 Daniel Muika is an anthropology graduate currently working with the University of Nairobi as a research assistant in one of the university's projects. So, hit my life growing up, a very, very humble boy, a boy who's always been top in the class. Ya, I have almost been top in my class all the way from nursery to primary to secondary in campus as well. I really, really learn a lot from the people who are around me. So, personally I think my passion for volunteering and my needs from my mother. So my mother, better part of me growing up, my mother initially my mother was a hotelier but she shifted her career from being a hotelier to being a counselling psychologist. So she's a counseller. So as part of being a counseller she has done a couple of community projects and she has been a community health volunteer. So I grew up seeing my mum doing a lot of community volunteering, seeing people who are sick, especially patients who are HIV positive and cancer patients. So just being there for them, giving them counselling and ya, just taking care of themselves, especially psychological needs, really, really gaslighted me towards volunteering and seeing this as something that I can actually take up and gain inspiration from. I'm currently a research assistant at the University of Nairobi in one of its projects called the TMC project, Tools for Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses. Ya and I'm very, very passionate about volunteering, very passionate about humanity and charity. So anthropology being the study of humanity, the holistic study of humanity, I wanted to understand more about people's way of life, what influences their decisions, is it their culture, is it their socialization. So basically how people interact and how people behave and how culture acts as a, how culture informs people's way of living. The course is really, really interesting. It is very holistic. So you get to understand different aspects of human life, the biological aspects, the physical aspects, the cultural aspects, the social aspects, the linguistic aspects and also the applied nature especially when it comes to day-to-day living. So in connection to my anthropology career, I am a qualitative research assistant. So the methods of research I use are the qualitative methods. So basically what we do is we are in a research study whereby we are trying to understand childhood illnesses and how to mitigate them, especially for children under five years old. So a key focus is on three counties, Kakamega, Kitui and Wasengishu. So there are some tools that have been introduced in the facility and we are trying to see if these tools are used and used in the right way and even the health providers being taken care for training on how to use the tools. We need to mitigate these infections, these diseases or more needs to be done. So in partnership with the county governments, these county governments in MMOH, we are able to inform on the intervention that is placed in these counties. My former lecturers who happen to be some of our research leads, they really provide mentorship to us, especially considering I am a really fresh graduate. I really need these skills in research, these skills in field work and having opportunity to research assist in a project this big has really given me the guiding step stones towards a successful career in anthropology. Since he loves volunteering, he has participated in a number of programs including Heroes for Change, a volunteer program in Kenya that provides a platform for college students to effect change. So I was in Heroes for Change in the second cohort, not the first cohort. So while I was in school right here at the University of Nairobi, I saw posters, Heroes Wanted, Heroes Wanted. If you want to be a hero, send your details to this, this, this, this, then you apply. So I sent my details and I applied and after a short while I received a call, I had a telephone interview whereby they asked me about the program and my passion towards the program. First they started asking about my main interest towards charity and that was a bit easy for me because I was really really passionate about charity. Visiting children's homes, doing community cleanups and I'm very passionate about charity. But now they ask me about charity and now they ask me what I know about the program. So luckily I had done a bit of research to know about the program considering that it was the first cohort. So I had seen what the first cohort had done so it had interested me in wanting to do what they would do. And then you see in the poster it was a picture of some superhero. So I really wanted to be a superhero. Not only in my small own way, I know I can be a hero because what's the definition of a hero? A hero is someone who saves lives. So I want to save lives as much as I'm not going to be having the Superman outfit but I'll be able to help a life or two. So what Heroes for Change does, it empires you with the skills and the knowledge. Then you in your free time do get to reach out to the community. So in my case I was in the school of five programs so I would use to reach out to primary schools and go there ask for appointments with the head teacher. Sometimes you'd get rejections whereby they're like oh you know we're too busy to even have time for you to talk to us. We don't even hear in what you have to say but for some they're very welcoming and you'd go there ask for an opportunity and talk to kids. So for my program specifically what was million hand washing as a hygiene practice and I was able to reach out to schools within my area because what Heroes for Change does it actually allows us to reach the schools within your reach because it's purely volunteering. So reaching to schools within your reach is easier because you're able to cut down on the cost and you also feel better when you impact the society first and then as you grow your reach. So onto my second point which was on time so time is of essence so a lot of essence when it comes to setting the bar for yourself as well as building yourself to be a greater person in this life. So personally I believe education is the passport to the future simply because the immense opportunities that education can unlock for you it unlocks your mind, it unlocks opportunities not only in employment but also networking and interactions. Also education kinda sets you apart as a human being because you're able to see the world in a different view. You're able to learn about how other people think what informs their thinking how other people interact and what you need to do to be in association with a specific people a specific organization a specific group. The programs for a number of students participate and the winners were awarded at the end. The feeling was really really amazing especially in the first day now after I've been selected and then I got the email that you know what you've been selected and you've been put in this program so we are now called for an induction so in the induction I met so many young people who view life differently who are doing different things who have other organizations they are running and me am with them sharing the same table sharing the same ideas you know working together with like minded young people was quite a thing and specifically on this platform the Heroes for Change platform whereby you've been trying to understand people like I said I'm coming from Gando which is an area right hand agority agority south others coming from Kajole others coming from other different parts of the city and then now sharing the different challenges we share as Nairobi residents as well and what role we as young people have to play in making the same same same neighborhoods are better place so Heroes for Change had the school of 5 which was mainly for hand washing teaching school going children on the importance of hand washing and the right way of washing their hands and that's what program I was in so there's also the super school of 5 which now other than hand washing it included also face washing whereby you'd also have to reach to communities and teach them how to wash their hands as well and now how to wash their face especially now to reduce diseases such as trakoma there was a brush brush program which is just a program for teaching kids how to brush their teeth under hand washing there's one which you're supposed to go to teach mums expected mums and new net mums on the importance of hand washing especially before handling children so yeah other than those 4 programs there were other programs whereby we'd have global days such as the global hand washing day in the world oral health day whereby we do country-wide activations with other heroes and other organizations which are taking part in the campaign we were close to 500 so we were 100 in Nairobi we were 100 in Kisumu 100 in Nakuru 100 in Eldoret so let me just say around between 400 to 500 heroes so it wasn't a competition but especially for Nairobi heroes it turned out to be close to a competition because the moment you go to a school and then you accepted and then you go to another school and then you accepted so you see they are tracking also the reach so it was sort of like a positive competition especially for some of my colleagues so coincidentally I was I was second simply because the impact is being measured we had numbers that everybody has reached so I was second the top had 34,000 and something just slightly above me and then there was a third and then there was a fourth so the four of us coincidentally used to do activations together so we met up in one of the activations so I remember the first time when I was reaching out to schools so I went to a school and the hero was here yesterday then I went to another school and the hero was here yesterday then another time so I need to know who is this one who is going to the same schools are planning on visiting to teach their hand washing so we partnered with her and we started doing activations together then after that we met another one who was doing the same same so we ended up forming a group of four other than the other heroes to do activations together painful also there are schools I know the person doesn't know and that's how I got to reach to other schools within Nairobi not only within my district area but other districts because we are all coming from different areas so it wasn't a competition but the process of getting the numbers, the activations becomes a positive condition because everybody wants to be a top hero so the top heroes were supposed to be rewarded with internships once they available because heroes change also has partners so if an opportunity would arise in one of the partners for heroes for change then the top heroes would be considered first in such opportunities but other than that the top heroes also taken through mentorships whereby we are able to talk to some of the people who are above us who are before us rather in the public cohort one and maybe they have gotten employment into companies such as Unilever so they be able to talk to us and give us hope and encourage us to be the best in whatever we are doing Daniel is currently part of the advisory team in heroes for change through which he continues to give back to the community so first because I was in the cohort 2 which was done part of heroes for change but not actively because I'm not in one of the cohorts but I'm part of the advisory team was also part of the webinar organization team so when the 2020 when covid was quite an issue here in Kenya we started via some of the heroes within the organization decided to start up a webinar program through the heroes for change whereby we talk to young people organize webinars whereby we talk to young people about social mental health about opportunities that are there you know talent social entrepreneurship so yeah we'd talk about that in the webinars and that's part of I felt like that's actually a growth for me rather than doing the physical volunteering whereby you reaching the community directly was able to reach out to the community now specifically to other young people like me especially to issues affecting as young people so after living heroes for change I volunteered in a couple of other projects so I volunteered in the Kenya Model United Nations but that one was it was mainly about MUN Model United Nations Rules of Procedure so I've gone to high school I've taught kids how now on the UN Rules of Procedure that was a bit directed towards diplomacy because that's also an area of interest I have I volunteered for Uwumbusi Africa especially in a cleaning of Ololuwa Forest those are mainly short short based volunteering programs whereby I hear they are calling for volunteers I show up, I help and I feel enlightened I feel I've changed society in one way or the other the whole point of volunteering is you offering yourself towards a good cause so most of the time you're not being remirated sometimes you might be facilitated sometimes no but even if you're not facilitated then you're chipping from your savings or you're chipping from whatever amount you have you actually feel fulfilled because you know this money went into a good cause so also as a result of my volunteering and heroes for change and other now I have done I applied for the international volunteer forum which was held in Sochi, Russia in 2019 December so I managed to go and I was among the few Kenyans who represented Kenya in the global forum so there I met other volunteers some people who are doing sports volunteering others are doing different volunteering in different countries, different setups different cultural setups and it's so nice sharing you are a volunteer in my own space somebody is in a different space but the end goal is one making the world a better place he there for plans to revisit some of the schools he visited during his participation in heroes for change and give back in the best way he can so we've learnt how heroes for change works especially when it comes to mentoring young people even right now, me and some of my friends ones who are in the heroes for change program the top 4 who I was saying so we really share a lot in common so we recently met and we were like ok so we are done with heroes for change but we feel like we really need to do more for the community why not start something even if we are not going to have the big the name even if it's the 4 of us at least we have a couple of networks within Nairobi we can go to the schools talk to now the young children Israeli adolescents and even sometimes offer career guidance because you see everybody has an ambition everybody has a goal of where they want to see themselves in the future but if you don't have somebody to guide you and tell you that even if you choose this path you know you are going to be happy and you are going to feel glad about yourself so we are planning on not quite setting another program but sort of like revisiting some of the schools we did while doing the program and talk to the young people especially now the ones who are about to live the primary schools heading into secondary try to motivate them inspire them and give them a bit of a glimpse of how life out here is you know and lead to them the pathways if you take this path it leads you somewhere so give them the options help them make proper decisions and informed decisions in terms of their life the future is very bright simply because you always have to be positive the moment you add a bit of negative to your thinking we can only but think and foresee the future we don't have a hand in whatever future lays ahead of us but the moment you think about the future in your positive the future is definitely going to be bright so if you set the right foundation right now we are sure that the future is going to be bright on his list of gratitude is a number of people and in conclusion Muika's advice is for all to practice good deeds always we need to be so so aware of the seeds we sow illimbegumbegutuna panda katikamaisha ya other people let it not be a seed of hatred wa tikuwe imbegua prosperity a seed of love we are all one people diversified in culture united by one flag one color we are all of the black race let me say that but no anyway we have one people here in Kenya so and we needed by the one purpose by one language one flag and one goal purpose which is to unite and swangeza kanyambele