 We get to host men in this segment and I am quite excited about it. They are, one is the founder and the other one is chairman for the board of trustees that is Watoto Asome Initiative. But you know what we do, they are here to tell us all about Watoto Asome and tell us about the initiative, what they are doing with that. So I have Timothy Struso. I hope I mentioned, I said that correctly. And then there is Nicholas Nyaga, Karibunisana. I hope I pronounced your names correctly. You did. Okay, Karibunisana. This is the first time we are having men. So it's interesting, this was a strength of a woman, a lady's show. It's interesting to have men on board. Thank you. You are the first man. Yes, you are the first man I am hosting in this segment actually. Karibunisana. So what is Watoto Asome? Watoto Asome Initiative is a charitable last that is sponsored by Blighter need students towards secondary education. When did you start Watoto Asome? Basically we started in December 2022 but our first court was in January 2020. So we are in the second year. We are now up from Tucson form 1 because we started with form 1s in 2020. So you sponsor primary, secondary? Secondary, secondary. We pick those that have done KCP, those are joining form 1s. Why the interest particularly in the secondary? Actually this is an initiative that happened, it was not planned for. It just happened that we had a youth WhatsApp group that we are doing various things catching up, pertaining and there. So we realized there was one kid in our neighborhood who was not joined form 1 one year later after doing KCP. And we were very interested and we said if we can do all these things we have been doing we can chomambuzi, we can throw parties. Why not take care of this child? So when we got interested and we started the logistics we realized there are more. It's not just that one and we had like five more cases. Then we said why can't we formalize this and pick like 20 students. And we started, we did a very short advertisement and we said there is this group that is interested in sponsoring students joining form 1. And within one week we had so many applications close to 170. So that's where we started. It was not planned, it just started. And then now we started formalizing it, we started the process of registering. So in that first year we picked 28, we wanted 20. But after short listing, after interviews, after we conducted the home visit, we were unable to separate the eight, we couldn't know who to leave so that we remain with the 20 that we wanted. We ended up picking 28. And moving first forward this year we have picked the 45. Interesting. So at what point did you make, because I want to bring Nikolaas into the conversation, at what point did you now formalize Watotoa Summit to the point that now you have a board of trustees? So after we picked our first court, as I said it was a group, it was formed by youths. And now we started, actually we used to changa 100 bob per month to facilitate this. So we wanted to legalize it. And we tried to do checks and checks here and there to see which is the light formation to register, CBO, NGO, and we settled that trust, charitable trust. For you to form a trust, you need a board. Now we agreed that because we are youths, we want a board now of older people, those who are experienced, those who are tourists can water to Shikiliya. As we do our things, we want to be over-cited by people who have been here before, who have also been doing this. Nikolaas, what was your entry point into Watotoa Summit? Thank you so much. Like you said, my name is Nikolaas Nyaga. I think it's important for you to know Mr. Nyaga very well. Mr. Nyaga is a long-term educator. I've been a teacher for 32 years. A principal of very serious schools for 24 years. And let me first salute the youth of Mahara constituency, who are the initiators or the ones who started this program. I want to underscore the importance of the youth as a powerhouse. The youth can create or destroy a country. The youth of Mahara constituency started as a subgroup whereby they were supporting these or the other politicians. That was during the campaign time. And what happened is that after the campaigns, after the elections, they sat down and asked themselves what can we do? Okay, we were fighting over these over the other, but what can we do as a youth of Mahara constituency in Tarakaniti to empower our people? To transform the lives of our people, especially the vulnerable they need in our society. That was the genesis of Watoto Asom initiative. They sat together, people of like minds, and they agreed. Let's... We have... Mr. Truso is a second founder. Our first founder is a friend, a very good friend of mine in America called Elifas Kimati. I really salute him because he's the power behind this also. He really empowered his colleagues back at home. To start this. When I was the principal of Gamber Boys, I was the principal of Gamber Boys in Kobo High School, Kadyani Boys. When I was principal of Gamber Boys, we used to stay with Kimati, the Elifas Kimati was in the U.S. at Mawa. And during that time when I was active in the teaching and the administration of schools, I was very much involved in assisting needy children. My students were having issues with fees. I was assisting them either from my own domestic budget or even creating what we call income-generating projects. Like at Kobo High School, I remember we created a pig-rearing project, a portrait keeping project. At the school canteen, I took it over to assist the needy children. And we were able to take about 72 students to the university through that program. Very needy students who would not have seen the doors of the university. So that is where my drive started from. And Kimati told me you must come on board. I know what you have been doing in schools. I think this is the right time now to take. Now that you are free, you have left teaching, you are left the administration of schools, I think you can, apart from whatever else you are doing, you can come on board to assist these young people, stay at these initiatives to other levels. That is how I came in. We had a meeting where I was elected as the chair of the Board of Trustees. So I am here wearing that cap of the chairman of the Board of Trustees, what was some initiative. How is it working with young people now that Timothy has told us that there are a bunch of young people and they decided to pick a bunch of older people to be able to blend in and give them some wisdom. How was it the first time they approached you to get into the name? I was excited because I am quite passionate about working with young people. Having said, I was a teacher for so many years. I developed that passion for working with them. So even after my early retirement, I thought this was a perfect opportunity for me to continue working with the young people for young people. I really love the empowerment of the youth. So this is what basically we are doing. Assisting, need the kids, access, education opportunities. Minimize dropouts or failure to attend schools. And also our short term goal is assisting in increasing university and college intake and the long term goals is to assist them attain employment but most specifically self employment. Because Erano if we say it, we are targeting, we have been targeting rather children with very low marks at standard eight between 200 and 299 and taking them to day schools because that is what we can afford. This is very little money from our pockets and from our friends. I have just mentioned Kimadi out there. He is the only one who gives some little money. We don't have any other external donor. So we can only take these kids to boarding schools. That is why we target those with very high marks they are taken by Domokaniata Foundation, Equator Foundation and other sponsors. But these others have been forgotten. So we have taken the map with very low marks even some with 150 marks and we take them to day schools. With the aim ultimately at the end of the day, these kids we are going to work very closely with the tivets, vocational training institutions. We channel them there where they are going to do tailor made skilled oriented courses, tailoring mechanics, electricity, planting, masonry, motor vehicle mechanics, a course that a kid takes and even before he finishes or she finishes the course, they are already putting money in their pockets. So that is our goal, our long term goal and we are fighting ourselves getting there. Amazing. Timothi, we know of every place where we have people who have good intention, we don't miss those ones, those little ones that want to ride on help when they do not necessarily need it. So how are you able to save the genuine cases from the counterfeit ones? Normally what we do, we start by sending an advertisement for application. After they apply, now we scrutinize them according to needs. First period is given to orphans, thought orphans, single parented and those with parents with chronic illness. So we first of all scrutinize the application forms. Then after there we conduct interviews and don't visit. For instance, you may find that someone is an orphan, but now they have very well up guardians. So we automatically dismiss. But we make sure through the interviews and don't visit, we get the most genuine cases. For instance during this year's interview, there are some people who had not applied, but they got the word. But what was always conducting interviews today and they just came. Now we said because if you are not in our interview list, we are not going to conduct interview for you, but we said, I told our team now we can just do it for probability and you will escape a buyer to release too. But after conducting that interview, we found out that it was the most need that we could apply. So I believe we take the most genuine cases and there are so many. We are only able to take like 20% of the cases that we receive and we almost are genuine. What does the application process look like? We have a very detailed forms that isn't there. With all details that we need to know, your parents, siblings, work, school performance, this form is also must be signed by the primary school ed teacher, your church leader and the assistant chief. Now these people in the administration sector, they are also very clever. When we are going through the forms, they are signed, they give. No, and they are like, you want this child supported but to kisoba unaona, kuna kuna interna kupia. So you call them and they explain. Like the child is going through a hell of time, but they are not that so needy. The parent are just like this. Amazing. Wow, okay. Mwali mwali mwali mwali. As I realized your potential, you might have been my teacher. I'm just realizing that I am a very potential student because I'm not very old. So what are some of your roles as a chair of the trustee? Okay, as the chair of the trustee is, I am in charge of resource mobilization. Just like I've told you, we have a few people who have been in our donors bracket. The youth in our subgroups and our personal friends outside the subgroups. So I like coordinating that process of trying to ensure that we have some money to pay fees for these kids that we have taken in. Like for example, we have what we call the coin challenge. Every Wednesday we have a fund raising every Wednesday. The first time I was the guest of onaona. Every Wednesday we have a guest of onaona. Amongst ourselves. The first time I was a guest of onaona and mobilized resource is almost 100,000. Amongst the group. And I think this last Wednesday up to maybe around this Wednesday again, I decided to take a whole week doing fund raising for the whole week. I'm also hitting over 50,000 mark. So I have to lead from the front in terms of resource mobilization and also coordinating the entire team. Polimu has mentioned about fund raising which brings me to the next question I want to engage you on. Of course, because we have potential our listeners, rather our viewers, we have potential clients and we also have potential donors. What are your fund raising events like when do you have giving, when where do people channel their contribution because you know probably there's someone watching in there like how would want to be part of the initiative or rather how do we partner with them? We have not yet been able to conducting a fund raising event. We list money through membership subscription. We are a group of youths in a WhatsApp we have about 200 and we have different levels of monthly subscription starting from 1500, 200 and 100. Apart from the monthly subscription we do now the coin challenge that is a mini fund raising every Wednesday but we are also welcome also donors, we have a pay bill that we receive a donation with but our most the main fund raising is the coin challenge and monthly subscription so far. What are some of the challenges we've experienced so far? Challenges is finances of course like now you see when we now have 73 kids in school and you know that is a four years and build commitment as we are here we have paid all the previous school fees that is last years school fees and this second year first term school fees or it's paid but we don't have enough to pay second term, third term and the next years but we remain hopeful. Then another challenge is when you pick these kids now most palent relax you'll be caught every other time we don't have uniforms we don't have books like they expect you to do everything that that is needed in school we have also been we have gone to an extent of paying some of our student rent you find we have a student who they don't have any home they live in a rented home and they call you and they tell you you know my rent is due na fungiwa nyumba and so urichuko yung toto na naenda shuriaki fungiwa nyumba akuna kazu na fanya so the main challenge is apart from the school fees which was our our motive there is so many other expenses that are coming up from your end what are some of the challenges you have experienced? Yeah, the aspect of resource mobilization definitely comes with a lot of challenges people are willing to give but they have challenges they don't know that means they don't have okay and and of course the people have their own things they are doing and the other people also who have an initiative like ours you approach somebody they tell you I am taking care of a certain number of students in school so that one you cannot commit them so that is one of the key challenges we have and number two okay fine we have a lot of support from our ours is non profit and non political but I must say and appreciate that we have a lot of support from our area MPs is MP is very supportive my MP again by central Mweshimiwa Ndani Keili who happens to be my former student ah okay is also very supportive interesting is very supportive of this initiative yeah my former MP my MC all of them are my my former students so they are very supportive of this initiative and I believe the challenges we are talking about we will be able to to deal with them within the kind of good will we have the only problem with challenges is if you don't have political good will then you are bound to fail but if you have support from those people who matter the political class and even in the world of academia the working class then we believe because we mean very well we want to we want to bridge a gap as watoto was some initiative we want to bridge a gap a very very very gaping hole in financing of public education the government has always talked about free primary in circle education 100% transition if you look at it analytically that remains a pet political talk show okay yeah but just just to say it for the sake for the sake of saying it as we are talking there are so many children who have not been able to to join high school how I wish we were able to assist them like you said we already have over 70 kids through our initiative and I believe that is trying to bridge the gap where the government has left some gap and other players in financing of education the equity foundation demokiniata foundation and the rest amazing what does your strategic plan look like well uh we are focused on we we have a strategic plan with a very clear vision of a very clear mantra of empowering the youth through education inclusivity that is our mantra that's our rolling call and like I said we intend to after after the exit of standard 8 you know we are we are not going to have standard 8 anymore we are going to have grade 9 grade 10 so we are focusing on now how to deal with that one we are going to work very closely with the minister of education with a view of seeing how we can now take up after that level you've answered something I wanted to ask now with the transition yeah with the transition 8 for 4 to what are they calling this thing cbc how is that going to affect grade 9 grade 10 yeah that's what I was saying we are going to work we are going to seek an appointment with a very key minister official and then we we will be able now to craft that way of you know coming coming in Malimo has raised very important point in terms of political engagement with water to asome as a founder do you do you will do you want to venture into how do I how do I am trying to find a way to frame this will do you want to look at avenues you can put what to asome in the ministry or rather in the political spaces I didn't get that okay let me let me try to break it down I think I have it in my mind where I'm trying to given what Malimo has said in terms of getting political involvement of other people as a founder what's your image are you envisioning that at a point you would want to have engagement more engagements with the ministry of education with people's education stakeholders with political avenues that is politicians how open are you to that that is what I mean yes we are very open and very consultative where we started as he said we pick 200 to 300 marks student the reason being we started in Malaconstituency our MPA is Kareken Yuki before before we extended to Meru County that is in Higembe Central and South and North the reason why we picked 200 to 300 marks we consulted with the CDF team that has been issuing basalis allowance and we realized that everyone who scores 300 to 300 and above they get a scholarship through the CDF not a scholarship a direct basali automatic basali of 10,000 per year so now we thought if you give someone 10,000 per year even if he is not able to join boarding school he can still join day school and 10,000 per year will be enough for day schools for us in our most of our day schools we pay between 12,000 to 15,000 per year so that's why we said we won't be taking anyone above 300 marks because they are already taken care of but now you see those between 200 to 300 which are average students they have no one to look up to they are not getting this automatic basali as the as the scholarship as the scholarship look at 300 marks and above or 350 and above so our 200 to 300 no one is looking at them that's why we that's where we started there and even at now we also we are very open we have been talking with also the CDF team they can see out of our in Mala we have six day students out of the six day how many they can help with something small in terms of basalis and as as we said we are we are doing day schools but this year we have been able to to pick a few students to join secondary schools because you happen when we went to Igambe the case scenario in Igambe is different you find like there was one one student that had already lost hope and he was already employed as a to take care of cows you see you will find someone at the school to the 50 but badwa konimbani so apart from day schools this year we have we have took students to seven seven boarding schools I think that is Chokolia girls Kobo boys Nkuenen girls Kangeta girls Mawua girls and Igambe boys let me this is a partnership and there are two there are two key instruments that guide on children being in school that insist that education quality education of children is a guarantee under the UN convention of the rights of the child and the Kenya constitution 2010 every child must be in school but how possible is it the government will not be able to do that so we are this is a partnership that is our want us to look at it we are not in competition with anybody we are only in competition in as far as bridging that gap is concerned that is why we were quick to to commend our colleague Mr. Kimadu is in the US for being with us in this that is why we were quick to commend our local politicians for being supportive of this idea in the same vein the minister of education which is the owner of all this process I mentioned that we are going to seek an appointment with the key ministry official with a view of knowing how we can work together so that they also know that we are assisting in bridging the gap so it's a partnership it's a wholesome yeah it's a wholesome thing it's a wholesome thing we are not we are not trying to take credit for anything and like I said it's unpolitical we are not interested in any political seats so nobody should feel intimidated by the presence in that space I think every time people are doing such a initiative someone will think ah we are not interested so people will like you won't relax but anyway as we almost come to an end of this conversation I want to ask you a question that I want you to answer is a chair of the trustee and I want you to answer as the founder where do you see what's the trust of the initiative in a few years I am seeing it very far going very far going places because like I said we are interested in ensuring that these kids don't go to waste whether they are low max or very high max but who are unable to join high school and even that we have a component for training those who manage to go to the university we are very hopeful we are very prayerful that we are going to facilitate them to go there but the majority the majority who may be joining mid-level colleges that is our business because we are very sure that there are graduates out there who are struggling to put a plate on the table who are struggling with their mothers asking for food but there are certificate orders who have no problem with money okay so that is where we feel we must go I am going to make an appeal to our colleagues I said this is a partnership in fact it is starting from primary schools where we are getting these kids from I hand teacher calls to you Malimu we have had you have this initiative we have a kid here try to assist I tell them charity begins at home that kid make sure you have mobilized resources from the teachers from the children from the school committees ensure that they have uniform then bring that kid out take them to school we will pay fees for them so it is starting from there and then they are so excited about it and we are similarly getting very excited because people are really buying that idea so it only requires providing leadership we have provided leadership people have small small money that can change the world that can transform the lives of this innocent need of children but they didn't know how in fact one of the teachers was so surprised Malimu how easy has it become I didn't know what to do with this kid I never thought I was going to get this money they got money from the teachers from the school committees from the children from the church and they were able to buy uniform because we were not buying uniform it is being bought by the teachers who are giving us these kids so it's a serious partnership so I'm going to appeal to the hands of secondary schools the principles where we are taking these kids you know the policy of the minister of education is this the schooling education must be made affordable and when we create other stories other fees apart from what the ministry has indicated should be paid then we are going to disadvantage some of these kids especially those who are under sponsorship because those who are sponsoring kids in high school will only pay the official fees as per the ministry's guidelines so I am going to make an appeal to the my colleagues who are serving principles where they have an idea that a kid is being sponsored by small people like us if there are some other levies let the school take care of it as a founder where do you see the foundation or rather the trust are going to in a few years I see whereby it will be a very strong strong organization with the beneficiaries now coming back to learn it that is my dream but before we get there I think because now we are we are we are translating from each for 4 to CBC we have like 2 years that will not be picking student there are no students who will be joining from once I was talking to chairman yesterday and I thought there are so many students who are sent home because of school fees may be informed from this and they have no hope I want to see whereby we can assist them go back to school before they are logged out of the 844 system because in 4 years time it will be gone slowly and if you are in the 844 system and you dropped out for one reason or the other it will be valued for you now to come back again so in short term we want to see that those who dropped out in the next 2 years that will be our job those who dropped out because of financial reasons we will be able to help them come back before the 844 is before it is transferred to CBC then in long term we want to see whereby our beneficiaries will now come back to learn the organization what has that? yeah with your permission at the end at the end if you allow us we can give the pay bill number in case anybody wants to as come on board that 50 bob that 10 bob matters it can transform our life maybe at the end we are actually at the end because I think we need to pay okay finally it's well at Watotuwa so many times we have a mentorship component which is very key after we have recruited a a kid a scholar we attach them to a mentor who does, who visits we also do school visits to check on the discipline of the child and the academic performance of the child we also do home visits to ascertain that the situation at home does not become an obstacle to the achievement of this of this kid sometimes in April there's 70 I think 74 kids that we have taken we are organizing a bootcamp for them all those from Mara constituency will be driven to again by central kangeta girls I'm talking to the principal there will accommodate us for a day or two we are going to invite key speakers even even even some people have never gone to school but are very very successful people have the DJs and that kind of staff they are going to be there to talk to these kids we are also going to invite some of our members of parliament that will be available our MCs to motivate those children so it's a long long process amazing any other thing I think I would mention before the genesis of Watotwa Somme that same was a group that was that consisted of Mara youth who are now wailing from post post election talks we were also able to to form a saco that is now thriving it's called Mara business saco but now we were able to separate the two entities Watotwa Somme and the saco they are two different entities the saco as they are I ask its own leadership but they are doing very well not when I was coming here I asked for a loan and it was approved very fast yeah amazing it's well malimita as well we understand teachers by the way teachers will always have something to say yeah yeah I was talking about the paybelive it's okay we can give okay no actually that's the end that's the last question I will ask where could we find you where can we find Watotwa Somme just in case anyone wants to reach out I can probably give out your contacts or something now the paybelive okay so okay for those who would wish to know a little more about Watotwa Somme initiative I will give my number 0728 use the camera because you're talking to them actually I will give my number 0728 568050 I will repeat my number is 0728 568050 for those who would want to know more about Watotwa Somme initiative and I am also challenging them Kenyans across the country start a small Watotwa Somme initiative in your village and you not know where to take those blessings maybe you share with those blessings with us because they know you have a lot of blessings and then our paybel number is 400 200 that is for cooperative bank I think 400, 200 then the account number is 400 80040402 sorry 40084002 thank you, I'm done we can we allow teachers to be teachers yeah so you can I just want to add on our social media and us you can find us on Instagram Facebook link din at Watotwa Somme initiative also our website is www.watotwa.wasomeinitiative.org thank you so much thank you for your time thank you for coming thank you for the conversation thank you for the good work you're doing you know it's not every child especially those midli performing children therefore what to pretend then some of those kids have the real talent some of those sometimes we say my talent is not even with those escolars talent is with the middle class children but thank you so much that was quite something the first set of gentlemen we've got an on empowerment cafe after changing it to empowerment cafe that end of much more conversations is what we are going to be bringing away empowering conversations conversations that make you day and conversations that are not just entertaining but they are educative I hope you can read something home with you today my name is Chris Meingi that has been empowerment cafe but Val is coming back with more do not touch that dial