 Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in. You participate fully by leading by example, not because you have served so much, but simply because you have the heart. My name is Alicia Abono Amila. I'm the director of Mid-South Junior School. We started in 2007, third time. We've only two kids and two teachers and two temporary classrooms. So many schools, if it is a private school, it is like a business oriented. But this one is more of helping the kids, like making money. That's why I've even struggled this much to make this school this beautiful. It is now and I can say it is much beautiful. But when you go to my house up country, you'll be surprised. Very temporary structure, looks a little bit fun, but first of all I take this school to give it the first priority. And it is transforming the life of children, not just about education. We've seen people that are graduates, but they don't know even what to do. But here we really follow them, we talk to them. Apart from getting the good results that they're getting, we really make sure that we build them up holistically. We teach them how to go out there, how to express themselves. And that's why in Jiru sub-county, you find that we've been number one. All the time we take a child there, they become number one in public speaking for the last five years. This community is really good. They value the school, they give me a lot of support. Most of the time you'll find them, even the ones that their kids are not letting in this school, they say that this is our school. They are always also proud of their performance because we normally write it outside the gate. It stays there for months, so they really enjoy, they're happy about it. Also whenever they have maybe visitors, some of them will come ask for the space and I normally give it. So they consider it their school. I'm called Kevin Odwar, well known as Malozi. They found out Malozi Waman Initiative, which is a community-based organization. We are serving in peace and doing a lot of charity work in the community. We met with Fred Sardia during the Good Dits Day celebration. I think it was 2017, that is when I met him during the event and I wanted to know more about the Good Dits and we went further to join to be partners of the Good Dits celebration. Again we joined the membership of volunteer-involving organizations, which is an umbrella of volunteering organizations in Kenya. We've done quite a number of events because they are the primary partners of our organization. Number one, they gave us a space to have an office at first because we are the community-based in the grassroot. So they nurtured us in a way that they even gave us a space to their office so that they hosted us. Having that, so we normally do joint activities in most of the, quite a number of events that we do. He was working with the children, I work with the children too. In fact, I say I like revanging. I live a very better life. Then I was like better most of the time in my life. Then I thought like the people who did bad to me, what can I do to them? Then I thought of doing it now opposite. That if I realize that you did something bad to me, I do it opposite. I do much for you. For example, I used to live with a relative who used to even hide the food under the bed for me. So one day she came to my place, I made sure that she was overeating, preparing nice food for her, doing a lot of things for her. So that is what I've been teaching a lot of the people even when I do guidance on counselling, that it is really benefiting to revenge positively. And therefore when I got about doing good, it is something that I already was doing. Then that is when we came to be very close friends with Fred and the BIO Society. I was like what can I do also to join up. Therefore, each and every year we normally participate in a good deeds day. I take the children, they showcase the joy and different things that we do. My name is Fredrik Sadia. I am a volunteer and I always say that volunteering has made me. But it happened to be the national coordinator and secretary to a network that brings several volunteer-involving organizations together. The network was founded in 2004 and the reason was to bring as many of these organizations to work with government in trying to create what we call enabling environment for volunteering. So this include policy infrastructure, legal infrastructure. And in 2008 we started working very closely with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. And we were working with them because it is within that ministry that volunteerism is domiciled. So we were working to develop a national volunteerism policy since 2008 and eventually in 2016 Kenya had the first national volunteerism policy in our close partnership working with government. Again we felt that the policy is good but for us to really achieve we needed to work on a law. So since around 2016 we started working on a legal infrastructure. We've done quite amazing work in doing this led by the Ministry of Labour, State Department for Social Protection. And at least as we speak we have a draft bill on volunteerism in Kenya. Some of the members of the VIO society include the UNV, United Nations Volunteers, the Kenya Red Cross. We have Baloziwa Amani. We have this institution here at the Middle South School. We are in excess of about 50 registered members to the network, both small and big organizations. Some of them are national, others are international organizations. And apart from just the members that are signed up to work with us in the network we also have several that work and join us when we are doing activities almost all around the year. And these ones are in excess of 200 other civil society organizations beginning from self-help groups to international NGOs that we work with. Apart from being the national coordinator and the secretary to the VIO society I also happen to be the Kenya representative to the Good Dits Day movement. Good Dits Day is a global movement that was founded in Israel way back in 2007. And I happen to have interacted with them in the past years. Actually it is interesting to note that we've hosted the global CEO of the Good Dits Day and at one point we got an opportunity to also be hosted at the KBC for an interview about doing good. So the movement began in 2007 in Israel and it operates on the basis of three very simple what we call basis. One, it is about thinking good, speaking good and going out to do good. So when I met this good friend of ours from Israel, his name is Kenan Rabino he is the global leader of the Good Dits Day movement. However the Good Dits Day movement was founded by a philanthropist and a business, a lead business woman in Israel known as Sherry Arizona. But when I met Kenan I think we first met in Rwanda in 2015 in Kigali and I thought the idea was so good. So I said that I want to bring this thing back home. Then again we happened to meet in Mexico City in 2016 and 2017 I brought the idea home, gave it to the government and as we speak today, Good Dits Day celebration is one in the calendar of the government at the State Department for Social Protection and we've celebrated ever since 2017 doing major events in Nairobi 2017 Nairobi, 2018 Nairobi, 2019 Nairobi and working very closely with the County Government of Nairobi the first one we were welcome and hosted by Governor the former Governor Kidero then came in Governor Sonko whom we even crowned the Good Will Ambassador for Good Dits Day in Kenya in 2018 and now we've started the partnership again working with the County Government under the leadership of Governor Sakaja and it's been exciting because in 2020 we went down to the coast and worked very closely to plan with Governor Joho but then Covid happened, we couldn't proceed on with the event we tried again 2021 at the coast again Covid happened so we were doing very small activities around that period of the celebrations In Kiswahili they say Yes, that drives us to a question of interest Why do you care? I was born and raised in up country in the rural area from Sierra County, Rariada sub county in a small, very beautiful village called Asembo and I grew up in my parents were peasant farmers and I got a lot of inspiration from how kind they were like our homestead wouldn't miss people you'll find guests coming in the morning and living late in the night and I was wondering why the connection my dad made his soul rest in peace I just led him to rest last month on the 11th he was such a kind guy he'll accept and treat everyone almost equally my mum was also such a lady she rested way back when I was just in high school in the 90s but I drew so much from them the art of kindness, the art of giving back the urge to always deny yourself and reach out to someone and then in high school I happened to have met and been taught by a Japanese volunteer so that's when I started becoming so kind about volunteering this is something that really brings someone from far away coming to Kenya and just giving their services over free I said I can't do it because I'm also here but then I went through secondary school Kenya the rural boy doing our keeping our animals and tailing our farmland but then after high school I came to the city and my first stop where my brother used to live was Kibra in Katwikera another informal settlement with all the challenges I decided to look at the opportunities that was in that community and I realised that the people in the city especially those of us who were living in informal areas were worse off than some of us were living in the rural the perception that the city is cool and then you come and boom trash is all over the place so I stayed here in Kibra in Katwikera with my brother that was way back in 98 and I started seeing how people were struggling did a bit of jengu just to also make sure that I could take care of my other siblings back at home and support my dad in taking care of those of us but in 1999 I love to do a lot of soccer sports so at the Woodley Stadium I used to go there to play soccer then one evening I'm there and I see two white men one was on a wheelchair and there was a tent across the pitch at the Woodley Stadium I never dared to go there but this time round I was touched because this guy was struggling to put his colleague was in a wheelchair in the van so I walked up and I talked to them please may I help they didn't say yes help they looked at me and the question was oh so you can speak in English and that was very but I kind of swallowed that and I said yes I speak in English and I am willing to help can I help you to take your put allow your colleague to sit in the van then they accepted then I got interested to get to ask what was happening at the tent and when I realized that inside that tent they were taking care of street children as it was then I again asked myself the same question I asked myself when I was in high school why would someone come from so far away to do something that I could do while I'm here that was the last and the beginning of me and serving community so since 1999 to date I've never looked back I gave myself to service to humanity and volunteered with that organization for so many years left and changed organizations and I think the best that I've done with my life is volunteering doing good and many a times I realize that I say wait a minute when did I get my last pay and I can't tell when I got my last pay and that's why I defined myself volunteering has made me this is the person I am later doing all this thing getting a lovely lady and getting married and she was always wondering why in my small house wherever I ever lived there were so many people coming in young girls like no no no you but it was all about the beauty of welcoming everyone home just to allow them to learn just to give them share the list that I had I remember one day I was headed to church then we had little money and I was the one cutting this then one of my friends one of the children asked me about uncle lunch we only had 100 shillings we were coming from church then I tried to look for change for this money I didn't get so I decided to give the boy the whole of 100 shillings we didn't have nothing completely my wife is like what kind of a guy this is but now she's learned to live and supporting my work an amazing lady that has supported me the last 18 years of my relentless service to serve my people when he looks back he can't help but smile about this far he has come when I started my volunteer in Jani way back 1999 I worked as a teacher so I used to tutor English and Mathematics and soccer that is the first assignment I had with the first organization that I got in 1999 which I mentioned earlier so I started as a teacher then I got interested in visiting the streets just to know what was happening in the streets so I think between 1999 up to 2008 I was a friend to all the street corners within the city of Nairobi working with street families and just trying to find a way by which we could take these children out of the streets young girls and boys and also look at how we could support the mothers and I did this with the number of organizations and I am happy I see today I am happy that I have touched so many lives that I couldn't even kind of try to count and to remember because I remember there was also a time that I worked extensively with young mothers you know teenage mothers at a lower age there is a time also that I got an opportunity to volunteer with an organization and we were focusing on commercial sex workers visited Majengo did the whole of the north coast at the coast CDO Mombasa just trying to find a way by which we could support them most of them unfortunately were living with HIV and AIDS and the stigma around HIV and AIDS at that particular time so working with them and just seeing them come back to life is the greatest joy you could ever imagine I remember one specific case of a mother that we had visited in Madare and she was bedridden and had about three girls not all in school so in the project I was working we could only admit one girl but out of a personal interest I said no no no I would approach the leadership and tell them that we have to take all the children so actually one was a boy two girls and others so I reached out and they accepted to take the two girls and I looked for another institution to take the boy this mother was so devastated because she was so bedridden and actually what she told me was she was waiting for her day so that she can rest but I was touched that I tried to make sure that I connected this lady to a healthcare facility that she could get I am happy just recently I was told by another young man that I also mentored that she was called Mama Eda that Mama Eda called him recently asking about Fred at the point of death and that was way back in 2004 and just recently less than two weeks ago this mother is calling to ask about me I am happy she is alive this is the joy and a number of young boys there was a time that I used to work with gangsters as well and when we were walking along the streets of Nairobi they would tell me just to safeguard me because I was reaching out to them and telling them that crime doesn't pay to change and make their lives better so these are the few that I have done and then later I left the direct interaction and I started having a keen interest in national volunteering this is when the VIO society was being founded in 2004 I was a volunteer with Amref we used to have a group known as Ungana Young Friends of Amref at that particular time I was the person in charge of all the activities they used to call me that role volunteer action officer so that I was in charge of planning for as many activities so I did that for so many years later they elected me to be the chair of the group for which I served until 2008 along the journey so many things happened continued my volunteering trying to also make a ends meet for my family doing one or two, three steps but then in 2011 I got to heart my left eye and I love the story because I got heart doing what I love, volunteering I was instructing a group of young street boys on how to fix something then a piece of nail broke off and hit my eye and I spent full as it were went through this process of surgeries a number of them about four surgeries trying to save sight we couldn't but I take it as a mark of doing what I really loved to do and 2012 I started getting to feel better and started to revive the VIO society talking to colleague I said where can we take this network what can we do with government and eventually in 2014 I took up the role of the secretary and the national coordinator and I look back to date and I'm glad what we've been able to do as a team because today Kenya has a policy by the way which we are going to review because it has lived five years we are talking about a bill which we hope this government will look into and make into a law and why I had the drive is because when I got heart in 2011 there was no repose like I tried to look there was no law there was no policy that was safeguarding even my own health security so I had to raise money the kawaiida way of kuchanga from family and friends this is not right something needs to be done so I committed that I'll be as long as I live stick around until I would work with other people the relevant government agencies to ensure we have a policy and we have a law I still hope I will have the strength to do this so that in the next one or so years Kenya would have a national volunteerism policy and an active law despite the good deeds that the organization has been able to do it has been faced with challenges that may easily make one give up there are challenges indeed you know first just allow me to say volunteering is not internship or attachment attachment is because you you have to do it for you to proceed on with your studies as much as an internship maybe after college you have to do that but volunteering is purely something you do out of free will and therefore it starts from there that it has to begin with the motivation of why you want to volunteer do you want to volunteer just because you don't have work to do that is not a good motivation to go out and volunteer because then you are just doing it let me just do it but somehow it is also good because it can eventually lead you into doing serious volunteer work and we've also observed that volunteering is a pathway to employment that if you're a committed person like even for the few consultancies that have been able to do it is because of the commitment that I've had learning through the ropes through the trade and then you get to to see the beautiful things that come I don't want to say that it is easier but I want to focus so much on the opportunities within volunteering you get to interact and meet so many people you get to interact with so many organizations that are doing volunteer work like the Kenya Red Cross VSO International in Kenya the UNV program in Kenya the President's Award program in Kenya and when you leverage and make better use of such opportunities then you develop so many tangible skills that you can use to also help you to leverage when you go out to seek for a job if for example I had a colleague that has been within my institution for some time and there was a job opportunity not to be biased but because he or she has learnt with us it would always be almost automatic to absorb them into the mainstream working group but however we always at the same time caution some of us who take advantage of volunteers that you know it is something that you can pay for or you can employ someone to do that but you want to take advantage of a volunteer and that one is the reason as to why we are looking into volunteer protection but straight back to the challenges one volunteering is not for the faint hearted you know you're going to get disappointed along the way as I mentioned it begins with the motivation so when your motivation is not right when you don't think good when you don't share good and you go out and do good you'll get discourage along the way and you leave it the other one is that as I mentioned sometimes in some institutions they take advantage of volunteers and misuse them poor and poor and so any volunteer out there should always be keen to be so sure that the things that they're doing is not that which is taking advantage over them the other challenge is of course the lack of finances most of the institutions especially the community based they don't have the resources to pay not even to give us type in not even something to buy sabuni when they wash them and go but we encourage them this is among us the members that are registered within my network we encourage them to try the least you can at least to appreciate volunteers that you are engaging but it is a challenge that volunteering is not paid but at the same time volunteering is not cheap I draw my motivation from deep within me I therefore then look into the society where I belong and I ask myself one simple question what can I do to change even if it was just a little and that push has kept me going for the last more than 20 years in my volunteering journey and I proudly mention over and over that volunteering has made me because then out of the stories out of the experiences that I've had there it makes me want to do one more if I have to breathe again I just want to do one more and that has been the push the many smiles I see having people that are living peacefully we champion for so much peace in cohesion among people where they live talk about the post election violence 2007-2008 so many of us were on the street just trying to bring people together in the period of Covid when there was absolute hopelessness you give a smile and that smile becomes so much of your motivation that you want to continue to do this and I think even so critically that I realize that I'm a family man I have my own children which world do I want to live for them I want them to live in a better world I want them to be appreciated as they appreciate other people as well so this then is the push that makes me want to do the least I can every moment the future is clearly bright and yes it is one step at a time changing one life at a time and hoping to build that desirable empowered community you know sometimes you want to tell somebody even thank you but you don't know you lack no words to say you have done a lot and I know he's not demanding anything because it's something that he likes and that is why we are together because he was doing good to so many different people and now we are doing it together I really thank him I appreciate him and I know we will continue working harder to help more and more other people I might lack the proper words to tell him because he's a person with a golden heart he's always giving even if he doesn't have so I can only tell him to keep doing that I want to speak a little bit about the Good It Day movement Good It Day is as I mentioned a global movement so we are going to celebrate the Good It Day on the 16th this Sunday and it's going to be celebrated all around the world on the 16th on Sunday we say on an easy Sunday morning and Sunday you just go out and feel good on Sunday we will be having exhibitions organizations coming to share showcase the great things that they are doing we are partnering with the ministry the county government of Nairobi and most likely we are going to be a long city hallway where we've always done it every time we did it in Nairobi and we are inviting as many people who come to this event to come see what we are doing come join the circles of doing good and it's going to be great for you to come to experience the great things that organizations are doing but finally I also want to just say that I'm glad for this opportunity I hope you're going to get this opportunity but some of us may not necessarily need it I tell you there are so many heroes out there and heroes if there is a word as this that are doing amazing stuff sometimes I look at them and I think they are better off than myself I wish that you'll continue reaching out to the farthest corners of this country the farthest corner of this city many other cities around the country and to talk about just get to learn about the amazing work that people are doing