Q3 Update from the Ololo Foundation

Image (above): an educational visit to the Wildlife Warriors field lab, offering immersive encounters with wildlife.

To our friends and supporters from around the world! Welcome to our quarterly update, where we'll be sharing news and updates of our projects thanks to your support. Our vision has always been to empower our local communities through sustainable development projects in our region. With your help, we've been able to make a massive impact over the past few months, and we're excited to share our progress with you. Thank you for being a part of our journey and we look forward to updating you as our projects develop.

Greening Schools Program (Oloosirkon School)

The Greening Schools project is well underway, not only helping to provide shade and some greenery to the school, but to teach the students the importance of environmental conservation, where each student has the opportunity to 'adopt' a tree and raise it throughout the years.

Image (right): On August 18, 2023 - G. Kironchi and H. Boke visited Oloosirkon school and prepared a draft tree plan as indicated below.

On Sept 26, 2023 - Launched the Food Forest & kickoff for the ‘Adopt a Tree’ initiative – 110 fruit trees planted including 42 passion fruits, 20 banana trees, 20 lemons, 10 oranges, 8 mulberries and 10 pawpaw Our main objective of this project is to convert the current random tree planting site into a dense, diverse and intensively managed food forest i.e., to supply the school with fruits and vegetables for their kitchen. Other objectives include to empower the young generation with agroforestry knowledge and skills including naturing trees through our adopt a tree initiative. SEE OUR OPEN SOURCE FOOD FOREST DATA HERE “During the launch we met Javiel, a passionate and hardworking grade 4 student, who has adopted a banana tree (the most outstanding of all the trees in the garden today) he planted last year and has checked on his tree twice everyday at least (somedays he will check on it each time he steps foot out of class) since then and made sure it is well watered. As we launched the Food Forest at his school (Oloosirkon Primary) on the 26th of Sept, he adopted his second tree, a lemon tree that he committed to take good care of.

To inspire him and other like-minded kids, we got him a pair of shorts and shirts to add on the one shirt and shorts that he had to wear every school day. (His shorts were torn and the shirt was almost worn out). Today, he is probably the neatest student in the school. He got so excited about the gift and has started to mobilize some of the other students to get involved in growing trees and we are looking mentor him into the role of leading the other students.” Image (left): Cynthia (an Agroecology enthusiast) and Ben (A gardening expert from Ololo) helping Javiel plant his lemon tree.

St Johns School Updates

St Johns School is located in the heart of the Kibera slum - the largest slum in Africa. It's roughly the size of NY Central Park and is home to almost 1 million people. St. John's primary school was started by Josiah Munyutu in 2002, with the aim of helping the orphans, street children, and the poor. It now has over 400 students. We partnered with St Johns School in 2017, and have injected over $120,000 USD into it's development since. Currently, we are funding the following:

• 13 full time teachers salaries

• 24 high school scholarships for those selected to continue onto high-school

• Ongoing construction projects

As you can imagine, out of 400 students, we want the majority to continue onto further education. However, with limited resources and with many families coming from very poor situations, this dream is often not the reality. We would encourage for anyone who is passionate about education, to help sponsor a high school student for just $30/month. Image (right): school feeding program at St John's School  Sponsor a high school student

Arts and Crafts Program

In Q3, Ololo Foundation successfully executed a dynamic August holiday program. This program was meticulously planned and offered enriching experiences for children. The activities included interactive practice sessions, art and crafts, rugby practice, and exciting excursions. Notably, a camp for 16 girls was a highlight, featuring BBQs and marshmallow roasting. Educational trips, like the visit to Bomas of Kenya, provided cultural learning opportunities. The rugby team's tournament showcased their impressive progress.

Image (above): The second week commenced with an educational visit to the Wildlife Warriors field lab, offering immersive encounters with wildlife.

Image (left): A camping expedition for boys promoted camaraderie and inspiration from high school students. The program concluded with a visit to the Karen Blixen museum, offering diverse activities. In summary, the August holiday program was enriching and multifaceted. Ololo Foundation expresses gratitude to all involved and remains committed to impactful programs in the future.

During the third quarter, Ololo Foundation's Art, Craft, and Culture program showed significant progress and included the following programs: • Paper Maché: Children enthusiastically recycled cardboard boxes to create captivating paper maché artworks. • Weaving: A dedicated group of five girls learned basketry weaving, showcasing their newfound skills. • Drawing: Children actively engaged in drawing projects, bringing completed work to subsequent meetings. • Glass Bottle Decorations: Empty wine bottles were creatively repurposed into decorative pieces, promoting sustainability. • Potting in Canning Tins: Planting succulents in canning tins provided valuable horticultural experience. • Glass Bottle Cutting: Over a week, 30 glass bottles were effectively cut and repurposed, with children taking their creations home. • Expanding Outreach: Ololo Foundation reached out to additional schools, starting farm kids and agricultural clubs to share regenerative agriculture knowledge.

Sports Program

The Sports Program has been a huge success, keeping the students engaged after school and in their holidays, learning new skills, and importantly, just having some fun. Below you will find some of our key activities and achievements over the last 3 months.

1. Sports Scholarships

Few kids have managed to secure Rugby Scholarships in National Schools; Menengai School and Upper Hill School namely Athman Ali, Vuleti Miller, Chege Joseph Mathenge (Menengai High School) Tiberius Evans Ikobe, Charles Kimanzi Mindu(Upper Hill School)

2. Ball Kids Program

The kids had a wonderful experience at Nyayo Stadium during World U20 Trophy that occurred July 15th to 30th in Kenya. 20 kids were actively involved as Ball Kids and 50kids watched the game at the stadium.

3. Impact Sports Workshops

On 12 June Banda School Sports Director and sports coaches visited the Oloosirikon Primary School for a rugby workshop and donated rugby balls to help in Skills Development and later planted trees to fight climate change. We had 60 kids present during training. Hong Kong U20 visited the kids at Oloosirikon on 18th July for a rugby workshop. It was a wonderful experience for the kids to receive training from Hong Kong U20 national team who mentored the kids and recruited more kids to joining rugby, the donated balls to the team and planted trees at the school. We had players from Catholic Monks holding a rugby Workshop on 11th August 60 kids were involved. The workshop included video and Board sessions for the kids for depth understanding of rugby.

4. Football Tournament

We planned a football tournament called Boda Boda Edition 1st July for the Boda Boda guys in the community to create awareness on Cleaning and Greening community, Tuala. We had 8 teams in the competition with Booster Stage FC emerging victorious. We had 200 players registered and 800 spectators. We are planning to organize Kajiado County Football Tournament in collaboration with Office of the Women representative (Hon. Leah Sankaire)

5. Rugby Tournaments

U 15 girls and boys participated in Kabeberi 7s on 8th to 10th of August at KRFU grounds. The girls had a nice run and clinched bronze medal, their first ever medal wearing jersey donated by the team by Redheavies Queensland Australia. Four players were selected to represent Nairobi during DBA futures cup from 14th to 16th July at St Christopher’s International School and Ololo Rugby U15 girls had an opportunity to Franchise with Mathare Rugby Foundation to curtain raise the finals of DBA Futures Cup. The 4 boys mixed with kids from international school to represent Nairobi Lightning and Nairobi Bulldozers.

6. National Tournament

Kids got an opportunity to curtain raise Kenya Legends vs Uganda Legends, the kids mixed with other kids from international schools organized by DBA Africa on 23rd September. Kids had an opportunity to meet Kenyan Legends, Andrew Amonde and Collins Injera who have been their role models. Monthly Patron Rugby Tournament on 20th August we took 60kids U11s, U13s and U15s both boys and girls represented.

7. New Sports

Introduction of other sports into the programs, football, netball and chess. We’ve had support from United Arabs Emirates Netball with netball jerseys to Ololo foundation netball team. In Chess we have Elvis Okwemba 10 years old, who is a national Chess champion. He has a big role in school, he’s coaching teachers, University students and his fellow pupils. The football team had an opportunity to visit Catholic University football team and had a sport mentorship session with the kids. The training is usually on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Olekasasi primary and Oloosirikon Secondary have also started training rugby.

8. Home Visits

For the kids who have not been performing well in class and mischievous kids, we visit their homes and talk to the family on how we will work together in developing the child’s academic progress. We also visited the kids' homes who attained scholarships and talked to them about the importance of sports and education as a tool to change the community.

9.Toddlers Program

It's always good to spot, nurture and grow talents at a young age. We have kids from the age of 3 years training and learning more from the older and more experienced kids.

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