Rehma Kongowea

We have several goals/plans for the youth in the community: 1.) Team games/ leagues - We want to get our boys out of the slum and playing with other teams in the country. Getting them more exposure to bigger teams will sharpen their skills and give them a drive to keep working hard. There are also many scholarships and professional soccer opportunities at these tournaments. 2.) Education - Slowly we are discovering the needs and desires of our youth and trying to meet them. Many of our youth haven't gone to high school and have passed the age where they will still be able to get into high school. We are placing them in vocational schools that take high school drop outs. We are also arranging for business trainings and other technical trainings that they can use in the slum for business. Our youth want to be mechanics, seamen, interior designers, and small business owners. Who is to say they can't be all these things? THey just need the right opportunities. 3.) Rehma Football League - We have started a major league in the slum to open up the opportunities to play soccer to the whole community. Our league consists of 8 teams from various 'hoods' in the slums. It has taken more boys out of the streets and put them back on the pitch. It also creates an amazing sense of community amongst the people. This is essential considering this community is plagued with ethnic and racial divides. What a better way to create camaraderie between ethnicities than through soccer? At the end of the league, we will have a cultural day celebrating all the different people, ethnicities, and flavours of Kongowea. 4.) Rehma Ladies is a girls group where young ladies come to meet, talk about life issues, play games, learn income-generating skills, eat, and experience life outside of the slum. Our goal is for the ladies to create a sisterhood amongst themselve - a safe place where they can feel love and accepted. We want to help them realize their dreams and desires and give them the skills and opportunities for go them. 5) Rehma youth study/resource centre - We have a small space where we hold meetings with the youth. We are looking to expand it into a youth resource/study centre. We want to stock the centre with text books, encyclopedias and other educational books so that students can come and freely study. Most students in the area can't afford to buy the text books and schools don't offer them. We want them to have open access to these resources. As well, we will have application forms for IDs and birth certificates available as well as trainings on building resumes, looking for jobs, and conducting yourself in an interview. 6) Computer Lab - We are looking for funding and partners to help us set up the first free computer lab in the area. Most youth are computer illiterate. They must pay to learn to use basic software. In kenya, its hard to find a job without the basic knowledge of a computer.That is why we want to open a space where youth can freely learn and practice their computer skills. We will charge for usage of the internet which will also serve as income generating for the organization.