 Kompasyon tawad deniri and unfortunate is an essential virtue that every human being should possess. Only through this can one rise to the occasion of participating in a charitable act. Emi Erundanga, the CEO of Ms. Koch Kenya, having identified deniri in our community, decided to try and find solutions in the best way she knew possible. My name is Emi Kampairundanga, the Chief Executive Director of Ms. Koch Kenya. And this organization, I want to say it's an organization that started really way back in 2001 as a community-best organization, but we later on transitioned to an ungovernmental organization in 2010 where we received our official certificate for an NGO. As an organization, it started its work in Korobosha to just emphasize on girls and women protection where violence and impunity was rife among girls and elderly women. So that caused us to give back to an organization that would champion for the rights of both children, girls and women. But not so much saying leaving the boys behind because also the boys were the ones who are rallying for the safety of the female gender within the community. Situated in the shanti towns of Korobosha, Nairobi's fourth-largest Islam where insecurity, unemployment and poverty exposes its residents, especially the youth, to greater risks. Ms. Koch, who derived its name from Korobosha, started out as a community-based organization and later on transitioned to an NGO. We are the grassroots. So when we are within this community setup, you feel this is the only best place we can execute our mandate as a grassroots institution. So we don't fancy going up there, but this is where, you know, it's a heartbeat. So this is where everything and action takes place and we know if we move away from the constituents that we serve, and it's a community-centered institution, it would be a good thing. I'd rather say, yes, let's just have, this is our headquarters, so let's just have our work and activity within the constituents that we serve and within where we feel comfortable here. Even if someone tells me, Amy, we've got some nice office we want to relocate to. I'll take time to think through it and I'll be like, no, I'm okay just staying here because this is where, you know, when I engage people from the community and they still come here, they don't need to pay fares to come to this office. I don't need to pay transport to go working into the community, you know. So it is for us and for me it's the perfect place that the organization ever thought of to be. Working through community leaders and several partners, Amy has helped in building a strong group of volunteers who aid in making the project a success. On their main list is education, scholarships, mentorship and awareness creation for young people, especially the girl child and many other youthful activities. So far we have main four thematic areas where we work in to support the communities within and without. That is education and mentorship where we have children that are on our mentorship program over 400 of them and also parental guidance and counseling that we also giving to the parents to help their children grow well and also understand their needs in different fields. We also have another same program, our scholarship arm that I started way back in 2003 to champion for the girls education and not only girls but also boys. So far I will proudly say we've transitioned over 100 young people, both male and female and currently I have over 30 both boys and girls at the universities in different universities around Kenya and some of them have already finished and working to support communities and their families which I will always say and pride in as an achievement that when you educate one you educate in the larger community. So that gives us the essence of being known as an institution that champions for education and not only for girls but also for the different gender. And the other program we have is talents and entrepreneurship program where we have outfits that are supporting young people who have not transitioned well in school but they have skills or they have ability to do something. So in this case we've tried to help young people transform into different outfits like we have a DJing academy where we started it in 2011 transitioning over 120 young people who have so far been trained as DJs and they can earn out of it and I'm pride in it because one of the programs officer who is running the program is our beneficiary who started in 2011 he is called DJ Kel to Fikwa so when you look at that it's something that is giving you hope then we have also photography and videography where we've also trained over like 30 boys and girls who've gone through and they can attest that they have the skill to engage out there to earn a decent life we have an open space for volunteers we buy in large do not restrict how long you want to volunteer with us if you want to give us labor if you want to give us material so there are sometimes you we find that we actually need to help a household for example they do not have even household equipment furniture and that kind of appeal so what we do we just reach out to where we wish us if you can give us money well and good if you can give us clothes that you do not use where we save them gladly mattresses beds utensils and that kind of thing how good goes to the community his aunt has a name mum by the locals who recognize the efforts she puts in in the department of their living education is not everything if you miss out on one element you can catch it up in another element so when we train some DJs some of them came here as reform gangsters and I'm happy that we have a DJ who's reformed and he's doing well into his space we have other boys who came here and they told me Amy if you're not going to help us see through I'll turn into a gangster and so when I look at a young spirit and so that is willing to do something and they tell you if they don't get this they'll turn into this I really get so much like I'm affected that I need to do something and in fact I have a nickname they call me mum so I'm a mother for you know for many young people within the Kuroboshi environment although I've encountered my path they don't know me by any other name but they refer to me as mum and I know if you walk down Kuroboshi you'll be like mum mum me kudes na jo me kam na mazuri so I mean every other time is like when they see a mother they see like hope they see joy and that's what miss coach is all about giving hope with a typical family in this chant is comprising of single mothers and hustlers who feed from hand to mouth the most vulnerable are women and therefore a lot of sensitization needs to be done to the government at the national level on matters affecting people in the community working in households I will imagine that we don't have leadership because number one you work in a household where there is Ro Siwa flowing in the households there are kids playing out there you're talking to people whose health is in shit I mean it's like it's a total disarray I mean when you look at these people you feel like are we a victim of circumstance to be in a country where no one cares like no one cares we have our governance and human rights and governance program that also works with the leadership that we like say we have to be clear with the leadership that we have of the day from the office of the president to the office of the chief or the mcs how do we hold them accountable so far with the help of many other willing supporters she has been able to distribute over 2000 hampas to the community and enroll quite a number in the education program although every beautiful rose has stones attached Amy chooses to fight the good fight as she awaits her victory during this time that we've been doing what you're doing we've encountered quite a number of issues there's one issue also we've encountered it's with the police of an of an older man defining our own child can't even think about that young child you ask yourself what is wrong with people maybe what is going on in people's mind is it depression is it lack of I I can't really explain but what we face out here at one point you just feel like this is quite too much even for us as a small institution I always say we are not so big if you are big like you an agency I'm telling you this place will just like be changed because we are the change agents we we are not waiting for any angel to come and change these areas but the people that come through this space and getting support I believe they are the ones that are going to create an impact within the societies that we live in it is hard but I know at one point we will achieve it together with the like-minded people and the right mindset that we are trying to set to our young people the co-business of this good initiative is serving the community and while at it putting a smile on the faces of the beneficiaries this are some of the families when you've been doing listing going door to door to just identify the needs that we get on the field these are the scenarios that we find like some of my team of staff and the volunteers that are working together with us they identified this and they shared with us that Lelo was almost being kicked out of the house because of rent areas and so the landlord was adamant not to allow her in but one of my members staff Apollo got like remorse and he said no let me deal with the landlord to pay the aras and the the month's rent and so that's when he paid the 3000 but the lady's situation was really bad because she was pregnant and you can't be sending out a pregnant woman just because she's owing rent and these are some of the issues that I told you when you see how the families in Kurogosho are really living at the moment and in this time of the pandemic it's really hard like how can they put food on the table there is rent to pay there are children to care for so at times even putting a meal on a table is an issue is a religious plush I work for prime events in the meantime to now the miscoach go as a volunteer to give out this food to appreciate sana everyone who is giving out the food to the community senteni sana and you want to call everyone out there who has the the capability to support the society and our communities in the slums and other places to fatherly do something. Amy's good gesture is not in vain as other residents are following so na se 10 of kilosiku, nili parenti junyumbangu liku kwa miataatu kwa muizi. Sosa, niki 10, kwa in case ni onem tuwa kona shida na nezam sayi dia, muuja ribuwa nye nezam sayi dia na. Sa nili kujako, nili kujako 10 beli amtutu odi seba pa, nika kujapa ni kapa tauyu, umada mnim gonjo, na inzi zi liku kwa zem jali liya kila mahali. Sa mimi, nili kuja ni kagozwa. Even though sustaining the organization and its objectives has been a hicap, Amy is confident that her goals will be achieved as success depends on the strategies put in place. We put all elements together and we tell our young people that you can be, you know, who you want to be in life depending on how you set yourself right. If your strategies are right and you're disciplined and you have clear objectives then the sky is the limit I'll say and that's what you'll say. It's been so challenging working at Miss Coach particularly in terms of resources. We are a small organization at the grassroot level and what that also gives us is a huge presence in the community that we serve. So we are well known to the community around and when they are faced with whatever kind of a problem, of course they do not think whether we can't or we can't do because they see the little things we do like, you know, sponsoring kids to school, doing trainings, you know, nurturing their talent, we do outreaches even with the small budgets that we have. So this visibility now pushes every kind of need our way. So whenever they feel like they do not have anywhere to run to, they always come to check on, can Miss Coach help? So of course now that there are times it gets us off that, you find that the few projects that you're running are restricted, you know, the funds that you get are restricted and tailored for particular activities, but of course we cannot close the door on them. So what we do is we try as much as possible with the little resources that we have, we keep on resource mobilizing and we are open to any kind of material support, labor support. Just from us coming in here you can see the massive poverty that is just expressed by what you've seen and the families that we've been able to visit. It is so heartbreaking to see a family without a meal in a day and so heartbreaking to see that we cannot give enough to these particular families and the challenges that they encountered, the challenges that they've been facing. So I'm appealing to fellow Kenyans, Kenyans of Goodwill, Kenyans who have so much that they don't know where to take. Please come in handy to support such families and especially to those families that are receiving food hampers from teams like Pankaj, we are urging Kenyans of Goodwill, send your donations, send your support, send just a food to feed a family even if it's one day, it goes a long way.