 Good evening, and thank you for joining us on Y254 News Updates. My name is Patricia Morioki, and today with me in the studio, I have a full house of beautiful babies and their mothers and their coach, because today we are talking about nurturing talent. For the longest time, we've lived in a society whereby all our parents pushed us to do is pursue education, getting the good grades. But today, we have mothers in the studio who are pushing their children as much as they want them to pursue education. They are also pushing them and motivating them every day to make sure that they are nurturing their talents. And I would like to introduce my panel for the night. We have, I'll start with the children. And these are models. We have some other Jesus. Tutors, if I say your name, we have some other Jesus. We have Stephanie Vigay. We have Hope Wambui. We have Eva Maria. And we have Chantal Mimi. Yes. And then we have Pascal Inge Jebet, who is the founder of Little Miss Universe Kenya. We have Patricia Wanda, who is the mother to Samantha Jesus. We have Regina Waidera, who is the mother to Hope Wambui. And we have Esther Duet, who is the mother to Chantal Mimi. You can be part of this conversation by sharing your views and comments on our social media platforms. That is on Y254 Channel, hashtag Y254 News. You can also reach me at Patricia Morioki. So welcome and thank you guys for finding the time to be here. I'm very honored to have such talent, because I've already interacted with these young ladies. And trust me, you're yet to be shocked tonight. So let me start off with Pascal Inge Jebet. You're the founder of Little Miss Universe Kenya. And my first question would be, why did you choose to start such an initiative? Because first and foremost, I'm a very talented person. I'm multi-talented myself. I've been just being their coach. I am an artist. I'm a fashion model. I'm a designer. I write magazines. I play guitar, all those things, which I never had when I was young. So when I grew up and then I saw, like, there are kids out there who are so talented. So why can't I give them what I never had? Yes, that was the solid reason why I started. Why did you choose? Do you have maybe older girls or boys? Yes, we have from age four years to 17 years. And the reason why I have to 17 years is because at least we can still get guidance from their parents. The parents can still say, this is good for my kid. I want to support them full-time, because older than 18 years, they want to be independent. They want to do their own stuff. But for kids, their parents can easily tell them, like, this is good for you. This is not good for you. And it's easy to interact with the parents very easily. OK, with your help, I would really like to talk to the children. The babies. So Samantha. Samantha Jesus. How are you? Fine, thank you. Which school do you go to? Morningstar Learning Center. Oh, what class are you in? PP2. OK. Why do you love modeling? Because. What do you love? OK. Hope, how are you? Let's talk to Hope. How are you? Fine. What's your talent? My talent is point. Wow. So before the show ends, you're going to do a poem for us. Is that OK? What school do you go to? I go to peace junior school. OK. OK. Stefanie, how are you? Fine, thank you. What school do you go to? The second is at Jones. What's your talent? Modeling. When did you start modeling? In class? Three. In class three. Wow. Do you like modeling so far? Yes. Do you think you're going to be an international model when you grow up? Yes. OK. That's nice. Hi Eva. Hi. How are you? Fine, thank you. What school do you go to? I love international school. When did you start modeling? You can't remember. OK, give the mic to Chantel. Hi Chantel. Hi. How are you? What class are you in? Four. What school do you go to? St. Paul's. When did you start modeling? 2017. Why did you choose to do modeling? Probably not singing or dancing. Why do you love modeling? Because I love modeling because that is my talent. OK, because that is your talent. OK, so you've hand from the children. I'd like to bring the mothers in because I know for these children to have gotten to where they are right now at a very young age, it's because they have a support system and the biggest support system in our lives is our parents. So I'd like to start you with your mama hope. At what age did you notice that hope can really stand in front of people and recite poems? At the age of five years. And how was that for you? Did you feel like, ah, oh, it's not that easy being that she's born and brought up in King Brown, where her life is not that easy, but being that I realized she can do poetry. So she did poetry to give hope to the slum kid. And since that, it's like there is no hope for a slum kid. So hope is there for the slum kid to give back hope. Wow, and you see it's actually she's called hope, she's given hope to other children in the slum, so which is a very good thing. So Patricia, Samantha is in PPE, PPE2. At her Jaffika grade one, at what age did you realize that this child is talented and I know to do something about it? When she was very young, because everyone who would visit home would just say, wow, I love this kid. She just looks like she has a bright future. And when we would see those kids maybe reciting poems in a government function. And somebody would say, wow, Samantha can do this. And at that age, she was really young. She was even under one year old. So I took it as a prophetic message. I'm very spiritual, sorry. Yeah, so I just took it very. You don't have to be sorry for being spiritual. I just took it so spiritually empowering. So yeah, I'm sure enough she just proved it's true. OK, OK. Mama Shantel, I can see the little one refused to stay back then, decided to join us. At what age did you realize that Shantel can as a talent and I need it's my obligation as a mother to make sure that I guide her to pursue it until when she feels like she's gotten what she wanted. That was back in the year 2015. She was five years old. We had just moved to Nairobi from Embu County. And I realized she was interested in modeling. The problem is Shidino English. So I was like, I'll take the whole of 2015 for her to learn some English. Because I believed when she goes for these pageants, the language there is English. So 2016, that's when I took her for the first training. And she's done it since 2016. She participated in Little Miss and Mr. Teen Kenya. She was a mini Miss Kenya. Wow. Second graduation. Then 2017, we took a break. 2018, we went for Little Miss Kenya. She became Little Miss Personality. And last year, 2019, I took her to Italy for World Fashion Kids Festival. Wow. Where she won. And here we are now for Little Miss Universe Kenya. So our aim for this is to make sure tonight that we challenge mothers and fathers out there to make sure that they are pushing as much as they motivate their children to make sure that they pass to education. We also make sure that we don't forget that our children are also talented. So Pascalina, I'd like you to bring you in on this. What do you look out for? How do you identify talent? Because this is a young child who, let's say, cannot express themselves very well and say that this is what I would like to do. So what process do you take to make sure that you identify the talent in a child and probably not just identify something because you've seen it for a minute and it's not going to last? So majorly, what usually happens is when I meet people, I don't just tell them that modeling is a talent, as per se. Modeling is one of the things that opens up other talents. So once they come into one room as models, the next thing that we usually do is identify. What else can she do? Can she sing? We say, if you're a good singer, good job and well, like all that, if you're a good dancer, we have dancing classes. And then someone comes up and say, me, I like dancing more than singing. Or maybe someone like Hope will say, me, I do poetry. But modeling is the umbrella for all the other talents that comes up with it. But they're able to grow in different aspects and fields. Oh, OK, that's nice. Patricia, can you tell me, how have you been able to build confidence in some other Jesus? What are some of the ways that you've been able to do to make sure that she really maintains or even becomes better than she started? For her, she started talking when she was very little. And I realized her biggest ability, her biggest talent is in talking. Anything that involves talking, she can talk. If it's comedy, stand up comedy, she will talk. If it's poetry, that is talking. If it's singing, that is talking. Like, she can express herself verbally. So what I do with her, I just encourage her to say the right thing at the right time, as long as it is the truth. So anything that is the truth, I encourage her to say it. In many situations, I know it doesn't end well with many people. But as she grows, I train her, you don't say this at this time, you don't say this person and so. So I just tell her to say this in this kind of way. So that's how I have nurtured her confidence in expressing herself. OK, Mama Hope, I'd like you to bring you in on this one. What can you see is the advantage of grooming your child to pursue their talent at a young age when you're men and a hope? What would you see is the advantage than waiting for hope to be 18 years when enrolling in campers is when you're also pushing her or you're also motivating her to be trying to pursue her talents? OK, I would like to say that if you have talent, you can do it. I see it as much as it's going to challenge me with that name, Toto. I have a group of children. So in the first place, there are two people who identify with the talent, and who are passionate about it. If you have talent, you can do it, but in the second place, if you have talent, I think you should realize hope and a poem should be a message for the person. If the person is a person with talent, it's very important to have your talent I started doing my part at the same time, since I was a kid, and I succeeded. My message was to be entertained at the same time. I was a bit tricky, but I decided to work with the kids, because they were children, and I was a big kid, and my friends were big, even their baby ones, and it was ready to go home when I was a child. I hope I mentioned something that I would like every parent to touch on, that is, how do you make sure that your child gets to balance school and their talent? But before we get to that, I would like to bring you Pascaleen on this. What is Little Miss Universe Kenya all about? Little Miss Universe Kenya, it's a beauty pageant for kids aged 4 years to 17 years, and I myself being a finalist for Miss Universe that's for 18 years and above. I wanted to bring a smaller version of that. So it's like the smaller version of Miss Universe Kenya, but now this is for kids. So what they compete for is a title for Little Miss Universe Kenya 2020, and the winner is going to run for one year. We do projects with them. And the rest of the contestants, we are planning something for them like the talents now. Now we go into the talents that they have. And then after that, it's the National Festival which is in Georgia. It's an open invitation for all kids, as long as you've participated in the Little Miss Universe in Kenya. So those kids will be able to attend the festival and also get a chance to do a fashion show there and compete for the international title. You see, these are children, but I believe there's a point whereby, as much as they're doing these, they're kids, we are like nurturing them, there's a point whereby seriousness is involved. If you probably have coaching, you cannot miss coaching. If you have to be maybe at the agency at a certain time, you cannot miss that. As we teach them to be seizures and holidays, how do you create a balance to make sure that this is a child, they still need their time to go out and play and be children, so that as we nurture their talents, they don't skip certain stages as children. For Little Miss Universe Kenya and their modeling agency, we usually do it on weekends, especially Saturdays or Sunday afternoons. Once they're done with the schoolwork, and then on Saturday we could say training, and then we don't usually do training all the time, we usually have game time. After two hours of training, for like one hour we go for maybe some ride or a gaming, like last year we went to two rivers, and they spent like the whole afternoon after an interview, which was quite good. But other than all that, we usually have some questions, like have you performed well in class, you have some strategies, you haven't passed a certain level, what next are you going to do for us? Because you can't compete and then you're failing in class. So Esther, Mama Chantal, how do you make sure that Chantal is able to balance school, do her homework on time, still manage to get good grades in school, and also be the best in the modeling career? From Monday to Friday that is school days, so she has to concentrate fully in school and do her homework in the evening and play like any other child because I think children need to play. That is in the evening after doing her homework. Then on weekends, as Shabeta said, Saturday, Sunday, she's always busy with us, the trainings, photo shoots and everything, so we can decide for modeling. But the rest of the days of the week, the school work and playing and being a child. Patricia, how would you say Kenya is a country or how would you rate our society in terms of natural talents from a very tender age? How would you say we are doing as a country? As a country, I think now we have some hope in developing the children's talents, but before then it was just poor performance in terms of nurturing the kids. Because while I was growing up myself, I am very talented myself, but the way I had to maintain my straight A's and be the best in my class and so on. So I thought art was a waste of time, but after finishing high school things did not go the way I expected. So now it's the time I am starting to venture into art, something I would have done like 10 years ago. Yeah, so I think Kenya is a country we really need to change our perspective fully. We are not there yet, but we are getting there. Okay. Pascaline, I understand there is her competition. These are functions coming up. Would you tell us about that? Yeah, the little Miss Universe Kenya, which will be the first time it will happen at Demi Place. Immediately after Adams to start from for the models, they'll be there by 10. We'll have a red carpet moment and then this shows that exactly at 2pm. And those who wants to buy tickets, these online tickets at www.moke.com or they can call me and get the tickets from me. Okay. Yes, and for the parents, please dress well if you're coming. Say, be sure what to do. Yeah, don't let the child outdo you. Yes, that's the point. So what to do? I don't know. I want to give you an opportunity to talk to your fans and tell them to vote for you. Are you ready to do that? Samanda, are you ready to tell people to vote for you? Yes. Take the microphone. Hi, everyone. Vote me on Instagram. You can search for me, Samanda Jeezon on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Okay. Samanda is already on her social media platforms. Hope it's your opportunity to tell people. Who wants to stay at home and watch? I want to vote for the little Miss Universe Kenya. Talk to them. Hi, fans. Please vote for me on Instagram. You can vote for me, Hope Pomboy. And you can find me. Please vote for me. Thank you. Please vote for Hope. Stephanie, it's your opportunity to tell people to vote for you. How you present yourself is what determines if you're going to win. The stage is all yours. Hi, fans. Tell them to vote for you. Who wants to stay at home and vote for you? My name is Stephanie Begay. Tell them please vote for me. Please vote for me. Okay. Haia, Eva, it's your chance to tell people to vote for you. My name is Eva. Please vote for me. Please vote for me. Okay. Chantal, it's your opportunity to ask people to vote for you. Hi, everyone. My name is Chantal. Please vote for me in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Okay. So if you're watching us tonight, please add on to Facebook at Little Miss Universe Facebook page and vote for these beauties that you can see here. Let us also be part of making sure that our children are participating and nurturing their talents. So Pascal, what are some of the challenges that you get to face while running this program? One of the biggest questions I was asked was, why are there only four kids on the poster? That was the first question. And I didn't really read in my head because those are the first four kids who registered. So I was like, because they registered the first and we need to have a poster out of there, so let's run with this. And such questions really, like it comes to me, but at the same time, I don't, like the parents say, like, I'm cheesy or not. But for me, I'm not. Like, I just run the way it is. And then for Little Miss Universe Kenya, we are really setting up a standard whereby we want it to be fair for everyone. Okay. Like, if the kid is out there, we have fresh judges. I may have interacted with them before, but during the panel, I will not be there. Okay. Because I want to give them a chance to choose who is their best. Okay. So, and another challenge is usually timing. Because other than being their coach, I have to also run with the magazine. I have to write it myself. I have to be able to work for my profession. Okay. I'm also an artist. I have to draw. So balancing it at some times usually takes up most of my time. Okay. Yes. Ob. Ob. Ob. Ob. Ob. Well, I have hoped to have a poem for us, and then I'll take one comment from one of the parents as we whide up. Hope to send my poem. Stand here, camera person, let's have a very good shot of hope. My name is Hope Gambuy Ocean, and I have a poem. I am a slam girl. So, what? Being a slam girl does not make me less agile. because I know my rights of equality because I am a slam girl yes I admit I have issues and challenges of slam life of slam life. Take your time. Continue now. Answer cancer for how long shall we suffer by losing our beloved ones just because you're a silent killer for how long shall our people lose their beauty just because they can't stand you. Yesterday was cervical. Today is breast. Tomorrow believer lungs and so on. No, because my future is bright. But I'm scared and fear this monster. Mommy, a friend, my neighbors, doctors, this must let be stand and fight together. One, create awareness. Two, go for early screening. Three, NHIF to cover full treatment of cancer. Four, take your young girls for HPV vaccine and to the patients and survivors. You are not alone. We stand with you. We love you and we salute you. And to the fallen heroes, Wangarema Thay, Bob Collimo and Pekena Joyce Laboso. Thank you. Wow. Wow. That's a very beautiful piece. Who wrote that for you? Mommy. Wow. Hey, mom, you're also talented. Please, for you to really cover with such powerful words and the fact that you're making sure that hope is using a talent to reach out to people. Please keep up the good work. Thank you. The rewards of all these talents and all the work that your mothers are doing are going to be seen very soon. So I'd like to take a final comment. Mama Shantal, a message to mothers watching us tonight. A message to fathers watching us tonight. What should they do once they notice that their children have a talent at a very tender age? For a mother who is scared of, maybe at a school, are they really ready? What is your message for them tonight? Our parents, Kenyan parents, education is not everything. You may have one degree, two degrees, three degrees. We've seen people washing cars in their PhD holders. So if your child has a talent, please nurture that talent. If you look at the best paid people, guys with talents like the footballers. So if you see that your child has a talent, support her, support him, let's see what comes out of it. Maybe one day Shantal will be the Lupita Nyong'o, the nomi camper of this world. So let's wait and see. Okay. Patricia, a message to mothers and fathers watching us tonight. I would tell them that mostly people complain that wasani, hawa nipangui, wasani, that is empty promises they had in the streets. It's called P.E. Okay. But I also had that concern that I may take my child to perform at events and she's not getting paid for that. So there's no immediate reward for her talent right now. But what I was motivated, what I came to know is that time is money. So if you don't have money to invest in your time and eventually people will notice them, people will find them, people will sponsor them eventually. So even if it doesn't pay off right now, it will pay off eventually because you invested in your time which is also money. Okay. Mama hope. For a mother watching us tonight, hope I say she's a Kibera girl. She's a slam girl. But you can literally see that you can't tell unless I come from Kibera, you wouldn't tell. So what would you say to mothers watching us tonight and fathers? And probably the challenge is, what message do you have for such parents tonight? My message right now is, your past or your background or where you come from, it does not find your future. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. or do you want to go and pay a judge to give them that title? You know, those are two different things. That kid, when he's a judge, he'll pay the title. But when that kid is taken to maybe talk in a press conference, and he's like, she shuts down completely. So the biggest worry is invest me. Invest in a teacher to train that kid. Invest in a teacher. And when he's a student, come and dance, find that teacher to train that kid to dance. And automatically, that kid will win. Oh, that kid will prosper. Go look for a teacher who can train them how to do maybe ballet, music, or any other activity that they can. The biggest worry is invest me. And it will pay off at some point in life. OK. Thank you very much for coming today to share your stories with us for the children. I wish you all the best. I would try my best to come and attend the occasion. Do you know the Monyatashinda Sindio? So let us continue our practice, children and mothers. Thank you very much for really supporting. It really shows that these children have the best support system. So that is all we hand for you tonight on Y2-5 for news. If you've watched us, I'm sure you've learned. Mothers and fathers out there, make sure that when you notice your child as a talent, don't wait until they're 18 years old. Start as early as one, as early as two, because at the end of the day, you're going to fight the rewards of the effort and invest in your children's talent. That is all we hand for you tonight. My name is Patricia Murioki. Do have yourselves a very good night.