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Words by: Eunice Marindany, Cohort III Fellow, Entrepreneurship Mentor at M-Pesa Foundation Academy. One afternoon as I was out for a training session in Nairobi, I noticed that at some point, some of the people that were in attendance were looking a bit restless and some kept excusing themselves to go out and answer phone calls. I wondered what the reason could be. After the training I got to check mine and right there and then it became clear why people were continuously fidgeting on their devices. There was breaking news that the president had ordered closure of all learning institutions from 15th March, 2020 and children directed to go home and stay with their parents since the scary unseen novel coronavirus was in our country. It was shocking and unbelievable. The stories associated with the disease that we heard being experienced miles away, in other continents, were now a reality in our midst.. As we got into partial lockdown, I started wondering, “How long will this situation last?" In my mind I was wishing for it to be a short time just like going for holiday and back, a maximum of two weeks maybe? And we will step back out of it when the disease has been eradicated or contained. When a fortnight went by and more measures were put in place by the government, I figured out stopping this outbreak will not be that simple. The first group that came to my mind were the children and the new methods of learning that we as parents have to devise. On my side, I realized that as much as I am my children’s first teacher by being their mother, I couldn’t be their class teacher in the 'home classroom', not forgetting that I work in a school and even though I am not a teacher I usually identify as an educator. My Pre-Primary One daughter(PP1), Pesh, started challenging me when I cunningly and carefully asked my hubby to take up the role of teaching the older kids, one of whom is a class eight candidate. I had decided I will be helping the Grade 1 and the little PP1 kids. To me that was the simplest teaching role because we would be doing a lot of colouring, counting, basic arithmetic and play as we watched cartoons. Oh poor mummy-teacher, little did I know that my 1980s kindergarten (Nursery School as it was called at the time) did not teach me sounds as they are taught today. I have been hearing from time and again kids reciting the Alphabet ‘A,B,C,D’ differently from how we used to recite (If you are a 90s kid who went to school in Kenya then you might know this as well). You can imagine my frustration of trying to teach Pesh as she corrects me and laughs at the same time. This particular situation made me appreciate and salute teachers and I had to say it in my head ,” Kila mtu afanye kazi yake.” which in English translates to: "Let everybody do the work which they are suited for”. Fast forward, as I watched my kids (who are truly lucky to have text books and their teachers sending them homework via WhatsApp) go through their studies during this period despite the struggle, my mind shifted from them to the students at my home village Macheisok in Kipkelion, Kericho County . See in Macheisok, there’s a handful of people who have gone to college and university. I started wondering how those kids, who have been sent home, are studying even if it means trying to guide themselves or among each other without any external assistance from someone with higher education. I called my friend and asked her how the situation was at Macheisok and her response sent my mind racing. She told me without hesitation in Kiswahili,“Aah huku hakuna kitu watoto wanafanya, hakuna masomo” — to mean that there is no learning going on and that the kids are doing nothing in as much as school work is concerned. Children in Macheisok,Kericho county, elated to receive learning guides I began thinking about how I could reach out to these children and thinking how online methods would not work because most of them do not own mobile phones and those who do, don’t have smart phones which enables one to access the internet . As if to read my mind, The Metis community, in which I am a member by virtue of being a Cohort 3 fellow, began conversations about this issue. There were a lot of us within Metis who were wondering how to support children who do not have the resources to study online or don’t have a TV at home. Through the leadership of Rebecca Crook,our team leaders came up with an idea and shared on our WhatsApp platform. She asked us to contribute ways in which learners who have no access to internet, phones ,computers, TV, radios can learn at home during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic. I knew that this is a project that will benefit my fellow villagers back at home. A Google document was shared to all of us within the Metis community and we got into typing our ideas. I gave my contribution of typing in educational content on the shared folder as everyone else did. I was really proud of being a part of this and was amazed at how fast everything was put together within the shortest time possible. In a week's time, the document was compiled and the process of printing the home learning guides began. I was ecstatic about being a part of this noble project especially remembering thow people came through to support the initiative. Now, the Macheisok village, my village, was among the beneficiaries of the Home Learning Guides. Indeed I appreciate that the children who have benefited are just a small percentage of those in need, but we are hopeful that we will have more resources to reach out to more. The joy in the children’s faces as they received the learning guides was an indication of their hunger to learn even with very little resources and in the middle of a global crisis. The guides will go a long way in helping them to learn using what is available around their homes and farms. Hear how Patricia a class 8 candidate from Macheisok in Kericho County,has been using the Metis learning guide accessed to them courtesy of Eunice to prepare for her national exams. Salute teachers! Back to my new teaching career, I wish I had all the money on earth to pay teachers, but all I have is a new sense of admiration and willingness to provide them all the support they need by learning a bit more and unlearning what I have always known. I didn’t know until the outbreak of COVID-19, that the Kiswahili we learnt in school has greatly changed and neither did I know that alphabets are taught differently among many other things. I salute all parents who are not only trying to work from home but also stuck at home with their kids and are managing to teach them in whichever way, online, or just keeping them seated to watch the KICD EDU TV channel and encouraging them to be calm, sharing your phones with them, teaching them some cooking and cleaning as part of learning. I say KUDOS! A big thank you to everyone who is doing their best in their own little ways to keep people informed about COVID-19 and reaching out to children who need to continue learning at home. Let us keep doing our best to flatten the curve as we stay at home, keeping safell and supporting our children to learn at home. May we all do small things with great love.

Words by: Peter Muasya Kimuyu, Economic Empowerment Manager, Jitegemee Childrens Program Have you ever imagined how life would be without a source of livelihood? Born into a family of 12 children in Machakos, Kenya, my parents worked menial jobs and while growing up, they were not in a position to support me and my siblings. At the age of 7, I found myself on the streets, collecting charcoal and scrap metal that I could sell to get money to buy food or drugs. While on the streets, I met Farah Stockman (Jitegemee Children’s Program Founder) and Alex Mutiso (Vocational Teacher) who plucked me from the streets and provided me with food and basic literacy and numeracy training. Farah and Alex quickly realized that I was a bright student and eager to learn. So after rehabilitating me, they helped me enrol in St.Mary’s Primary School in Machakos and through Jitegemee, supported my education journey . I was a bright student and quickly grasped the school work and as a result, I skipped 4 grades to catch up with my age mates. Having achieved excellent primary school results, I joined Starehe Boys Centre, one of the best and most competitive high schools in Kenya. Again, at the end of high school, I attained outstanding grades and was accepted to study a Bachelor of Economics at the University of Nairobi. Peter Muasya, over ten years ago At the community level, the community leaders kept on reminding all the children that a university degree is the channel to being successful in life. However, during my second year at the university, I started realizing the struggles that young people go through in their lives in search of employment. I knew many people who had graduated five years ago and still could not find a job despite the reality that they had received a good education. Besides, at the time, statistics indicated that the level of unemployment in our country was at 40%. The vast majority of unemployed people were youths. Coming from an impoverished background, I was aware that my family, as well as my siblings, saw me as their source of hope and the tool that would help get them out of poverty. To that end, having an understanding of unemployment rates in the country affected me in ways that were both big and small. As the only person in my family to have completed secondary school, let alone university, the situation created fear and anxiety in my life because I was afraid of not being able to positively impact my family. I later graduated from the University of Nairobi and Jitegemee hired me as the Operations Officer. Fuelled by the desire to tackle the issue of youth unemployment in our community, I conducted a need assessment survey towards the end of 2017 for the Machakos youth as well as the local trades’ people. In the survey, I was interested in establishing the employability of our young people in the community. I interviewed 200 young people across the town and the results indicated that 63% of the respondents earned between one thousand shillings(10$) and ten thousand shillings(100$) per month, implying that they were in the low living class bracket in Kenya. 26% of those that I interviewed pointed out that they earned between ten thousand shillings (100$) and twenty thousand shillings (200$). In terms of support needed, the respondents indicated that they would love to be trained on entrepreneurship, job readiness as well as 21 st Digital skills. My life has come full circle and I am now the fulltime Economic Empowerment Manager at Jitegemee. To ensure that we overcome the challenge of youth unemployment, I am overseeing the launch of a Youth Innovation Hub at Jitegemee, which has started providing business and life skills training, as well as career guidance and job readiness support to youth in our community. One thing that catches my attention is the struggles that our young people go through in such of employment to enable them to improve their lives. I have grown up in a community where many people sleep on hungry stomachs, including myself. Peter Muasya, training parents on entrepreneurial skills My story shows what a child with a dream, coupled with a lot of hard work, can achieve – even when born into the most poverty-stricken background. I believe my life story can be a light for other young people in my community – I believe childhood circumstances should not hinder anyone from accomplishing their life dreams and goals. I now want to be part of changing the story for other youth in Machakos and beyond. My dream is that in future, no young person in Kenya will struggle in life because of unemployment. If you are interested in supporting our work or learning about the work that we do, please visit our website or our Facebook Page. Business school participants with their graduation certificates after going through a six-month entrepreneurial training.

Words by: Naftaly Muroki, Monitoring and Evaluations Lead at Metis Early childhood A toddling Naftaly On a regular Saturday in January 1995, I was born. Though oblivious of my surroundings, I can only imagine the joy my birth brought-- the usual excitement that accompanies becoming new parents. My mum was only 17 then, having been forced to marry early because she had to drop out of school, her single mother was unable to raise the school fees to educate all her children after her husband abandoned her. She also had to help her mother raise her younger siblings. Thus, my birth marked a new chapter for her, having a family of her own to love and care for. Growing up there was nothing particularly unusual or interesting about my life. I went to the same government local primary school like most other kids in the village. After being enrolled in kindergarten, however, my teacher noted my ability and passion for mathematics and languages, I was terrible at any form of art that required drawing though. After joining class one, I brought home my first-ever award from school, a plate that I was awarded for being the third-best student in the class. My mum has kept that plate to date. That became my first and last award because my school never hosted the prize-giving day ever again, to this day I still don’t know what prompted such a move. Naftaly’s parents pose with their bundle of joy As I advanced to class 2, I started becoming more aware of my surroundings. Problems started cropping up back at home because my dad, who by this time had moved to the country’s capital, Nairobi, to look for greater opportunities, had fallen into alcoholism. Not because life in the city had been unkind to him, in fact, he did so well for himself that a few years after moving into the city he had his own small business. My mum with only basic primary education, could only rely on her one acre piece of land to feed, cloth, and educate her children. My two little sisters had been born by now. In class five I suffered an illness that at the time, I thought would deprive me of the ability to walk on both feet. I spent the first term in and out of the hospital and it got to a point where I had to completely abandon going to class and focus on regaining my health. My illness brought an untold emotional and financial strain on a family that was already going through a lot of challenges. Luckily for me, my uncle, who later became an instrumental part of my life, offered to sponsor my treatment in Nairobi. After a week in Nairobi and having seen the doctor that he recommended, we returned back home and I started getting better. I managed to get back to class in the last week of the term and at this time I was now walking with crutches though the pain had abated and I could sit and concentrate in class. This experience, though tragic, taught me a valuable lesson in not taking what I had, however small, for granted as it was possible to lose it all at once. From that period onwards, I committed myself to do the best at each and every single thing that I did. I became very committed to my studies and by the time I was in class 7, I was the best student in the class. I maintained my work ethic and graduated from the primary school top of my class. This allowed me to be placed in one of the best public secondary schools in the larger Meru region. Secondary school and the beginning of my leadership journey Adapting to the boarding school life was tough for me. I had been so used to being a day scholar such that spending days and nights at school felt unnatural for me. I, however, knew that I had to adapt fast or risk being left behind. I was shocked when the results for the first term were released. Having been used to being a top student in my primary school days, it was appalling for me when I got the result slip. Although I had performed quite well overall I was position 70 in a class of 200 students. All these students were used to being number ones and twos in their previous schools. I knew I had to work twice as hard in this new setting but I was ready for the challenge. I managed to be among the top twenty students by the 1st term of form 2 and among the top 10 students by the 1st term of form 3. In the second term of form 2, I was one of the nominees for the position of the Students’ Council Vice President. After a rigorous vetting process, amid which I even thought of quitting, I was confirmed as the Students’ Council Vice President for the following one year. Serving in such a position for the first time in my life was a tremendous challenge. First, I had to practice the balancing act of being a good student in class while ensuring I played my role as the students’ council vice president. Secondly, some students felt that the students’ council was only a mouthpiece for the administration and didn’t care much about their welfare. Finally, there was a myriad of expectations that came with holding such a position. This would, however, become a defining moment in my leadership journey. I learned the art of talking to a crowd, of teenagers nonetheless, the importance of caring for and minding the people that you are leading and above all the role that empathy plays in the heart of any good leader. I served well in this role and in the following year, I was elected the Students’ Council President, Debating Club Secretary, Journalism Club Secretary, and Young Catholic Students Secretary. These leadership roles formed the basis of the Young leader I have become today. They taught me the importance of good leadership in any society and the value that good leaders can help create in their communities. They also taught me the value of taking an initiative, based on the available needs, even when not explicitly assigned a given role. Naftaly and his school mate representing their school during a prize giving event Naftaly receiving an award for exemplary leadership from the Assistant Dean of students JKUAT Fast forward to the University, I decided to continue my leadership journey by running for the post of Academic Affairs Secretary. In this role, I advocated for students’ wellbeing and career development by organizing career fairs in partnership with the dean’s office. I also chaired the Academic Affairs Committee. My university days only served to cement my belief that good leadership, in either political, social, or economic institutions, would and can go a long way in helping transform lives and livelihoods across the continent. Career After completing my course work I partnered with my cousin, an amazing lady by all accounts, to co-found Beta Shoes Kenya, a social enterprise that manufactures affordable leather shoes using locally available materials and uses part of the profits and donations from well-wishers to make high quality school shoes which are then given to children, who have to brace the morning cold as they walk barefoot or in slippers to school, in public schools in rural Kenya. We have so far given out over 400 pairs of school shoes and we are in the process of giving out over 150 pairs before the Covid-19 crisis. I stepped down from an active role at Beta Shoes Kenya when I got an opportunity to attend a leadership and Data science training at African Leadership Xcelerator (ALX) which was sponsored by Microsoft Skills 4 Africa. One of my motivating reasons for joining this program was my passion for use of data to inform decisions, cultivated during my undergraduate degree program in Actuarial Science, and my belief that we can leverage technology, coupled with good leadership, to build solutions that are going to help us solve most of the problems we are having in education, agriculture, finance, and healthcare across the continent and as we strive to develop these solutions we shall also be addressing the issue of youth unemployment in the continent. I successfully completed the program and even had a chance to intern with the African Leadership Group. Now & then future Contributing to the team spirit as a proud member of Metis After completing my training & internship, I got a job as a data and business intelligence analyst at a family-owned holding company for a group of companies. After only a month of working there, I realized that I wasn’t enjoying my work. I noted that one of the reasons why I felt as such was because I didn’t feel like what I spent over 40 hours a week doing even mattered. So when an opportunity to join Metis as a Monitoring & Evaluation Lead (Intern mind you) I didn’t hesitate, well maybe a little. And so far I can honestly say that I take a lot of pride in the work that I do because I know it is having a huge impact both directly and indirectly. My plan is to serve and learn as much as possible over the next five years, attend a top business school, come back home and continue developing solutions for the most pressing problems in the continent. I am particularly looking to develop solutions in education, agriculture, and finance. This is mainly motivated by the fact that I have seen and experienced first hand how poor rural families in Kenya and by extension Africa, struggle to feed, clothe and educate their children. All the while relying on Agriculture that is dependent on inefficient cultivation methods, is filled with brokers that only pay meager prices for the farm produce only to resell them at exorbitant prices to the final consumer. My dream for Kenya, and the African continent, is to see our people feed themselves with healthy and nutritious food cultivated from our lands. To see all children, girls, and boys, poor or rich, access quality, transformative and life-affirming education that will equip them to become the force of change in the continent. To see people living in rural and urban informal settlements have access to affordable and quality health care. And finally to see our youth become engaged in leadership both in public and private institutions. This will create a continent that feeds her people, ensures their prospertity and guarantees them a good quality life that is a right for all human beings.This is a bold dream which I know may not be accomplished in a single life. I have, however, made a commitment to ensure that I play my part in helping this dream become a reality. I am, and will continue, to do this by ensuring that the work I do is aimed at solving one of the above problems and by partnering with other like-minded leaders across the continent. I know this journey is not going to be an easy one. I am however aware of the challenges that lay ahead and still have the right motivation, perseverance and the will power to see it through. My dream is to impact and change so many lives that when I look back as an old man I can afford to smile knowing that I left the world a little better than I found it. Thank you!

Words by Dennis Omolo, Founder The Teaching Pool and Cohort 4 Fellow “I want Kenyan teachers and learners to have authentic relationships ,” says Omolo, pictured here with his students. When I started The Teaching Pool, an organization to nurture the next generation of Kenyan teachers, I felt alone. Almost everyone I talked to said it was too ambitious a project or did not understand why we need to create a learning community tailored for new teachers. It took me more than half a year to put together a team that believed in the mission. The Metis Fellowship retreat was a chance for each of the 17 fellows to know that they are not alone and that together, each of our contributions adds to the overall goal of making the world a better place. It was great to see how unique each of our innovations are and to also be aware of how they converge. We listened to amazing innovations in tech and were awed by how technology can be a bridge to making learning more effective. We also learnt of fellows innovating in terms of resilience and life skills. Listening to them articulate the problems they are trying to solve not only challenged us to do more but also motivated us to have a broader view of the education landscape. Dennis shares a moment during retreat with his fellow colleagues, with whom he shall journey with for the next 5 months and hopefully, a lifetime. This shared passion for change was evident throughout the retreat. And the result was that each of us felt like we belonged. This was despite the age gap between the fellows. This is a group that represents two generations and as such, there is the unbridled passion of youth tempered with the invaluable wisdom of old hands. The mixture is a powerful one. We all felt a genuine connection. We shared not only our dreams but also our failures. Can you imagine one night we had a toast to failure, and everyone shared a story of a time they flopped? After sharing my story, I had four of the fellows coming to me to offer words of encouragement and share their own experiences that had a correlation with mine. It proved that even though our experiences may seem different on the surface, there are similarities that we can draw if we look deeper. “There is so much we can do but if we do not listen to the young people, all our efforts will be in vain. The learners reminded us to do everything we can to make education a more wholesome and inclusive experience. I believe this is the goal of all our endeavors- to contribute towards providing quality education to every child.” Selfie time!. Dennis believes that at the centre of any teaching and learning process lies relationships, a mantra that he lives by through his interactions with his students. One of the highlights of the retreat was the session we had with students from different high schools. They talked about the current situation of the education system, what they like, what they would like to see changed, and how education in this country can be improved. There is so much we can do but if we do not listen to the young people, all our efforts will be in vain. The learners reminded us to do everything we can to make education a more wholesome and inclusive experience. I believe this is the goal of all our endeavours- to contribute towards providing quality education to every child. And through Metis, I’m sure I’ll be on my way to making my contribution towards this dream. At the end of the fellowship, I hope to have The Teaching Pool up and running and to use the connections made here for future partnerships, reaching 500 teachers annually with opportunities for professional development. I’m excited about a future in which Kenyan teachers are supported and connected to each other in the same way I was at the retreat.

Words by Kamau Kamau, Metis Communications Lead “I see something in you.” These are words that I have heard countless times throughout my life across multiple environments and perpetually, I only took them with a grain of salt. I was born in the Eastlands area of Nairobi and spent my formative years here too. My childhood was full of adventure, thrill and of course, a hint of mischief. One avenue however that has (and still does) had a lasting impact on my life is the school environment. At school is where I made my first friends away from home, where I uncovered my talents, where I gained literacy skills, where I learnt to co-exist with and accommodate people from different backgrounds. Beyond academics, school has been a constant test of my humanity, faith and values. It has chiselled me to become the man I am today and I am grateful for it. A young Kamau ‘practising‘ his photography skills. I have always associated school leadership positions with the A-students. It is no surprise then, that I was baffled when called upon to be a class monitor back in primary school even when my grades weren’t the best. I wondered to myself “There are dozens of more students with better grades. So why me?” The answer from my class teacher was quite simple, “I see something in you.” Those words were not enough to convince me, I turned down the position. Even when I later transferred to another school, by the first year the headmaster himself pulled me aside in the middle of a school assembly to offer me a bell-ringer position. I wondered to myself the same thing I did 4 years earlier, “Why me?” History repeated itself once again and he looked me straight in the eye and told me the exact thing my class 2 teacher told me. “Is this something teachers globally are trained to say?” I wondered while still plotting on how to politely decline the position. Daily habits may appear seamless but once you take a step back and zoom out, the pattern becomes clear. (Image credit: @visualizevalue on Twitter) On the frontline of duty: Kamau posing for a photo during a prayer day ceremony as a KCPE candidate. This pattern repeated itself at least thrice in my high school through to university, escalating to strangers and friends too. My response all this time has always been a resounding “No.” When the opportunity to join Metis came calling earlier in the year, my usual response was at the tip of my tongue. This time, however, I took a step back and wondered. “What has declining leadership positions brought me?” After a quick self-audit, I realized that it has cost me more than it has benefitted. This is when I decided to break the pattern. Try new things, scale new heights and be bold enough to fail and learn from my mistakes. As Dean Koontz once wrote, “Patterns exist in our seemingly patternless lives, and the most common pattern is the circle.” More often than not we find ourselves smothered in the patterns of imposter’s syndrome, self-doubt, fear and other self-destructive loops. When patterns are broken, new opportunities emerge. You unlock potentials you didn't know existed in you and enter new worlds connecting you to larger than life experiences. This is evident in the education world where innovators and educators are constantly breaking the traditional methods of learning and devising new ones which have proven to be more effective, fun and impactful for learners and teachers alike. Kamau sensitizing parents and children on how to use the Metis Home Learning Guides in Kayole, Nairobi as part of his role as a Communications Lead.

Victor training youth on sustainble developement during the Internation Youth Day Kennedy is only 25 years. As a firstborn in a family of seven, he started working at the age of 16 years to support his parents in providing for the family. Kennedy’s parents earn a weekly allowance of $8 which is not enough to support his five siblings. In April 2020, Kennedy was rendered jobless because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a youth who only studied up to high school, he is currently not able to access formal employment. Kennedy is just an example of millions of youth around the world who have been rendered jobless because of Covid-19. What started as a global health crisis has now turned into an economic crisis with millions of people around the globe being rendered jobless. A report by the Africa Union estimates that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 20 million jobs, both in the formal and informal sectors, are threatened with destruction. Most of these will be rendered jobless are working youth between the age of 15 and35 years. Today there are 1.8 billion people in the world between the ages of 15 and 35 — a quarter of the global population. This is the largest generation of youth and young people the world has ever known. Young adults are the backbone of every society, providing energy, ideas, and investment potential. As of June 2020, over 770,000 youth in Kenya had lost their jobs due to Covid-19. The Government estimates that the numbers will rise to 1,000,000 by December 2020. This number is different from the 800,000 youth who were initially jobless in Kenya before covid-19. Effect of unemployment among the youth Kenya is currently witnessing a high rate of crime among the youth as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the rate of unemployment among the youth increases in a country, the result is catastrophic. The youth are likely to engage in unhealthy activities including, but not limited to crime and violence, drug abuse, an increase in unplanned pregnancies and poor leadership choices. The lockdown and quarantine measures imposed by different governments have also resulted to a high level of stress, depression and anxiety. The current environment has left little room for creativity and innovation among many young people. It is important to note that the unemployment challenge did not start when the pandemic hit. The problem started way before that. How do we ensure that we create sustainable unemployment opportunities for youth? Garden of Hope Foundation Model The leadership development and entrepreneurship project started by theGarden of Hope Foundation aims to equip youth in rural communities and urban slums with sustainable social entrepreneurship skills. The current education system does not leave much room for creativity and innovation. In a society where some careers are more “glorified” than others, it is very difficult for young people to pursue their ideal passions. Since founding Garden of Hope Foundation, Victor and his team have been able to reach over 20,000 youth across 5 counties. Garden of Hope Foundation allows young people in people in urban slums and rural communities to create their own employment opportunities by looking at challenges in their communities and developing solutions to those challenges. Using design thinking approach, the youth are exposed to all sustainable development goals. They are then encouraged to pick goals that resonate with them and challenges they face in the communities. They are then taken through a rigorous process where their ideas are refined to meet the social entrepreneurship aspect. Once they are good to launch their ventures, Garden of Hope Foundation, through support from other stakeholders, provides funding and continuous mentorship to the learners. Since we started, over 200 diverse ideas have been developed by the youth. These ideas have created over 500 employment opportunities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen youth develop several ideas to respond to the needs in their various communities. Our commitment to decent jobs is to support 2,000 youth by 2024. The youth will be supported through creation of employment opportunities, financing their business ideas and mentorship. Challenge to the government and other stakeholders A section of the youth that Victor helps equip tech skills Radical changes in the education system: The current education systems leaves no room for students to explore other interests apart from what has already been defined for them either in the books or by those ahead of them. Deliberate radical change is needed in the education system to allow room for creativity and innovation. This will encourage the students to start developing world class ideas at an early age. Leveraging on Partnerships: In order to ensure sustainability of the education system, we must clearly understand our strengths and weaknesses as stakeholders. This will ensure that we share knowledge and resources with others who do not have. Every stakeholder has a role to play to ensure that more youth around the world get access to sustainable employment.

Words by Lilian Oloo, Cohort 4 fellow. In her element: Through play learning, Lilian is reimagining the traditional chalk and board teaching method with toys as a way to make learning more fun and engaging for learners. Imagine a world where every child has equal opportunity and access to quality education. Research has it that a child’s social strata are a significant predictor of his or her educational success. The environment a child grows around shapes their success in the future. This means that children’s performance gaps due to social class can be traced way back in their earliest years of life. Most often children who start late tend to stay disadvantaged as they may not be able to cover the lost ground. The potential of millions of young children therefore remains unexplored due to failure to provide families access to quality early childhood and learning programmes. My journey as a play advocate and play-based learning promoter was informed by this reality. As the second born in a family of six, I had to work twice as hard as my counterparts to attain post-secondary education. This inequality became more evident as I began my teaching career in a moderately endowed school while interacting with underprivileged learners. The learning outcomes and progression were clearly different and it was obvious that the gap created at their formative stage was big. I felt the need to positively disrupt this trend. I founded theToy Library Association of Kenya (TLA-KE), an NGO that supports early childhood development using the toy library concept. The toy library concept makes quality early learning opportunities and information more accessible to all children, their families, early learning facilitators and ECD practitioners in order give the underprivileged and marginalized children an equally good start in life. The Toy Library A child interacting with some of the toys at The Toy Library Association of Kenya (TLA-KE) founded by Lilain. A toy library is a high impact, a cost-effective, non-centre based programme that gives children, their families, early learning facilitators and ECD practitioners access to a collection of carefully selected educational and play materials, play sessions and training on how to use the toys to encourage development. At the toy library, play is made intentional, with objectives making it the best venue to promote children’s holistic development. To make play learning more accessible and impactful to many, TLA-KE had developed the following skills-based training courses; Children playing in their neighbourhood through the toy library’s outreach programme. Toy Library Set up and Administration Play-based Learning with Toys Material Development from Waste Developing Birth to 2-Year-Olds. Playful Parenting The idea is to enable the replication of the toy library concept throughout the country and in Africa. It is my vision to have a toy library within the reach of every child. Cognitive, creative, emotional, physical and social skills are interconnected, making children’s development and learning complex. This is what constitutes a holistic view of child development. What better way to achieve this development than through PLAY? Research shows that playful learning experiences are more effective in developing these interconnected skills. These five skills are essential for a child to thrive in a dynamic and uncertain world. When children acquire cognitive skills, they learn how to solve complex tasks in their life. This ability is transferred to situations to do with school, their future work and private life. Creative skills enable exploration of possibilities and evaluation. They support in identifying the best solutions and transforming ideas into reality. When children develop strong emotional skills, they are able to manage and express their emotions. This helps them to handle impulses, tackle life challenges and relate meaningfully with family and friends. Children attain strong physical skills by being physically active and practising sensory-motor skills. Lilian conducting training on Toy Library Setup and Administration The early childhood space necessitates innovation with regards to how programmes are delivered. If every child had access to a toy library that offers high quality early learning play opportunities, he or she would have the required foundation to make it through formal schooling, continue with their studies and make it life; therefore breaking the poverty cycle. Working together with other organizations to establish toy libraries will result in cost-effective, improved learning outcomes for marginalised children. “Play is not a break from learning. It is endless, delightful, deep, engaging, practical learning. It’s the doorway into the child’s heart!” ~ Vince Gowmon

Words by Hemanshi Galaiya, Cohort 4 fellow Education is considered as the critical software for development as it shapes the destiny for every society. As a fundamental human right, every child is entitled to an education. This is critical, not only for the development of individuals but of societies. Today, 796 million people in the world are illiterate. Staggering isn’t it? Yet, there is an even scarier truth that over two-thirds of these 796 million illiterate people are women. Despite females accounting for over 50% of the global population, only about 39% of rural girls attend secondary school, and data from 42 countries show that rural girls are twice as likely as urban girls to be out of school. Hence, we are forced to reflect upon our ideologies and promises of gender equality and the accessibility of quality education for all. When this grim reality set in, I felt an innate obligation to inquire about the reasons for such a disparity. What I uncovered was not only shocking, to say the least, but also overwhelmingly depressing. Today, in Kenya alone, young girls are faced with not only barriers to accessibility but also socio-cultural biases that have prevented them from seeking their right to education. In the empathize phase of my METIS journey, I had the opportunity to interview 6 students in high school and university to understand their views about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and gender disparity in these fields. Not surprising at all, most male participants felt that the biggest barrier in their STEM journey was access to more materials and better facilities. On the other hand, female participants highlighted deep-rooted socio-cultural issues that were walls they had to break through even before they could get to the barriers of access to school and other challenges described by their male counterparts. As a child, I enjoyed playing cooking as much as I did pretending to be a mechanic with my brother and opening up random appliances to investigate their internal contents. Unfortunately, however, over 90% of girls across the world, and unsurprisingly even in Kenya, are conditioned from an early age towards activities and hobbies that reinforce gender biases. They are encouraged to pretend their dolls are their children whom they have to look after. They are groomed to be responsible for the welfare and upbringing of not only younger but sometimes even older male siblings, and time and again they are conditioned to believe that they're greater and often the only obligation is to build a family and look after a household. In this manner, the only science young women are exposed to becomes the so-called home science. Despite free primary education for all children in Kenya, additional costs like uniforms alone force families to prioritize educating male children over female ones. If and when these young girls do get to school, their struggle only builds up; widespread period poverty and over 30.5% of girls getting married below the age of 18 results in unwarranted withdrawal from schooling. Yet, that is the least of the story. For the less than 39% of girls that do make it into high school, they are fed malicious biases that prevent them from pursuing careers in STEM. In my own journey, despite being an academically inclined high achieving student, from a household where gender biases were not a norm and despite attending a private school in the city, the biases of a single male teacher did convince me that ‘Physics was not for girls.’ Fortunately, I came out at the end of that situation as a proud engineer, years down the line, with the support of other empowering teachers. However, this is not something we see often in the real world. A lack of role models, poor crediting of achievements of women in STEM, and working policies that hinder the progression of women in academia and industry have, for a very long time, convinced girls that they do not fit into the prestigious STEM narrative. I know several readers might be questioning this with comments like, ‘Surely, this isn’t true, we are in the 21st Century now’, ‘A girl child can be anything she wants no one can stop her’ and ‘These are tales of the past’. Yet, these words are far from the reality on the ground. And so, we must ask ‘What can I do to change this narrative?’ At the turn of 2015, 193 nations, both developing and developed countries, agreed to a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future; with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the heart of this framework. Wherein, Goal 5 is aimed at ‘Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls’. A Ghanaian educator once said, ‘The surest way to keep a people down is to educate men and neglect the women.’ We have heard many that ‘If you educate a man you simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family’. So, when we ensure that every child has access to a rights-based, quality education that is rooted in gender equality, we also create a ripple effect of opportunity that impacts generations to come. Hence, as individuals, as members of society, and more importantly as human beings, it is our obligation to practice, preach, and promote this goal in our day to day life. Collectively supporting organizations and initiatives that tackle any barrier in the journey of a girl child’s education is a contribution. A simple gesture like donating a pad, fundraising for school fees, or even educating a single person in your family or circle is a step towards solving one piece of this complex puzzle problem. With that in mind, I want every reader to be bold and unstoppable in this fight against inequality.

Words by Albert Nashon-Cohort 4 Fellow One of the most talked-about young people during this COVID-19 pandemic who has been featured on multiple news platforms such as The New Yorker stating; The High Schooler Who Became a COVID-19 Watchdog saying, “while his friends are worried about whether the prom will be canceled, Avi Schiffmann and his coronavirus-tracking site are navigating global fame. Schiffmann goes to Mercer Island High School and began teaching himself to code when he was seven, mainly by watching YouTube videos”. Early brain development has a lasting impact on a child’s ability to learn and succeed in school and life. The Stages of brain development from birth to 6 years are key for voluntary movement, reasoning, development of emotions, attachments, planning, working memory, and perception. By age six, the brain is 90 - 95% of its adult weight and peak of energy consumption. These formative stages can only mean all kids are brought up in their most basic brain development period by Parents or Caregivers whom if they do not provide that nurturing environment and daily individualized communication, may not raise a child properly. Experiences and happenings (negative or harsh) during this time may lead to emotional, esteem, judgment, or intellectual consequences in the future. BIRTH ENVIRONMENT AND PARENTING. The big question would be how many parents and caregivers understand this basic concept as a child’s most important period of growth? Most children are therefore taken to trained teaching facilities after the age of 6 which means over 95% of their brains have already been configured based on the prevailing circumstances such as care of the pregnancy, home circumstances, neighborhood, affirmations, hygienic tendencies, post-birth observations, exposure, language, relationships, and play. What kind of upbringing then do we accord the young ones intentionally and consciously? What role does early exposure have on childhood development? Healthy brain development doesn’t just happen, it takes keenness, interaction, stimulation, love, and care which lead to safety and security, such kids become better in language and skill towards greater communities and lifestyles. Poverty, distress, family violence, nil communication, and lack of access to quality early learning experiences build traumatic and toxic stress conditions that interfere with this process and increase negative connection on brain development. This negatively impacts a child’s early brain development, and subsequently, their long-term success. FLATTEN MY WORLD When Thomas L. Friedman wrote: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, 2005 after an extensive tour of the journey to Bangalore, India; put to perspective a few concepts including The New Age of Creativity, Connectivity, Power of Communities, Work Flow and informing which could only mean more unlimited exposure, connecting the world very uniquely and without barriers of time, geology, culture, and race. So now that the aspect of time as relates to the window of exposure and personal development converge, what value has the flattening of the World added to the human growth process? How has it been on the metrics and parameters of inequalities, global goals, and politics of economic inclusion policies worldwide influenced the speed of such a change? This perspective can be cascaded all the way from the global, continental, regional, national to local levels based on a few fundamental best practices and aspects of change. #LeaveNoOneBehind and Why Slumcode innovations and Creatives Hub in Kenya A Summary from the UN Committee for Development Policy states, “Many countries, in particular the least developed, still lack the productive capacity necessary to set them on a path towards sustainable development”. Aspects of Economic growth remain shrouded on bottlenecks based on the reduction of inequality, poverty and deprivation, and the creation of decent jobs. This pledge to leave no one behind, contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which is just about 10 years away remains almost incorrigible based on the time frame. The key to this campaign includes trends on poverty, education, housing, demographic imbalances, such as rapid population growth and disease control particularly in low‐income countries;To add our voice to the collective approach, we have been on a mission to increase, improve and enhance early and inclusive childhood development through the creation of an easily accessible safe space, equipped with tools and resources to necessitate and facilitate mind development for future growth. The case of one Haniffah Krissette a child born in the heart of the east side of Umoja estate – Nairobi. Today at 5 and half years, is fluent in spoken English, highly ambitious, able to express herself confidently, questions literally everything e.g. Why did they park wrong, why are people trashing, why did they use that kind of language, why are people not social distancing, why did you walk past the red light? So in nutshell behaviors and attitudes of adults are deeply frustrating her and she wants a Youtube Channel to begin airing her views. Daring Mt. Longonot at 22months and finally going round the crater at 40 months. Haniffah Krissette, barely 2 years at the time, scaling Mt.Longonot- a favourite hiking spot for experienced hikers all over Kenya. Her spirit of intuition and desire to tackle challenges to date remains insatiable. And it’s now upon the parents to match her at her game. Do they blame the neighborhood? No way – they create the desired environment with the available resources and invest time and effort – leaving the rest to God. WHAT IF we created multiple spaces to have 10, 100, 1000, or 1,000,000 Haniffah’s – couldn’t we bring meaningful change to the future we seek starting with the spaces and capacities we each have.Changing the World is all about the learnings we affirm at child growth. We will conquer the global goals if we emphasize Learning Spaces and Education. Little Haniffah will not conform but reform her society and space. If our World is flat – let’s get resources to match that call and start with our key growth trajectory – the young minds.

Words by Kenneth Monjero, Cohort 4 Fellow In his element: Dr.Fun during an interactive session with his students The year 2020 struck different than expected. life was going on smoothly when all of a sudden, a pandemic ensued. Total confusion engulfed all places of work including mine. Schools were closed down and everything came to a standstill. It was a very uncertain moment. Well, I decided to take up my Dr. Fun shoes and put them on. I had to come up with something creative and fun out of all the mess. That was the birth of Fun & Educational Global Network (FEGNe) Kenneth in conversation with a student. As a science enthusiast, I have come to appreciate the informal side of science. Over the past few years,I have carried out a number of science-related events, attended conferences and organized science fairs. Since I love informal education, I decided to incorporate kids into science by changing their education from books to hands-on to develop skills needed in this 21 st century. I have carried out all these activities under the Science Centre Kenya until the onset of the pandemic Work of my little hands! A student shows her hravest courtesy of FEGNe The frustration that caught parents and children when schools closed down was intense. I decided tocome up with a solution that would lighten up parents’ responsibilities for continuously watching their kids as well as engage the kids so they do not get idle. That is how I began the project – Fun & Educational Global Network (FEGNe) FEGNe is a global network program for linking up students to mentors and engaging them in science and agricultural programs that will keep them busy, help them develop skills, open up their creativity, get exposure, and interact with other children globally during the pandemic. Design for Change (DFC) Program We have inculcated design for change (DFC) program where children go through Feel, Imagine, Do and Share in design thinking. They come up with products and ideas to improve and widen their design thinking. At Metis Empathy stage, parents & children are interviewed to really get the need before starting design for change program. When handling projects, parents are called in to assist and monitor the children so that they do not harm themselves and help them manoeuvre through any hard tasks.

Words by Dr. Christine Owinyi, Cohort 4 Fellow Play and exploration are what makes children grow. Making mistakes is part of learning and also part of growing. I keep reflecting on my childhood days with a lot of nostalgia, some of the things we did with my siblings in the early 80s still perturb me till now. In most occasions, we received structured strokes because both our parents were teachers and so to say, disciplinarians. No mischief was overlooked. One day my kid brother and I started asking ourselves how chicken did go for short-calls because we could see how cows did relieve themselves same to other animals like dogs and donkeys, but never did we see chicken do it except for the dung. Dr. Tina with children from her initiative-GLG My mother was a good poultry farmer and there were so many chickens at our home and all of them had the same colour, we saw our mother collect so many eggs from the chicken house every evening and this kept surprising us. One day, my brother thought; “what if we helped these chicken get some water and have them go for short-call?” Although younger than me, I had always seen my brother as a genius and so all his ideas were great. He sent me to get a ‘Cofta’ bottle from the house, when I came back I found that he had already fetched enough water ready for operation. We filled the bottle with water and picked one chicken after the other and poured all the water in the bottle into the chicken from behind as we set them free. Since it was a lot of water we poured into each chicken, we hoped to see water coming out but that didn’t happen. When our mother came back in the evening, our old grandmother who was watching us all day without saying a word reported to us. I still remember the strokes I received till today. I cried the whole evening and was even not able to eat dinner on that day. Thinking about this incident rings a bell in my head as I keep pushing the 21 st Century skills agenda forward for Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) which I am promoting is anchored on having everyone take care of themselves others and the planet and the 21 st century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information, research skills and practices, interrogative questioning, creativity, artistry, curiosity, imagination, innovation, personal expression, communication and collaboration are of focus. Instead of the strokes, our mother could have supported us to understand the digestive system of chicken whenever she slaughtered one since we were trying to explore to discover the unknown. Instead of fault-finding, our grandmother could have seen what we did in the positive light and stopped us from what we were doing by correcting us and explaining the repercussions. Children grow and learn better through experiments that is why all adults should be positive towards competency-based learning which encourages learners to explore different means of getting results. Probably if I and my brother lived as children now and our parents having to go through some sensitization on parental empowerment and engagement, we could be the best scientists in the world. Children should be allowed to experiment on various means of solving problems for them to grow knowing that there are different ways to approach a challenge and the motivation should be at the final results. Encouraging recycling at an early age, kids make paper mache using old newspapers. When I see young children today, I keep imagining the number of things we can do together to enable them to develop the 21 st Century skills and this is the main reason behind my initiative of the Pick Up Trash campaign that I am engaging learners in my neighbourhood to pick up trash not just to keep the environment clean but also to learn how to take care of themselves, others and the planet by giving love hoping to get love back. The reason for the Pick up trash campaign is to sensitize everyone to pick trash and dispose of it in the right place to make it possible to Refuse; Reduce; Reuse; Recycle; repair; Rethink and Reconnect trash. The GLGL Kids have started to learn how to apply the 7Rs of sustainability by preparing paper mache from old newspapers and reusing wastewater bottles in gardening as shown in the pictures. By initiating this campaign, I aim at giving learners to explore and in the process explore the 21 st Century skills. “What if all learners in the world were supported to take care of themselves, others and the planet?”

Words by Doris Kiogora, Cohort 4 fellow What’s the most important thing you could do to influence the life of a child? There are a lot of things that we think of as important for a child’s success. Of course, there is no single thing that would be the only important. It has to be a combination of things with parental love and support prioritized on that list. In Kenya today, parental participation has not received much attention leaving most passive as they are unaware of what to do. Education and learning have been left for teachers and schools, with undefined roles of parents in their children's education. Based on observations, reports and research, parental participation remains low especially in the rural areas and fast-paced urban settings. Most parents/caregivers have made the assumption that if they provide shelter, food, clothes and send the child to school then they are set to succeed. But that’s not enough because that is not all that’s needed. There’s still a gap. It has taken Covid 19 pandemic for both parents/caregivers and teachers to understand the critical role that the other plays in advancing the child’s learning. When teachers reach out to parents and parents reach outback, that connection makes a whole difference in the kind of support a child has access to. Regardless of the economic background or the kind of school a child goes to, when they have great support at home from the parent /caregiver and in school from a teacher, they develop holistically. It’s the network of schools, parents/caregivers and communities that make the difference in the life of a child. Teachers help build the bridge across the education gap by creating opportunities for a child to succeed but they can’t solely do this and most times even with all the hard work in the classroom, they are left feeling the weight of this responsibility. Imagine if the teachers worked with individual parents and students to get across this gap? Last year Jane was in grade 6 in one of the most populated public primary school in Nairobi. She is a bit shy, an average performer and does especially well in English. Halfway through the second term, her English Mr. Mwangi realized that Jane wasn’t as active in class as usual and even after talking to her he was worried. Mr. Mwangi took a step of reaching out to Jane’s mother and after a bit of a chat, she revealed to him that there had been kids from church who attend more affluent schools that Jane had been comparing herself with. This had really affected her self -esteem and confidence over the holiday despite her mother’s effort to help. Together Mr. Mwangi and Jane’s mother decided that for the rest of the term they will work at providing Jane with various opportunities to build her self-esteem including connecting her with good friends at school, complimenting her and Mr. Mwangi gave Jane’s mother ideas on practical ways she could create a supportive environment at home. They checked in with each other weekly for the rest of the term. By the end of the term not only was Jane back to her usual self even more outspoken than she’s ever been, she was also top 10 in her class and continues to do well. There was a positive turnaround for Jane because her teacher reached out to her mother and together they figured a way to help her. It took collaboration and initiative from each of them to see this through. What if this was a reality for each child throughout their schooling? So here’s one way to build a bridge across the education gap. The teachers can structure a way to work closely with the parents/caregivers to help the child succeed. They can provide a clear understanding of what can be done at home to reinforce the great work they are doing in the classroom. If each week the teacher sent a message to the parent saying I really like how your child participated in school this week, here are some ways you could engage them to help strengthen this or would you be able to come to school to speak about your child? On the other hand, parents/caregivers reach out to teachers with details of how the child is doing outside of school that could help them best support them while in school. At the end of the month, we have 40 of these positive conversations that reveal to both parents/caregivers and the teacher details that they need to help a kid and make a difference in their lives. As American historian & social activist, Howard Zinn said “We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” Yes the economic backgrounds may not be great, the school might not have enough resources but the way parents/caregivers and teachers choose to engage, even in what may seem like small ways changes quite a deal. They have a powerful opportunity to make decisions that impact their chance of being successful. What a powerful gift for the student to know that my teachers and parents/caregivers are working together. They want the same success for me. When we combine the power of parental love and the professional expertise of a devoted teacher we can get our children across the gap. We can create a collaborative community that transforms our schools and put the child’s success at the heart of all that we do. Through the METIS fellowship, my team atPACEMaker international and I are working on a strategy to facilitate opening these lines of communication as well as amplifying the need and role of this critical area of collaboration in bridging the inequality gap in education. Every child deserves the right to be supported to thrive both in school and at home.