We don’t say goodbye...

After hard work and great achievements Hatua Likoni team is ready to break for the holidays. Most of the targets for the year 2012 have been achieved.



The Programs Director, Kwame is glad and grateful to all for their contributions, “we sincerely appreciate, thank you” he says with a smile on his face. He has happily noted that Hatua has achieved most of the goals that were set for the year ending 2012, some of the achievements are: the organization has added thirty eight new students to its scholarship fund. It officially opened the library on February. Hatua has as well formed a sub-organisation, Likoni Youth Agenda whose main aim is to give civic education to the youth. Also, its civic education campaign has reached over 900 Likoni secondary school students.

According to Kwame, come the year 2013, the organization has many goals it hopes to achieve and asks all our supporters to continue with the same spirit and help make Likoni a better place by eradicating poverty through education. Some of the goals are; to add 45 new scholarship students, conduct academic research, organize a fundraising dinner to raise funds for sponsoring students to mention but a few.

We would like to sincerely thank all our supporters; always remember that without your support our mission and vision cannot be achieved. In whatever way you have contributed to making Hatua family complete be blessed. Remember, whenever Hatua youth have a better life and smile it’s because of you. The following is a poem from one of Hatua’s beneficiaries;

Hatua is like ... Athman Mohammed

a paradise everyone needs to be in,
it holds people's hands
helping them be what they want to be
four years in Hatua
surely nimepiga Hatua*
in my education
hence, Hatua is helpful.
*I have stepped forward

As for the Hatua team they have this to say; 

The whole season has given us a reason to smile. We are finally breaking for the holiday but as Hatua family we don’t say goodbye because it means we are going away, we just say, see you next year. We pray to God to help us to continue achieving our mission of reducing poverty and unemployment in Likoni.

Vote on Facebook to help Hatua win a new website!

We have entered a competition to win a free website. A new website will help us to reach out to more potential donors and to share more about our work with both the Mombasa and international community.

Please vote for our video on Facebook by clicking here to help us win! We appreciate each and every vote, please spread the word!

To vote for Hatua to win a new website, click this link: https://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/289810/voteable_entries?view_entries=1

Then vote thumbs up for Hatua Likoni's video. You will be asked to install the app - please do, otherwise your vote won't be counted! (You can uninstall the app at the end of the month when the competition is over!) Then share the link with all your friends!

We appreciate each and every vote - a new website will really help us spread the word about Hatua and to reach out to new donors.

Thank you so much!

Hatua Students Fun Day

On Friday 14 December 2012, Hatua students, were treated to a trip at Gede Ruins monument and Malindi Marine park.

This trip was both educational and fun as the students had a lot to learn and explore. Every end of year after attending school, mentoring classes, writing reports and performing well at their end of term reports, the students are awarded by being taken to a trip.

"It's a way to motivate and encourage them to work hard," said their mentoring and career guidance coordinator Winnie. They choose a place that the students will have fun and at the same time learn something from. This time it was Gede historical site.

At Gede historical site, there was a lot to learn about the history of the the site which is one of the 12th Century Swahili towns along the African coast that retains memories of an evolved Urban culture. The tour guide, Katana Mtsumi was so conversant with the site as he happily narrated to them about the site.

The students had a lot of questions to ask as they were interested to learn more about the site, one of them asked what proved that the site was there many years back. This was answered by being shown remains of mosques, a palace, residential houses, elaborate pillar tombs and a tombstone built for the revered one with an epitaph incised in plaster with the date AH 802 (AD 1399).

They also learnt about different species of plants including both indigenous and exotic trees. They as well visited Kipepeo which is Swahili for butterfly. This is a project of rearing butterflies to help the locals. They asked questions as they saw different types of butterflies and some were interested about butterfly rearing.

Later on, the students went to Malindi Marine Park; here they had fun on a boat tour, swimming and were allowed to feed the fish with bread. Most of them said this was the best part of the trip. "The best part is not swimming but eating food," joked one student as they were being served pilau, a common Swahili dish in Kenya.

Generally, the trip was quite a good treat as we all look forward to Christmas celebrations.

See more photos from the day on our Facebook page.

The growth of the Hatua Scholarship Fund: Infographic

(Click on image to view full size)

Voter Registration Campaign

Last Sunday, the Likoni Youth Agenda organized a Voter Registration Campaign in partnership with Hatua Likoni to encourage people to register to vote ahead of the coming general election in March.

Led by boy scout group The Innocent Souls, we marched from the Likoni Community Library, down Lunga Lunga Road and Shelly Beach Road to Shelly Beach at Reliable Apartments. Participants held banners and posters encouraging people to exercise their civic right to vote, and musicians led us in song. Neither the Likoni Youth Agenda nor Hatua Likoni are affiliated with a particular MP or political party; we simply wanted to encourage people to vote!

At Shelly Beach, the V.I. Dancers entertained the gathered public. Music was played through the afternoon until 6pm when the event ended.

Voter registration stations for all 5 Likoni wards were present. With only one week left for voters to register and with low rates of registration by the Kenyan population in general and specifically from Likoni residents, we hoped to make the registration process easier by bringing the stations to a central and public location.

17 people registered to vote during the afternoon. This number is considerably lower than we had hoped for, but we hope to have spurred some discussion about the importance of voting!

View photos from the Campaign on our Facebook page.

Student Yvonne triumphs at National Music Festival

Hatua student Yvonne Moraa wowed the judges and brought home two awards when she recently competed in Kenya's National Music Festival in Meru on 8 November. Schools from all over Kenya participate in the festival, which sees thousands of students coming to compete every year.

Yvonne was selected to represent her school (for Form 2), Murray Girls Secondary, in two solo competitions; public speaking and poetry performance. She also performed in the choral verse competition with 23 others from her school.

She came first place in the public speaking competition, for which she was given the topic 'agriculture'. She was up against the stiff competition of 24 others who had been selected as the top candidates to represent their respective schools.

Yvonne also triumphed in the solo poetry competition, coming second place out of 20 competitors.

"I  was nervous before I went in front of the judges," Yvonne explains, "you get butterflies... so I prayed first."

Yvonne wants to become an actress or a journalist. With her confidence and talent, we are sure we will go far!

Yvonne performs on World AIDS Day

Yvonne also performed a poem she wrote entitled 'AIDS' on World AIDS Day. Watch her performance on our YouTube channel.

Students celebrate the end of exams at Candidates Nite

On Saturday 24 November, to celebrate the end of exams, the Likoni Youth Agenda held a party for Form 4 graduates in Likoni (and anyone else who wanted to come!) at Qwetu Beach Resort, Shelly Beach. The party was held the day after the final exam as many students were planing to travel to see family the following week.

Over 500 tickets, at a fee of 150/=, were sold as students flocked to see popular DJ Kalonje and The Mixx Master perform.

The night was a great success enjoyed by all. After four years of hard work studying through secondary school, students deserved a good party!

Ally Tucker, Vice Chairman of the Likoni Youth Agenda, is very happy with how the event went.

“It was challenging fundraising ahead of the night to get the money together to pay the DJ,” he explains, adding that it had been a good experience in event planning and management. “It has opened our minds to some of the challenges of event organizing from the initial planning to the end.”

The night was so successful that not only did the organizers break even, they even made a small profit that will be fed back into the Likoni Youth Agenda’s community activities. Through entertainment, the Likoni Youth Agenda seeks to bring young people together in a comfortable environment to provide them with civic education so that they can become responsible and informed Kenyan citizens.

The night was also a great advert for Hatua Likoni and the Likoni Youth Agenda, as some people had travelled from Mombasa and Ukunda to be at the party. With the MC occasionally mentioning the work of the partnering organizations, we hope that the word about us will spread!

Visit the Likoni Youth Agenda’s Facebook page to see photos of the night.

Voters Registration Campaign this Sunday

Have you registered to vote yet? Join us this Sunday for our campaign to get the people of Likoni registered to vote in the coming elections. There will be a march leaving the Likoni Community Library at 1pm, traveling down Lunga Lunga Road and arriving at Reliable Apartments, Shelly Beach, where the main event will take place.

All 5 wards of Likoni will be represented, so all Likoni residents will be able to register!

Hatua Likoni and the Likoni Youth Agenda, co-organizers of the campaign, are not associated with or vying to campaign for a particular MP or political party. We simply want to encourage people to exercise their right as Kenyans to vote.

Please help us spread the word and we hope to see you on the day!

Hatua students perform on World AIDS Day

On Saturday, Hatua students performed at the World AIDS Day 2012 event, organized by local government, which was held at the grounds of Likoni Primary School.

Students opened their performance with a song composed with the help of Mentoring and Career Guidance Coordinator Winnie about the need to be faithful because of the reality that HIV doesn't choose; HIV does not discriminate against age, race or gender.

Yvonne, one of our students who has just returned from boarding school, then introduced the group, and delivered a fantastic solo performance poem about the real dangers of HIV/AIDS and the importance of being careful (view her performance on our YouTube channel).

Students then performed a short play dramatizing how promiscuity can lead to HIV, emphasizing the importance of protecting your body and thinking of future consequences.

Student Mevin also performed a rap to the audience, followed by a poem with the message, "I gave you my love and you gave me HIV".

This was the first time Hatua students have performed at a public event. They delivered a fantastic performance, sending a poignant message to the audience about the reality that HIV does not choose its victims and that we all need to be careful.

Students spent a busy week planning for and preparing the performance, taking the task seriously, and were very enthusiastic about being involved in HIV/AIDS awareness in Likoni.

Winnie says, "This was of great motivation and will keep up the spirit of giving back to the community."

Visit our Facebook page to view more photos.

Update from the Likoni Community Library

Since our Resource Center Coordinator Evans Omondi was appointed in October, he has been very busy working with librarian Evans Lubwa and the rest of the library team to improve library services, researching and networking to secure funding and support, and trying to increase income generated from the cyber business towards making the library a self-sustainable service.

Books 

Hatua has secured a KES 500,000/= (US$5880) grant from the Safaricom Foundation for curriculum based books. These books are greatly needed and are in high demand from our library users. Omondi has met with various head teachers around Likoni to seek their advice on which books we should stock to best serve Likoni’s school children.

Cyber Lab 

The cyber business has been slow to start, partly due to the knock-on effect of three weeks without power in October and also because it is a new service and not many people know about it. However, through increased advertising efforts (networking and posters), we are confident that the business will expand. We also plan to buy a photocopier in the New Year, which will expand our services and help to increase the library’s income.

The library is now registered as a Cyber Lab with Tech Soup Kenya, an organization that connects, supports and gives grants to computer-based organizations throughout Kenya.

Library users 

In November, the number of library users doubled from 3,000 during October to over 6,000 this month. As word spreads about the library and as children are off school for the Christmas holidays, we are expecting the library to be even busier during December!

The number of registered library users has also been increasing; over the last two months, we have registered 17 new members, bringing our total member list to 54. For 250/= (US$3) a year (100/= (US$1.20) for primary school students), members can borrow one book at a time to take home for a maximum of two weeks.

Otherwise, anyone is free to use the library; Omondi says that it is not unusual for students to come to the library for the whole day – from when it opens at 9am to when it closes at 8pm – breaking only for lunch!