SDG 3. Every child has a right to decent environment, education opportunities and wellbeing of the people. Emergencies heighten the risks and worsen the vulnerabilities of young people and break social and familial protection layers. 

Out-of-school learning for young people is fundamentally paused and de-prioritised due to lack of learning space and home-based facilities in the fragile holding camps. This consequently derails children off the education trajectory.

DIALS project is a learning intervention in flood humanitarian context. Its goal is to enhance continuity in learning through supporting learning mechanisms in the camps and providing alternative spaces for affected schools during floods.

To achieve this, we do the following:
1) Support pupils/students affected by floods to access learning during floods. We profile and register students in the camps, hold stakeholder consultative meetings and identify resources to support education in the camps. No child should report lose of study hours because of displacement. 

2) We enable pupils/students to access gender equitable after-school study space at the camps. We sensitise the camp community about the learning space, co-develop SOPs and recruit responsible adults to man the space and do record keeping of usage. Where necessary, we procure resources for the space.

3) We enhance the capacity of pupils/students, parents, teachers and other stakeholders’ on life skills and parenting. Camps present challenges of parenting, social cohesion and child protection. We develop guides to teach coping strategies, effective parenting and child protection to improve the children's overall ecosystem.

Vizazi Pamoja prioritises strategic partnership with humanitarian response actors in the region for broader and effective programme implementation.