Matumaini Youth Group

Matumaini Youth Group

Background

Matumaini Youth Group was formed in November 1996 by a group of young people in Huruma village. The main aim of forming the group was to create a forum through which we, as the youth of the village, can come together to discuss the problems in the village and decide how we can help in dealing with some of the problems. Some of the problems were human rights, civic education, recreation and community service.

Over the period since the formation of MYG, we have held a series opf meetings among ourselves as youth, with the adults in the village and between us and other individuals and organisations from outside who are genuinely interested in our problems.

The few acitivities that we have held in the village have greatly improved the lives of the youth, our younger brothers and sisters, and our parents in the village. We hope to achieve more through our efforts, through Centre for Legal Education and Aid Networks (CLEAN) who are our collaborators, and other well wishers outside the village who are interested in our efforts. The group has 14 members - 8 men and 6 ladies with an age distribution of 18 to 25 years. Main objectives of the group are:

  1. sensitising the people in the village about their human rights
  2. creating legal awareness
  3. organising sports activities in the village
  4. organising and participating in community services
  5. come up with an income generating activity to improve the living of the youth - this yet to be achieved.
Achievements

Human rights and creation of legal awarenes.

The two objectives have been realised through the training of the community by para-legal workers (PLWs). A workshop was organised by MYG in collaboration with CLEAN and Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and some members MYG and MYSA were trained as PLWs. The youth have organised several training activities in and outside the village. People are now living a more confident life, as the have known about their rights.

Workshop on human rights

Recreation

With the few facilities we have, MYG has brought hope in many lives of people in the village who had involved themselves in socially problematic activities, for instance, taking drugs and stealing among other crimes. Many youths that had nothing to do due to lack of jobs are actively involving themselves in various sports. A dartboard and two sets of darts were bought. Many people both young and old have shown interest and are acitively participating in the sports. A dart club has been formed.

darts club

The darts club is place for the youngsters

In football the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) is in contact with us and we are doing everything possible as far as sports organisation and management are concerned. Great achievements have been realised in terms of football as more youths have joined the project. There are more than twenty teams in the project in three age groups. There are 12 under 12 years teams, and 10 under 14 years and 4 under 16 years teams. There are more than 400 youths participating. Amazingly we received an invitation to participate in Gothia youth soccer tournament in Sweden last year, but we were unable to raise funds for air tickets, as accommodation was provided free. The invitation was extended up to this year and we hope to go, if true friends and well wishers would help us raise the funds for air tickets. We are already organising a team to participate in the tournament.

Girls have raised a lot of enthusiasm and are joining the project. There are four girls teams. Recreation activities have been combined with community clean up activities.
 
 

Community services

Several community service activities have been organised and carried out by the youth. These activities include the building of the nursery which is also used as a social hall in the evenings and during the weekends. The nursery or hall was built through from Swedish society in Kenya and was officially opened on December 7, 1997.

As is the case with the urban slums, homesteads are made of temporary building materials and are surrounded with garbage, indicating a lack of sanitation and hygiene. The youth have had many activities where they have collected all the garbage in the village and dug pits were the villagers can dump their waste. High standards of hygiene are observed in the community.

Cleaning up the village

[home]