Flourishing and Resilient Communities- July Edition

July?2024?Newsletter

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Dear Partners,

Greetings from the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF).

We are pleased to share highlights of our recent community initiatives.?

In May 2024, KCDF launched a Flood Response campaign to raise funds for relief efforts in affected communities across Kenya. We are pleased to update you on our partnership with Victoria Commercial Bank, through which we have extended support to residents of the Kibera slums at Ushirika Primary School in Nairobi.

Additionally, we will inform you about our 2024 high school mentorship programs, including the Inspire Her Girls Mentorship Program and the MENTENDA Boy Child Mentorship Program, as well as the new cohorts we have recently launched.

Moreover, we are excited to share our participation in the 2024 Grantmakers Summit, hosted by the East Africa Philanthropy Network. The summit focused on advancing social justice and systemic reforms in grant-making. We will also provide updates on other engagements that have enhanced our capacity to serve our communities better.

We invite you to delve into the details of our work in the stories below.

Wishing you a wonderful month ahead.

Enjoy the read.

Grace Maingi, Executive Director, KCDF

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CLEAN WATER AND MORE! FOR USHIRIKA SCHOOL - A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN VICTORIA COMMERCIAL BANK AND KCDF

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On July 9, 2024, KCDF teamed up with Victoria Commercial Bank to distribute items to the residents of Kibera slums at Ushirika Primary School. This was part of their efforts to support communities that were adversely affected by the floods in Kenya between March and May this year. In May 2024, KCDF launched a Flood Response campaign to raise funds to provide relief to the affected communities. The campaign successfully raised over 500,000 Kenyan shillings, which KCDF will use to support several affected communities.

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Ushirika School, located in Kibera informal settlements, serves over 700 students from the slum. The school provides quality education from early childhood development to junior secondary school. Following the devastating floods, the school faced challenges such as the destruction of water pipes, making it difficult to provide clean water for the students. Additionally, some students' homes were destroyed, and the community faced psychological challenges, prompting the school to reach out to KCDF for assistance.

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In response, KCDF provided 250,000 KES to aid the school's recovery efforts. With this support, the school was able to purchase mattresses, uniforms, textbooks, and school bags for students who lost their possessions. They also repaired the water system, began repairing damaged pumps, and planned to purchase a storage tank to ensure a reliable water supply. Despite the challenges, the school's determination to create a better environment for its students remains unwavering. By addressing the immediate and long-term needs of the students, the school aims to improve academic performance and ensure more students remain in school.

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TRANSFORMING YOUNG LIVES - KCDF IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CUMMINS C&G

?On 6th July 2024, KCDF in partnership with Cummins C&G launched the 2024 MenTenda mentorship sessions in Ofafa Jericho High School in Nairobi. ? Through this programme, the boy child continues to receive far less societal leadership, family guidance, and poor transfer of life skills from one generation to another. This phenomenon coupled with a weakening sense of counsel, protection, recognition, and most importantly-love have made the boy child vulnerable to societal vices and a weak sense of self-identity creating a growing challenge to families, communities, and the nation at large.

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It's in response to these challenges that KCDF launched this mentorship initiative that seeks to inspire the students to move from inertness to action on the pressing challenges facing the boy child in Kenya. ? During these mentorship sessions, several topics are covered including manhood, values of greatness, responsible sexuality, career development, characteristics of success, challenges of masculinity, how to become a servant leader, positive patriotism, how to build self-confidence, and conflict resolution.

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? GIRLS CAREER DEVELOPMENT

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On 6th July 2024, KCDF, in collaboration with Isuzu East Africa, organised a career day at Embakasi Girls High School, impacting 300 students across diverse career paths. The event aimed to provide a supportive environment for students to explore their aspirations and understand the journey towards achieving their dreams. It emphasized career planning and resilience in overcoming challenges.

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Students engaged with various fields including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), Business Management, Medicine and Health Care, Entrepreneurship, Law, Political Sciences and Law enforcement, Air and Shipping, Journalism and Communication, Art, Design and Entertainment, and Hospitality. ? This initiative not only broadened their career horizons but also encouraged them to pursue their passions with determination and foresight.

REPOSITIONING COMMUNITY PHILANTHROPY FOR IMPACT THROUGH STORYTELLING

On Friday, July 19, 2024, KCDF?in partnership with the East Africa Philanthropy Network (EAPN) and Vice Versa Global, hosted the "Repositioning Community Philanthropy for Impact Through Storytelling" event in Nairobi. This event provided a platform for learning and exchanging ideas on community philanthropy, emphasizing the critical role of effective impact reporting through storytelling to raise awareness about community initiatives. The forum gathered representatives from community organizations nationwide to appreciate the importance of community voices in documenting impact.

In her address, KCDF Executive Director Grace Maingi emphasized that sustainable development requires active community involvement. "As a community foundation, we work closely with community organizations, embracing social justice and community philanthropy as key philosophies to ensure meaningful change," said Maingi. She highlighted KCDF's focus on empowering local communities and promoting stories that advocate for sustainable development.

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EAPN Executive Director Evans Okinyi noted that his network aims to strengthen civil society organizations (CSOs) understanding of their role as stakeholders in the philanthropy space and to foster a culture of local giving. "We believe that communities drive true development, and we achieve significant progress by unlocking the potential of these communities. Storytelling enables us to harness local resources for their development," Okinyi stated. Eunice Mwaura from Vice Versa Global emphasized that stories are powerful communication tools that instill a sense of ownership and responsibility. She urged community organizations to craft stories that not only inform but also transform. Johnstone Kuya from the Embassy of the Netherlands in Kenya remarked that community philanthropy is an ongoing collaborative effort that shapes narratives and generates impactful stories.

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Participants exchanged ideas on how CSOs can effectively tell their stories, leveraging digital media platforms and packaging development impact stories for mainstream media. Key outcomes from the meeting included the importance of using data in storytelling, creating infographics, and adhering to ethical standards in journalism and documentation.

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MEASURING WHAT MATTERS!

?KCDF participated in the "Measurement of What Matters Convening" in Bali, Indonesia, from July 8th to 12th, 2024. This event brought together thought leaders, evaluators, and community representatives from around the globe to reimagine traditional measurement systems, focusing on approaches that genuinely reflect the values and needs of the communities they serve.

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Representing KCDF was Mr. Gabriel Kihara, the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Team Lead. The convening emphasized the importance of humanizing evaluation processes and embracing qualitative assessments that respect and understand the unique contexts of different communities. It was recognized that conventional quantitative metrics often fail to capture the full picture, highlighting the need for more contextual and nuanced measurement tools. Participants discussed how results vary significantly across different cultural and social landscapes, underlining the importance of objectivity and cultural sensitivity in evaluation. The gathering called for a paradigm shift towards alternative methods of measurement, advocating for qualitative approaches that prioritize the lived experiences and perspectives of community members.

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?This movement towards measuring what truly matters aims to ensure that evaluations not only capture outcomes but also foster a deeper understanding of the impacts on the people and communities involved. The convening aligned with KCDF’s mission of supporting sustainable development and empowering communities. By participating in such events, KCDF enhances its evaluation strategies, ensuring that our programs accurately reflect the impacts and outcomes that matter most to the communities we serve.

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GETTING FIT FINANCIALLY

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KCDF took part in the?Financial Fitness Boot Camp retreat which happened from 15th to 18th July 2024 in Kampala, Uganda. This is an onboarding activity organized by the Resilience Fund, a thematic fund within the CivFund, in partnership with KCDF, and is being implemented in Kampala, Uganda, and extends to Kenya and Tanzania. KCDF was represented at the retreat in Kampala, Uganda by Kennedy Odera, Programme Coordinator Capacity Building and Systems Strengthening Officer and Mary Mwangi, Partnership and Resource Mobilization Coordinator.

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The retreat aims to support civil society organizations (CSOs) in enhancing their financial capabilities, promoting sustainability, and enabling them to operate effectively, regardless of their operating environment. The overall goal of the Financial Resilient Resource Hub (FRRH) is to strengthen the ecosystem of CSOs. By providing a robust training program, the FRRH seeks to equip CSO leaders and their organizations with the necessary financial skills to ensure long-term sustainability and resilience. This initiative is crucial for fostering a more resilient civil society sector that can withstand various challenges and continue to deliver on their missions effectively.

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The Financial Fitness Boot Camp features a comprehensive 4-day training program designed to build the financial capabilities of participating CSOs. Following the training, organizations are paired with financial coaches who provide three months of focused coaching on financial resilience. This personalized coaching approach ensures that the knowledge and skills acquired during the training are effectively implemented, enabling CSOs to achieve greater financial stability and sustainability.

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THE 2024 GRANTMAKERS SUMMIT

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The 2024 Grantmakers Summit, hosted by the East Africa Philanthropy Network, was held in Nairobi on 8th and 9th July 2024 and KCDF was privileged to participate in this momentous event that sought to assess and devise strategies towards enduring sustainability that is responsive to the current conditions within our communities. Under the theme, Strategic Philanthropy in a Dynamic Era, the meeting discussed key steps crucial in advancing social justice and system reforms in grant making emphasising the need to prioritise sustainable financing, investment in social justice, underscoring trust-based grant making for scaling up impact.?

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While speaking in a panel discussion on Scaling for impact - strategic innovations for expansive grant making, KCDF Executive Director Ms. Grace Maingi highlighted several strategies that KCDF is applying to ensure we achieve more impact within our communities. “As KCDF we are changing our thinking on achieving impact by focusing more on depth of impact rather than spread. In our development agenda, we give our partners a variety of initiatives they can benefit from us, ranging from capacity support, grants matching, local resource mobilization and much more. Rather than spreading ourselves too wide, we are more interested in walking with our partners and developing trust to deepen our partnership in finding solutions to the challenges they face.” She said. ? Further, she highlighted KCDF’s work under the East Africa Financial Resilience Resource Hub, where we provide information on how community foundations can grow their organizations toward self-sustainability, through asset building. She encouraged funders and grantmakers to extend unrestricted funding to partners to enable them to build their organizations for greater impact.

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On the panel, the KCDF Executive Director was joined by Melvine Chibole, Head of TechSoup Africa, Inviolata Wanyama from MSI Reproductive Choices Kenya and Mendi Njonjo from KCB Foundation, in a session that was moderated by Dawit Dessie.

The session insisted on the need to tap into the potential, diverse expertise, and resources of our partners such as the government, academia, private sector etc, to create systemic change. Expanding the reach of our work with communities and ensures effectiveness and gives power to the disadvantaged and most vulnerable, to enable them make decisions about their lives. ?

The need to embrace technology and provide quality innovative services that are sustainable was encouraged with funders asked not to over-emphasize on skill and being too programmatic but rather leverage community strengths to find sustainable solutions. Before the curtains closed on the summit, KCDF had the opportunity to engage the participants through an innovative and interactive game dubbed "The KCDF's Scaling for Impact Game" which shows the typical journey of an organization in its pursuit of sustainability and success. The game shows how an organization comes face to face with a myriad of both challenges and opportunities, therefore posing the need to come up with innovative ideas to overcome the challenges and leverage the opportunities.

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