Written by Canadian SportWORKS Officer, Luna Sinclair
Luna’s international experiential learning experience is funded by the Queen Elizabeth Scholars (QES) Program. This collaborative initiative is made possible through the leadership of the Rideau Hall Foundation, in collaboration with Community Foundations of Canada, Universities Canada, and Canadian universities. Through its promotion of international student exchange and civic engagement, the QES program is helping to grow young Canadians into global citizens while promoting Canada as a destination for the world’s top talent and attracting top talent and international research leaders to Canada.
Cheza Catch Up
Hi everyone! Karibu, welcome to blog number two! Somehow I am already hitting the halfway point of my time in Nairobi as a Canadian SportWORKS Officer. Time flies so I want to share what I’ve been up to with Cheza Healthy the past two weeks! A brief rundown for anyone new to the blog posts – Cheza Healthy is a sports for development partnership project, between Commonwealth Sport Canada and Commonwealth Sport Kenya/the National Olympic Committee of Kenya that focuses on promoting physical activity for youth to prevent non-communicable diseases. Our project facilitates events at schools or community spaces that include theory and activities for youth to learn and play while focusing on lifelong wellness. We’ve been on a roll since my last blog post so I have lots to share!
We recently hosted our second event of 2025 at MPESA Foundation Academy in Thika, Kenya. M-PESA Foundation Academy is an International Baccalaureate high school fully funded by the M-PESA Foundation, meaning there are no charges to students and their parents. Students are chosen based on financial need as well as academic achievement, leadership potential, and responsible citizenship. It is a beautiful campus and all the students and staff were very welcoming.
Our event started in their auditorium where we spoke to their 400 students about Cheza Healthy and what they can do to prioritize physical activity and wellness while at school and while at home. To follow we were so lucky to have athlete, Wandera Pheleshia Viona, join us. Wandera, who also goes by Phiona, is Team Kenya’s Beach Handball Team Captain and works at the NOC-K office with us. She inspired the students with her story about the passion sport gives her and how sport can be, and is a valuable and fulfilling career. It was amazing to see how she captivated the students and empowered them to pursue their goals and dreams.
For the final portion of our indoor session, we were joined by Kenya’s spectacular Kung fu/Wushu federation for a Wushu martial arts demonstration. Their whole team is so talented and always gets the crowd energized and excited.
We then moved outside to get moving together. At MPESA Foundation Academy, students are split into four houses and have some friendly competition between them. So we had fun with piggyback races, mixed relays, and a tug-of-war, encouraging students to have fun staying active to promote lifelong wellness.
Next up, on February 26th, the Cheza Team attended the morning session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Health Organization (WHO)’s Sports and Health Capacity Development Initiative Consultative Workshop, hosted by NOC-K and KCA University. It was a really exciting opportunity because we were invited to give a presentation on Cheza Healthy’s achievements and future objectives.
There were professionals from all around the world attending to give feedback on a course that is being developed and there was a lot of interest in Cheza Healthy in regards to potential partnerships and even asking about if the project could expand into other East African countries. All of the support and growth that has happened in the short time I have been here has been a long time coming, and is all so exciting to see in real time. It really is so wonderful to be a part of this project and to see my coworkers work their magic empowering youth through sport.
It feels like things are really clicking for Cheza Healthy. For the first time, we have events lined up each week for the next three weeks, along with messages coming in with schools and organizations requesting we come host a Cheza Healthy event for them. I want to thank Gabe, Jess, and David, the previous three Canadian SportWORKS Officers in this project, for laying some of the groundwork and foundation that are contributing to our success this semester. I really appreciate and am grateful for your encouragement to pursue this practicum, every time I get to see this project impacting youth and students it makes me so happy to be here.
Speaking of exciting Cheza Healthy opportunities, we have also had the pleasure of beginning a collaboration with a few organizations in Mathare, Canada Mathare Education Trust (CMETrust) and Mathare Slums Community Association (MaSCA). Mathare is a community in Nairobi that covers 157 hectares with a population density of over 1,000 residents per hectare. It is the oldest and the second largest urban slum in Kenya. (https://mathare.org/) The SportWORKS Program Manager, Ryan Pelley, introduced Jenna and I to his connections Titus Kuria and Charles Onyango and we have begun creating a partnership through Cheza Healthy.
CMETrust (https://www.cmetrust.org/) is an organization that supports students from Mathare with secondary school scholarships to promote empowerment through education. Their program provides many leadership opportunities to their students and centers giving back to the Mathare community as the students work through their degrees. MaSCA (https://mathare.org/) does a lot of work focusing on bringing resources, volunteers, and opportunities to Mathare residents by connecting community groups and supporting projects in accessible spaces in Mathare. They uplift projects for the community, by the community. I encourage you to visit these organizations’ respective websites for more information and to learn and support all the important work they do for the Mathare community.
My first visit to Mathare was to a MaSCA community event that included a park clean up, kids activities and meal nutrition, soap-making program for young mothers, and fence building/painting. I went with my boyfriend Reed who was visiting me from Calgary and my Cheza Healthy coworker, Karanja. We had the pleasure of meeting community leaders and members who are all working on some amazing community building and development programs.
I invited Titus, Charles, and another MaSCA member, Shine, to our MPESA Foundation Academy event to further explore how we might partner together and they suggested we collaborate on a youth soccer tournament event they had been planning. February 28th was the first day of the tournament, Football Tournament for Young Generations: Advocating for Well-Being and Environment, and our Cheza Healthy team joined in the fun.
We began the day by joining one of MaSCA’s initiatives, a yoga group led by young mothers in the community. We had a wonderful time practicing Playing Healthy, Cheza Healthy, as an office team through yoga.
After yoga we jumped into the tournament, watching some talented youth play soccer, and then even had the opportunity to join in a round ourselves. We lost 0-1 but we all had so much fun. It was such great team bonding for the office team and I’m so glad MaSCA invited us to join in the fun.
We also had the opportunity to speak to tournament participants about Cheza Healthy and make connections to hopefully visit some schools in the area. Then we finished off the day by planting trees in their community park. Jenna and I also joined on March 1st for the second day of the event and had a great day learning about other projects in the area and helping prepare food for their nutrition program.
This has been a long post, so I thank you for reading it and for letting me share. I am really looking forward to keeping you updated. I’m really looking forward to our next Cheza Healthy events and to keep writing about what’s happening here! I would love to hear your comments or reactions about what we’ve been up to in Nairobi. I have made a specific Instagram for this experience (@lunasinclair1) and I would love to connect.
That’s all for now,
Luna
(P.S. I swear I have shirts that aren’t red, but have to represent 😎🇨🇦🇰🇪)
