First of February round-up of FDC news 

As ever, our year has started on a busy note. We have taken on seven new Form 1 students who have all now started at school. It is very difficult deciding who to support out of a wonderful and worthy group of candidates who present themselves at our door in late December to early January, hoping to be taken on. We wish this fortunate group all the best as they start out at secondary school. May they continue to work hard and make the most of every opportunity.

Our year ended in equally busy mode, with the Christmas party and prize-giving. Many thanks again to all who attended – committee members, visitors, sponsors, parents and students alike. Our huge thanks must also go to KPS who once again kindly donated food for the party.

Our guest speaker, Anthony Muriithi, was such an inspiration to all our students and had a captivated audience. Despite being disabled by polio at the age of two, he has not let this disability stand in his way. He managed to attend Alliance High School and then Nairobi University. Not only has he found a fulfilling and interesting job at Safaricom, where he is a Team Leader, he has also married, has a baby boy, and has set up and runs his own business together with his lovely wife. With great humour and honesty he mapped out the challenges of his life and the great pleasure he derives from it. His main message was that in order to succeed in life one has to first want success and then be consistently determined and hard working to achieve it. He also spoke about self-esteem and insisted on the benefits  of staying strong and believing in yourself through good and bad. His famous phrase is that “You cannot control what people say and think about you, but you have control on how to react. What is important is, what do you think about yourself?”

He also shared what he referred to as his ‘five power points’ to start each day:

1.      I am the best

2.      I am a winner

3.      God is always with me

4.      I can do it

5.      Today is my day.

Everyone left at the end of the day wiser, inspired and possibly a little humbled by his positive attitude to life.

The party was also the occasion to recognise our prize winners. Below we see Solomon Murithi receiving his prize from Pop Gunson as top Form Three student and next is Jackson Kanyua receiving the prize for top Form Two student:

Solomon receives his prize from Pop Gunson

Jackson receives his prize from Pop Gunson

Proud parents and guests enjoy food provided by KPS

The full list of prize winners is below:

Form 1-3 best academic prizes:

Form 1             Grace Wambui

Form 2             Jackson Kanyua

Form 3             Solomon Murithi

Top in class prize:

John Kibue

Effort and participation prize – Karen PCEA Church luncheon:

Emily Ngina

Chairman’s Prize:

Jane Wanjiku

We wish you all the best for 2018 and hope that you will enjoy following FDC throughout the year. Thanks for your continuing support and generousity.

FDC's End of Term Christmas Party and Radicalisation & Crime Reality Check

On Wednesday 16th December, FDC's and Karen Street Children Trust's students, parents, guardians and committee members all gathered together for our annual joint Christmas party and prize-giving. After the students had had a chance to eat, sing, speak and celebrate their achievements, it was the turn of the guest speakers - Kenyan radio presenters Rowbow and Kavu - who delivered a serious discussion on the dangers of radicalisation and living a life of crime. Their speech, which was given in Kiswahili, has been kindly translated by FDC's Peter Ndichu - and follows at the end of this post.

We would like to thank KPS for their kind donation of food items for the party and the Anon Trust for their financial support of this event which enabled FDC to give each student a Nakumatt voucher for Ksh 1,000. 

Gathered together for prize-giving and the speeches

A duet from FDC and KSCT

Paul Njogu speaks

Alfred Ndundiro speaks

'Mama Alfred' thanks the FDC committee

Josephine Wanja speaks

Solomon Murithi receives the Form 1 Academic Prize

Grace Waimatha receives the Form 2 Academic Prize

Francis Kioi receives Form 4 Academic Prize

Rosemary Ng'an'ga receives the Form 4 Academic Prize (with Francis)

David Mwangi receives the Chairman's Prize

Catherine stands proud of her students

Pop Gunson talks to and motivates the students

Benson from Mahali Pa Watoto School 

Caleb, our holiday tuition tutor, bids us farewell as he embarks on ventures new

Rowbow and Kavu’s speeches – interpreted here by FDC’s Peter Ndichu

“My name is Robert, AKA Rowbow. Most of you have heard me speak on the radio but today I  am happy to be here in person.  Apologies for getting here late, but we spent the morning at Kamiti prison talking to inmates - thus we had a long way to get here”.  This was followed by a series of jokes and a bit of comedy, which the students very much enjoyed. He then went straight into his topic of discussion.

“Who would wish to get rich and then die immediately?”(All said they wouldn’t want to). “I am aware that there are many radical groups that are trying to woo young people… mark my word young people, these groups are not interested in mature people as they very well know it would be next to impossible to convince any. They know how easily some young people are swayed in any direction by the mention of money. All these groups - Al Shabab,  Mungiki, Al Qaeda etc have one thing in common and that is DEATH.  They are established groups with rich leaders who are only interested in using recruits and then killing them.  Do you think training in the Kenya army is a joke?”  (All said they know it’s very tough). “Kenya army training is nothing compared to the groups’ training. The army trains and takes care of its trainees. These groups train mercilessly; they kill, injure, sexually assault and mishandle recruits. Thus very few, if any, get through the training. If they don`t like you they don’t send you back home. Rather, they kill you! If at the end one is lucky enough to complete the training, what mission will you be sent on? They will send you to kill not to protect. They only go out to kill and to steal. So these, my dear young people, are criminal groups that sell their tactics by promising lots of money - yet their only reward is death.  I am not even sure that they pay recruits. To me, this can only be referred to as modern day slavery. I really doubt that they pay. And in case they do, then the money would only mean anything if the recruits have graveyard banks.

Life is all about making the right decision. I grew up in a slum called Eastlands. As a matter of fact you can`t even compare Eastlands to Dagoretti. You people are in a far better environment. I grew up surrounded by neighbors who were involved in criminal activities but I chose not to join them. I knew who in our neighborhood possessed a gun, sold drugs etc. It was the order of the day. Many of my age mates died from the bullet. I will let my friend talk about this as he understands the topic better but I would urge you to never think about joining a criminal group. It never pays. You are all very lucky; you have people who are interested in your lives. Please make good use of the chances offered to you.

Being born poor doesn`t mean you will die poor.  Work hard and shape your future. With your sponsors help the sky is the limit. Today if you look at me, would you guess that I was once a very poor kid? (I wish I came dressed in my very expensive designer clothes and jewellery). I am where I am today l because I worked hard and was focused. Today I dine with many important people, they listen to me and I am respected by many. I work with many ambassadors. I travel a lot. I am driving a good car and I live in a fairly good area.”

Kavu then took over. He is a well known radio presenter who has become very famous. Our students were very excited to see him in person. He hosts a morning talk show at Ghetto radio which most young people listen to. He was very brief:

“I grew up in Manjengo, and we were very poor. I lost hope and was stupid enough to join criminal gangs. It started like a joke; I snatched handbags then went on to join a carjacking gang. Life as a criminal, wasn`t sweet at all. It was very stressful, and the money I got from it wasn’t helping. In fact, I drank most of it. I was a tormented soul, I saw my friends dying, I lost many. From a gang of over 20, only 3 are alive today. I was arrested and sentenced. It’s then that I decided to change. Robert played a big role in seeing me transformed.  It was a long and hectic journey that I would not wish my worst enemy to travel. I then realized I had a talent.  If only I tried to discover this talent early instead of taking shortcuts. I am now among some very successful journalists in this country. I enjoy radio show hosting and I am competing with the topmost radio presenters - Caroline Mutoko, Shaffie Weru and Maina Kageni. If I have managed to make it this far then all of you can make it too. I very much regret my life in crime, so that is why I talk to young people to let them know that crime is ugly and it torments ones soul. You are better being poor than a criminal. I am very lucky to be alive today and more so to have had people to hold my hand when I decided to leave my past life of crime.”  

OUR 'FUNDRAISER FORMIDABLE'!

Wow! Last night was a night to remember! Thank you SO MUCH to all those who sponsored, donated, supported, organised, attended, spoke, auctioned, bid, played, sang, ate, drank and made our evening merry - all the way into the wee hours of this morning! The rain could not have dampened any spirits!

More details will follow but the photos speak for themselves! A great evening was had by all and once again the generosity of our local and further flung community will help to support our deserving students in education for another year. ASANTE SANA!

FDC's Fabulous Fundraiser of 2014

Many thanks to all of our sponsors and to all those who attended our annual fundraiser at Karen Country Club, which went off so well again – we were incredibly lucky with the weather as we were all packed into the tent like sardines, and Alastair Addison once again worked his magic with the auction and the band played on into the small hours – keeping everyone entertained! Fundraising at its best – and we think it is true to say that everyone really enjoyed themselves!

Readers will be pleased to hear, that thanks to the auction and raffle, we managed to raise a very respectable sum of money – matching last year’s total of Ksh 1.4M! This is a great achievement and brings some peace of mind to our treasurer, as the cost of education continues to rise! 

It only remains for us to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

All the best from the students and committee members of FDC.

Many thanks to the following:

Karen Country Club; Wines of the World; Soul Syndicate; The Cake Lady; Alastair Addison.

Sponsors:

Governors' Camp; Hemingways; Air Kenya; Safarilink; Emakoko Tented Camp; Rea Vipingo; Patrick Mavros; Karen Rowe; Crista Cullen; Stuart Cohen, The Talisman; Joss Taylor; Neil and Linda Cuthbert.

Ready to Party!

It has been a busy couple of days but we are ready to party! Thanks to our sponsors, the fundraising team, four of our students with lots of puff, and to all those at Karen Country Club for setting up with us! Should be a great evening! The Band are busy doing their sound checks as I write this...

Graduation Glory and Pride

On Saturday 23rd August, FDC held its first Graduation Ceremony for eight of its students. Rather than read all about it, sit back and enjoy this short 'movie':

(Warning - this is a large file and may not play on an ipad or smart phone).

Our graduates and their courses:

Bernard Kibera - Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology
Aaron Njoroge - Diploma in Telecommunication Engineering
John Chege - BSC in Mathematics and Statistics
Harrison Mugo - Certificate in Food Technology
Fred Opel - Diploma in Clinical Medicine
Catherine Kangethe - Diploma in Journalism and Media Studies
Susan Mbugua - Diploma in Beauty Technology and Hairdressing, Revlon College
Paul Waruhiu - Degree in Sociology and Diploma in Business Management
Zacharia Gakunju - Diploma in Clinical Medicine

Absent:
Veronica Robe - Degree in Electrical Engineering
James Muniu - Diploma in I.T.
Winnie Njuguna - Diploma in Teaching
Margaret Ngugi - Degree in Business Management (Aviaton option)
Anthony Njuguna - Course at Graffins College
Joseph Kamau - Diploma in Electrical Engineering

Some additional photos:

Pop with John

And with Paul

With Aaron

With Bernard

With Susan

Limbering up for the award ceremony

Bernard with Linda

Susan, Mary, Linda and Catherine