 wa naqa'iyu huhaaji wajimu nafaba, wa pwa yo, wajimu adionu wajimu naqa'iyu hupana wa tujiko nawe niwa sewa wajimu na guniaqumizi wa tminuniku na karwa maqaisha wajimu kwe warfare wajimu na 1700 wa ti tifu uwaz usta badawa tifu yuwa batawa maqaisha wajimu na uwa indweza tifu uwaz bukuloowe njaga maqaisha en Zaun wajime niwa JN-1-0 wajimu na uwa Nwajimu na nmenda so how are you feeling today? thank you so much for making time to be with us Thank you, I shall be appreciating it Karibo I have been praying for such a moment so kindly introduce yourself and tell us what you do professionally My name is Jane Wanjiru Mogul I am a teacher with TSA Ya, a waif, a mother to two boys. Great. So, talk to us since you're a teacher. Which grade do you teach? Or rather, which level do you teach? Class 6, 7, 8. Ya, class 6, 7, 8. So, talk to us about the mentorship program that you have and with relation to being a teacher. Okay, let me take your park words a bit. When I was posted to Kajole, I went to Imara first and then I was transferred to Kajole Nof, formally Matopeni. And it's a non-formal settlement area. And when I reached there, I realized that children are vulnerable to a lot of vices, like drug trafficking and the militia gangs, prostiton and other vices. And so, as a teacher in that passion that I had in guidance and counseling, which I did at Mudkin University, I felt I was in the right place and with the right people. And so, immediately with the help of my hand teacher, we started a program by the name Life Skills. And with the help from Life Skills Promoters and the UNICEF, they came in and we started that program on mentoring kids, taking them through the important Life Skills programs. And I thank God for the steps so far. So you're saying children from Class 6, 7 and 8, they're exposed to all these vices at such tender aids. Have you experienced such cases? A lot, a lot, a lot. In fact, I want to thank the hand teacher, Mrs. Deri. I want to believe maybe she's watching or she'll get to watch this. Together with her, we realized that it was happening in our school actually, it's still happening, drugs, children are getting access to drugs. Like I said before, the environment itself, we have people selling drugs to kids. And so we have a lot to do in talking to these kids and telling them the details of these drugs. And of course the vices, like I said before, it's not about drugs, but that is what you noted. So you find that is a challenge. These kids, when we raise them in the evening because it's a day school, there's a conflict of interest because as teachers, especially as mentors, we are with them, talking to them about morals, values, taking them through the Life Skills programs, but then when they get out there, they are exposed to such kind of militia groups and other things. And that's how children control definitely. Yeah, but then God it's working. Since we introduced this program, we have seen a tremendous change in behaviors with the way we have kids who have left school, clasit, and we are following them up. We don't leave them when they do the KCP. We follow them up even to high school where they went to and they come back to us, thanking us because we realized that before previously they didn't have mentors or shoulders to lay down or people to share with, but when we started their program, they came in and we were working together and we thank God for so far. So when was the program Life Skills started? 2015, yeah, 2015. What was your main goal when starting that program? To give hope to these kids, to encourage them and motivate them and tell them it doesn't matter the environment. It's about attitude and the dvdo, not about the environment they are in. So basically the peer pressure was too much, negative peer pressure. So we told them it's about you as an dvdo. It's not about the environment, it's not about the group. Fine, your cousins do it, your neighbors do it, but it doesn't have to be you. It's your life, it's your life. So when we started that, they started seeing sense and it was not easy initially. It has not been easy. Like I said conflict of interest because of the community around, but I thank God we be took even to parents and the community around and they are seeing the need of also encouraging these kids just to be morally upright. So is this a program for maybe class 6 to 8 students or it's just from the young ones? No, initially we thought we concentrate with the 6, 7, 8, but we realized even the children as young as 9 years are being recruited into these militia gangs was serious. Actually we had a case of an 80-year-old boy being recruited in Gaza. Gaza is a non-militia gang in Kayole, so we thought now we should not rely on class 6, 7, 8 kids only and so we decided to go down level to class 2 even to talk to them. But of course the topics are different. The way I approach it in class 2 is not that I'm going to approach it in class 6, 7, 8. So is it given as a lesson or it's done maybe you just combine all of them together? I want to learn the government because they have slotted that lesson on Thursday where we have life skills program but that one is not enough. So as a patron of the life skills together with the hand teacher we go and besides the normal that's the lesson for life skills which I want to encourage the teacher to put into consideration because most of them actually take it to teach their subjects to boost their academic performance but I want that the government for the CBC now that you're not so much into academics like what the president said yesterday let them concentrate on mentoring these kids because I believe they lack the life skills. Most of them they don't know about them they assertiveness to remain now the person of integrity the service team we need even if you're not going to touch on them we touch on the basics like negative peer pressure the assertiveness the decision making and all that so I believe as teachers and parents if we take children through the life skills the basic ones we'll have a better generation in future. So let's talk more about the program what are some of the challenges you've encountered since 2015? The system from the community like I told you recently not from the students the students are good actually they are good since I started the program but the problem is like I said the negative peer pressure from outside sometimes I'm not with them during the holiday or at times I'm not with them they are at home so you find that they are discouraged and like I told you we had a show with Chip Casey just the other day and then from there they were threats actually they were threats telling the teacher who is trying to to mentor the children they are lacking customers to send drugs to because I'm telling children to keep off drugs actually we had a case that we reported to police station yeah it's a threat to me and to the hand teacher because she has been very supportive of the program so I should not be talking to these kids I should not be mentoring them I should not be telling them about Gaza I should not be telling them about drugs it's a case with the OCS Kayole it's there but he told me to keep on keeping on encouraging these kids and they are not going to stop because it's me mentoring is me besides teaching and you don't feel you don't feel like kind of a threat when you are walking around no I wouldn't cause one I have a lot of support from the deputy president and I want to believe even if he is not listening he will have to get landies through the wife though I've never met her office and offices they are becoming to square supporting me a lot because we realize that one of the things that these children are being world into the militia gangs and drug trafficking businesses is because of poverty because I go to sit one on one with them and they told me teacher we don't get food so sometimes you are forced to do this to get food and all that so we reached the office of the deputy president and they brought a feeding program and when they brought the feeding program besides feeding them physically also morally and so they introduced a club it's the deputy president's wife club known as Che community health evangelism so when they came she's never been there but she has been sending her officers there so they occasionally come to our school and when they came and they got to see what I do in my life skills programs she was impressed she was through her officers and she incorporated the the Che club with the life skills so we work hand in hand we work together and I thank God for the progress so far so the feeding program and the Che club as life skills it's working miracles I'm hoping that next time I'll get a chance and I come with some of the kids who have entered some confessing that teacher if it were not for you because these people actually one time when you invite me again I'll come with them because those are the kids they are peer educators they are the kids who are encouraging others and they are like oh if this did it and she's in the same environment I can also do it because if you see your fellow students doing it then you believe in yourself so you told me some of the challenges that you're having is maybe threats and resistance from the community any other challenge well well well and maybe the children themselves doubting themselves it's like canary make it from where I come from canary make it they doubt themselves but you're trying to put that hope in them telling them we also came from such places and I thank God at least that perception is clearing now they are accepting the changes and I thank God and we are involving them I want to thank the ADMP onarabo bejanen he is really supporting also in the program whereby he involves these kids in environmental conservation you see we are killing two birds at the same time they are learning the importance of conserving environment at a tender age and also engaging them positively because what I tell these kids and what I tell is not about because most of them are not right most of them are not right so they are discouraged and that is why I am thanking the president for the new system curriculum I am re-supporting it as much as it is being opposed by Nat which I am a member but I am opposed to him resisting that because CBC competence based curriculum it's emphasizing more on the pupus areas of competence as opposed to academics as because you can get that A and become useless in life we have actually seen that people with very great degrees are masters but they are wasted to nothing exactly so I want these kids from primary level to secondary to tertiary by the time they challenge them whatever you are doing challenge them oh teacher talk to me we were mentored the MP was there for us and you know gone are days when you just tell them don't do this don't do this it's about you talking to them so let's talk about the feeding program is this offered to each and every student or are we just specific students all of them for free all of them for free a balanced diet some that never used to be there before it was a challenge because most kids never used to afford lunch and so absenteeism was a problem affecting the performance because if a child is absent to them not having something to eat they actually told me I had a case not even one or two so many cases telling me teacher was absent because I was not able to get food teacher I was far doing these because I could not get food my mother and you know sorry to say most of the parents they are not how do I put it they are not hopeful of their kids if they go to school as a mentor most of them they are not there for their kids they are comfortable with their children and so we have a lot we are acting the roles of parents the role of teachers the role of counselors and others so it's actually true what they say that these days parents have left the children to the teachers and the problems we are experiencing now they are not there for their children so you find that a child will open up even a very private issue they will come and share with me have you shared with mommy now why that's interesting so this feeding program what meals are included some meals for break and lunch they take nutritious porridge at 11 very nutritious porridge at 11 and then lunch time they take the normal lunch that's interesting and then the chair program how did you get in contact with the office or the deputy president can I say it was God's grace through a certain parent in our school and he happened to be my friend and so when he's a pastor a parentry and so I shared with him with him one time I repeated these kids it was just a normal talk and I told him like in my class I was organizing how children were going to in your class I made sure no kid went hungry but he could not feed the whole school those who were going hungry and no people were different so you were doing it with your financial yeah I was doing it but the little that we get you know teachers we are even on the streets here too but the little that I was getting and I thank God I never lagged I never lagged like Mother Teresa said if you cannot afford to feed we follow you so I saw God blessing me a lot and so I talked to this parent and it was like I know a church I go to and Madam Rachel Ruto goes to that church so one day when I get and I thought it was just a consolation a consolation thing Ilea I'll try I never thought a wife of the deputy president it was like almost impossible but luckily it went through so when he came to us together the hen teacher telling us he has worked and the deputy school has been chosen among the children the schools to benefit from the feeding program I just thank God I just thank God I felt like I had achieved and from there she has been very supportive giving them balance to diet giving them courage so she is the one also funding and supporting this feeding program so she is in charge of the feeding program her in her office in charge of the feeding program and the chair and the chair fully so what are some of the benefits that you have seen from the club chair wow great transformation in behaviors children willing to change we had kids almost joining Al Shabab because the community we have Muslims a lot of them but they almost have have the kids they are Muslims and we had kids who were about to be recruited they confessed to us some even about joining Gaza and some even being used to traffic but they changed and this teacher we are not ready to die young so transformation behavior and also absenteism the cases of absenteism have reduced there is almost 100% turnout and I would say so behavior changes especially and being present in school in school they learn a lot because teaching is not about chok and the blackboard tells a lot it entails a lot mentorship and other things so I think behaviors and also the community has embraced the changes they are very supportive is not 100% where they are at least at 80% and the school is known to be disciplined okay, that's good any plans of introducing the programs to neighboring schools oh yes now that the MP is supporting it he is not just an MP for Kajole North Primary School so we are planning the plans are underway so currently it's only Kajole North current is only Kajole North but I do it online I do a lot of it only and many teachers are embracing it but they encourage them a lot because there was this notion teacher go home you are getting less and other than that I told them teaching is a calling it's in the book of James oh and to those who deserve to be teachers take other profession but don't be a teacher because your judgment will be different remember these are innocent kids they are there for you mess them up, make them ups up to you when I see a kid coming back to me some of these thing I didn't know we used to hear of children from Saaba the council and other things but you brought them to our area teacher I owe it to you I just shant ears I feel of a change that's all so I always encourage teachers please do your best do your best cancel these kids, not about teaching and God will bless you don't look at the pennies that you are getting focus in any case that is where you are getting so other than the office of the deputy president the area MP your head mistress who else is on board some teachers some parents I have some parents who are very support because again if you work alone and you don't have support from parents it might be an exercise in futility so I have parents assisting I have Pastamboga from faith evangelism ministry working with Iremon Nelson he has also been very supportive of the program so I thank God so we are getting to a place that's good so if someone wanted you are doing the mentoring online where would someone find you if they wanted to contact you maybe parents, maybe teachers or even a student well well well Facebook is Jane Mogu Facebook Jane Mogu I have my email some of them get to me through email Jane Moreny8atjamel.com so have my number 0725 339 527 I've worked with parents online some with issues because besides what I do also we have issues like affecting teens they get depressed and they do the unimagined you know like for example kumeti in suicide recently cases of teens kumeti in suicide are rampant juicy we buried a young boy 22 years old he kumeti in suicide parents did not understand why probably this kid was and then the parents are like this kid never liked anything was there for him he was actually about to graduate this deck unfortunately he went with a lot of secrets so I always tell parents to get to me and many of them are reaching me if I'm not able to get to you one on one we talk via phone and I get a chance to talk to that boy or to that girl and it works many of them are coming online appreciating teacher you saved my boy and other that I can't handle I want to sit with that boy and girl share with me I had a case in a school the boy almost committed suicide he just stopped coming to school and I got concerned in my class actually class 7 and he was a bright boy so I got concerned so I sent one kid go and check what is happening with Joseph so the mother came to me crying I wish I could share with you but I wanted to come from him so to cut the story short the boy had been sodomized I want to tell you the kind of environment you are living in so he was sodomized and unfortunately because of the poverty it didn't go far and then the guys who were responsible just moved they don't know where they went to so the boy was there with the drawing he was not able to share with anybody so he was there I got concerned but I thank God I got to sit with the boy one on one and we talked and the boy he can smile now because mine is to put a smile on a child's face at least he is good he is good we shared a lot with him and we are still working together with him and many other cases that's just one out of many so apart from school I also do it online there is some unknown to me but they just trust me so I want us to wind up so I want you to just maybe give your final word to parents who are watching to young people who are watching and maybe teachers well we have a judgment of society where we find some children some youth, some teens engaging in some vices and we are quick to judge forgetting that we are to blame the teachers, the parents and the society are we there for those kids what do you do as a parent how often do you sit with your child you go out with your girlfriends you go out with your boyfriends you go out with your spouses how often do you go out with your kids sit with them one on one get to share let them open up to you how often you are busy looking for money for wealth at expense of taking care of our kids to save this generation things are bad, I'm a teacher and I know right from primary to secondary to colleges we have many vices affecting our kids we need to listen to them we need to talk to them occasionally don't get tired just talk to them, you're going to save a child somewhere let them know there's somebody who understands them let them know that there's somebody who can listen to them so thank you so much for your insightful thoughts it's a good job that you're doing out there keep doing it thank you so much for making time to come so that was Jane and like she has said we need to take care of our children so that they can be prosperous and we can have a better coming generation so don't you go anywhere more of a circuit coming your way Welcome to Realtalk I am your host Yvniyaga Jen Mogo had a lot to say and as she said we need to make sure that we get the best so she had a lot to say in terms of making sure that children from non-formal sectors are taken care of so today we shall be talking about cardiovascular diseases and creating awareness around the issue you can be part of this conversation by sending in your comments, questions or telling us where you're watching us from on e-circuit across all our social media platforms or you can talk to me directly on my social media platforms at Yvniyaga on Facebook my guest today I have Priya and Joseph from JJ Heartran and they'll be telling us how they're creating awareness when it comes to cardiovascular diseases so welcome kindly introduce yourself my name is Joseph Jameña I'm a journalist I work for a daily newspaper and I come from Fihiga thank you welcome to the show my name is Priya Yvusa I come from Fihiga County I'm also a journalist nice so Priya kindly tell us what cardiovascular diseases are cardiovascular diseases are diseases that affect the heart okay Joseph tell us the types of cardiovascular diseases the types of cardiovascular diseases that we have yeah I'm not a doctor but I think I know around two which have affected me directly through my parents I know the heart blockage and the cardiac arrest whereby somebody just you presume somebody is healthy then as the person goes to bed in the morning you find that that person is dead the heart stopped beating maybe in the night and there is the heart blockage which affects so many people in western where we are told that we are told in western people have big hearts not big as in being a philanthropic the heart has grown to an abnormal size because of the type of food that people eat down there that they are eating so you are saying that members of your family suffered from cardiovascular disease I know you've shared a bit but maybe tell us what your parents encountered the cardiac arrest which my father had it had no symptoms because just after 2016 during boxing day after celebrating the Christmas he went to bed and he never woke up so there was nothing that maybe could have alarmed you about that there was nothing that was causing her and my mother luckily hers came with the symptoms she was sick she was complaining of her chest pain and she went to hospital she was they were treating her of a different disease maybe malaria because we don't have equipments down there they were treating malaria somebody was saying it's a low blood pressure they boost the pressure so we had to look for a professional professional doctors who now diagnosed her and discovered where the problem was up to now she's doing good after she got good medication I'm not saying she got better immediately but after what period of time did she start improving she started improving after a year because she was supposed to to be to be to be operated and inserted a pacemaker but the pacemaker was so expensive that the family couldn't raise the money so she had to do without the pacemaker but she's doing fine that's good so is that the reason why you came up with the JJ Hadron yeah that the reason because to save my mother I have a lot of friends who came in and we had several fundraisers and we raised money to save her although we didn't get enough money to get the pacemaker which they wanted the doctors wanted around one million shillings and we couldn't raise so I came up with this idea because so many people are suffering down there and they can't raise even 100,000 shillings so I decided to come up with this to create awareness and and maybe set up a clinic of which already we have in Vigga so Priya I believe that you come from Vigga too yes I come from Vigga could you kindly share with us maybe some statistics of maybe the numbers of people that have suffered cardiovascular diseases I can't give the exact number but from our clinic from the cardiac clinic at least every week they treat 52 people the same disease every week 52 people those are the reported cases and I know if you go deeper there are more cases that are not reported because someone will die and when you ask they say and you're saying that the reason why the number is higher in Vigga is because of some of the food that people eat there so what kind of food that makes people have suffer the cardiovascular diseases you know luckily we got out of the Cuban doctors there were very few I think less than 3 cardiologists who came from Cuba we are very lucky we got one in Vigga and she was so frank the gali people are eating the starch yeah it's a lot yes a lot I'm not a doctor so I'm not very sure I can't explain much and you're saying that you started the clinic yes so how did that come about last year last year in March we we started a run from Vigga to Nairobi all the way around that took us 40 days and we passed through Kisumu Kericho Kiambu counties up to Nairobi creating awareness trying to fundraise and people donated in kind and that's how we managed to get a cardiac clinic at the Vigga county referral hospital and it's equipped with a Cuban doctor which is I think a plus so you're saying that about 52 people are treated on a weekly basis and are these people improving or how is it they are improving they are getting better yeah like when we go there you ask they tell you sometimes we go we find the patients are there you check is this your first clinic or your second they say this is my third clinic and I'm feeling better so I believe that you had goals when you were when you were starting the run and when the clinic was starting are those goals being achieved we can say at least to some percent we are glad because we have a clinic and people can know their status yeah because they used to treat different diseases unknowingly and those people who used to die in silence now I think the rate has come down yeah so could you share maybe some of the goals that you wanted to achieve when you started the run and the clinic but mostly the run our goal by then we wanted to set up a fully equipped cardiac center yeah but we didn't manage to get a center but we got a clinic and we didn't know that we could get a Cuban cardiologist but she came on board yes what are some of the equipment that other hospitals don't have that are necessary to treat cardiovascular diseases maybe Priya can tell us in Vihigia County initially if you wanted to do the tests concerning the heart you had to go all the way to Kisumu to a private clinic they will refer you there but right now in Vihigia County referral hospital we have the eco machine and the ECG so those are the most important machines other than doing the run to raise money what else what other activities do you have that bring in some income for you so far we don't have activities that bring income but through friends we visit some of the patients and you know majorly these cardiovascular diseases lifestyle diseases so we visit some of the patients and advise them on what to eat and what to do and also we encourage them on doing practice fitness which I think is the best remedy people become very lazy they need to exercise so what are some of the major highlights that you've had since you started the run maybe you can tell us the highlight the one I know that is very major is when we successfully had the cardiac clinic in Vihigia County that's the the one I know is very major how long has the clinic been running the clinic was was launched during World Heart Day which is September 29th last year so this month is almost a year this month we will be celebrating our first anniversary and that anniversary that's why we want to to ice it up with another run when are you planning the run the run will start on 29th 29th same month yeah on 29th is a world heart day yeah okay so you're still planning to move from Vihigia to Nairobi again Nairobi to Vihigia yeah Nairobi to Vihigia and you're saying that that run takes 40 days yeah 40 days but I think this one will take a little bit longer because we are going through Eldoret Nandi and Kakamega okay so what other plans do you have for JJ Heart Run we want to to do pure sensitization yeah and maybe if I step aside a bit I wish they just concluded sensors they could have included somewhere the the a question that could touch on health yeah and I think through that we could have gotten a good data yeah it's true that's true I saw someone else people saying that there was no inclusion of any health questions insurance health issues yeah so maybe Priya you could tell us the partners that you are working with currently if there are any partners currently there are no partners but you are looking forward to get some who are you targeting they could be watching we are targeting Safariko Kenyakadiak society okay that's good any other thing you'd like to add on what we've talked about yeah any other thing I would is that we we wish we are appealing to well wishers because as the saying goes every family is just a disease away from poverty do you have any social media pages we have JJ Hartran on Facebook JJ Hartran on Twitter and JJ Hartran on Instagram so if someone wanted to be part of the run how can they do that yeah I think we will leave you with our contacts and I think that a good springboard are there any requirements no we will do the running because I think everybody is scared of the running the running part but we'll do the running and they'll do the rest the rest of the bit so thank you so much for making time to join us yes and we wish you all the best and we hope that people learn and understand that this is a silent killer that we have and they need to take action definitely so thank you so much so that was Joseph and Priya and like you have had we need to create much more awareness about the cardiovascular diseases that are killing people silently and you need to watch what you eat and do a lot of exercise so that's all we had for you for real talk today but don't you go anywhere more of Isakit coming your way