Volunteering for a Better Community

By: Yvonne Mwaka, ‘My Village’ Champion, Kilifi, Kenya

 

“I would say the project has been successful in my community because of the support of parents.”

 

I really enjoy connecting with learners in the ‘My Village’ project because contributing to my community is something I deeply value. When I learned about the project, I was genuinely pleased, as I knew it would bring benefits to my community. Our first step was to do an assessment to identify children who struggled with reading or couldn’t read at all. After this, we participated in a training session by Zizi Afrique Foundation and then started the learning camps.

Initially, I was worried that I might not be able to succeed with the sessions, especially since many learners couldn’t even recognize or read letters. However, I continued planning and conducting engaging sessions, and over time, I witnessed a great change. Most of the children progressed from identifying letters and their sounds to forming words and crafting sentences. Some of the quicker learners even managed to read short stories.

I would say the project has been successful in my community because of the support of parents. They generously gave us a space for the learning camps and provided their children with writing materials to help their learning. Since the camps take place outdoors under a shelter, parents bought mats for the children to sit on and even offered a chair for me to use while guiding the sessions.