What we do

sharing

good ideas

Better Me was founded on a strong but simple notion: Believe in your ideas. However, belief alone isn’t enough; for an idea to actually accomplish something, it has to be shared. We encourage every individual to share ideas when they find a better way.  This culture has kept Better Me in a constant state of improvement. When you share an idea, you open it to outside input, and that can take the plan to a whole new level. Outside opinions widen your perspective, which helps you develop an idea even more.

To ensure sustainability in our interventions, Better Me, partners with the relevant government departments that work with children to ensure that interventions and decisions that are made are always for the best interest of children. Previously, we have worked with the County government in the development of the gender-based violence policy. This was necessary to protect individuals especially children and women against sexual gender-based violence. Currently we are working with the County government to develop a child welfare and Protection policy that will be responsible for addressing children’s issues in Kisumu County. This policy will ensure participation, development and protection of all children with regard to government decision making in Kisumu County.

 We collaborate with other like-minded organizations and individuals to maximize the impact of our interventions:

  1. Better Me is a Key member of the Kisumu Street Children Rehabilitation Consortium, an umbrella body bringing together organizations that are working with homeless children living in the streets, with an aim of reintegrating them back to socially secure environments where they can enjoy with dignity their lives as children. We work together to develop strategies that can be implemented in other areas.
  2. We believe everyone deserves equal access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making. In Kisumu, Kenya we collaborate with other organizations forming the Gender Sector Working Group to realize Social transformation to address the sociocultural drivers of gender inequality. Through this group we successfully organized a Women’s Conference that brought together women from the grassroots and decision makers including the County Governor to discuss issues affecting women, Better Me led a conversation around mental health and its importance in society now.
  3. Peacebuilding is a long-term process of encouraging people to talk, repairing relationships, and reforming institutions. For positive change to last, everyone affected by a destructive conflict has to be involved in the process of building peace. Transforming relationships is key to putting an end to violence. Better Me in its mission to improve the welfare of children works towards developing and promoting peace in the community. We consistently organize and participate in radio talk shows, peace walks and online peace campaigns to support peace building in the community.
  4. Nature provides us all with so many wonderful and useful things. From beautiful sights, to food & shelter, to maintaining the delicate balance necessary to sustain life on this planet. As industry advances and the human footprint spreads, the delicacy of this balance increases more and more. As a result, it is ever-important that we do our part in helping nature to thrive, however we can. That starts with taking care of the environment. Better Me partners with different organizations to ensure that children learn proper waste management techniques and appreciate the value of planting and taking care of trees. We are part of a local community initiative called #jitokezetupandemiti (come out and together lets plant trees) that aims to plant 100,000 trees every year!

sharing

knowledge

“In fact, know-why is often more important than know-how as it allows you to be creative—to fall back on principles—to re-invent your know-how.” 

– David Gurteen

Knowledge gives an individual the ability to make good use of information on hand, enabling you to disseminate it accurately and use it wisely. Knowledge also adds an advantage to your abilities, allowing you to both create and innovate. For example, if you wanted to make a cake but were missing an ingredient, you would be able to use a substitute ingredient if you knew why that ingredient was being used in first place.

  • Basic Education: 

Education is essential for the development of the individual, what we find is that by offering primary education to children, a lot of benefits are seen throughout the community, often for years following the schooling itself. In fact, it seems that almost every aspect of one’s life, particularly as it relates to socioeconomic rights, is in some way or another connected to the right to education. Basic education is intended to meet basic learning needs which provides the foundation on which further learning is based, it is made up of kindergarten, elementary and secondary school. 

We support the Korando Education Center to provide free primary school education to over 300 children who would not have gotten quality education. The center also provides a safe place to over 70 children who are able to get decent meals and access proper medical care. 

Our partnership also extends to Dewo Ngima Community based organization, it is based in a slum on the outskirts of Kisumu town. We work with them to promote literacy among children from the 3 slums in Kisumu County who are unable to go to school for various reasons, we teach them how to read and provide the children with a safe place to play and express themselves as children. From our work in the slums, we try and identify children who can go back to school and help them enroll back to school. Currently Better Me supports 8 children through Dewo Ngima to access primary school education in a nearby school.

  • Basic Education (high school)

Secondary school education provides the learners with opportunities to: acquire necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes for the development of the self and the nation. promote love for and loyalty to the nation. promoter harmonious co-existence among the peoples of Kenya. It is a very important stage in the life of a young person in Kenya.

Children often miss the opportunity to transition to high school once they have completed their 8 years in primary school. Better Me has helped bridge this gap by providing a bursary to these students to complete their high school education. In our bursary program we currently have 115 students.

  • Building and Retaining Collective Knowledge:

The collective knowledge of a community can be huge; however, it has limited value unless the knowledge is shared. It’s always encouraging when an individual overcomes a challenge. However, if members of the same group/community are going through the same challenge and the knowledge isn’t shared, the success is limited.

At Better Me we are focused on developing all round humans by designing camps that that allow every child to get the opportunity to learn beyond studies. These camps have activities that are intended to bring social & intellectual skills, moral, cultural & ethical values, personality development, and character advancement in participants. It includes sports, social occasions, science lab activities, classroom (study hall) activities, creative arts, meditation, and so on.

There camps are usually held by Better Me Team or individuals who share our vision of fostering self-expression, curiosity, creativity and innovative thinking. Over the last few years, we have held mind set camps with goal of setting in motion a process of increased awareness, skill development, and positive approach towards life.

These camps help the children to break away from their usual school environments so that for a few days, we create spaces for them to explore, to be seen, to be heard. To listen, to ask questions and letting them explore outside of the box. Color outside the lines and see what they come up with. Every child has something special they bring to the world. This gives them an opportunity to discover that for themselves or see it as they interact with their peers and facilitators.

sharing

tools

Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community. 

We target young people from diverse backgrounds to benefit from our programs, including;

  • Orphans and vulnerable children.
  • Children and youths from slums.
  • Children and youths living and begging in the streets.
  • Children and youths from rural areas.
  • Children and youths living with disability. 

The main objectives of our mentorship programs are:

  • Reinforce and promote attitudes and behaviors that will lead to a better quality of life for young people in issues related to mental health.
  • Instill skills among adolescents to enable them 2 overcome the challenges of growing up and become responsible adults including communication, decision making, assertiveness, setting goals and resisting peer pressure
  • To help cultivate open, caring and trusting relationships. Healthy and positive relations will help young people protect themselves against a variety of negative health and social outcomes

Our programs use culturally relevant approaches based on core principles found in evidence-based youth programs from around the world. Some of these principles include: 

  • Facilitators and participants working to solve problems together 
  • The importance of support, encouragement, and praise in developing strong and positive relationships 
  • Establishing house rules, and clear instructions 
  • How participants can take care of themselves and relieve stress 
  • The importance of providing a safe space to talk about difficult topics, such as sexual behaviour, HIV/AIDS, safety in the community, and conflicts at home. 

We compliment the efforts of existing structures such as learning institutions, churches, community units and youth groups. We work to change the world by providing these tools to young people who are mostly defined as leaders of tomorrow but we mold them to be facilitators of positive change today!