Written by Canadian SportWORKS Officer, Stephany Gracini Poddis
Stephany’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.
Let’s catch you up! If we’re going in chronological order, I’m to start by telling you about the Safari Sevens. I must say, Kenya has made me a rugby fan. This year Nairobi hosted the 27th edition of the Safari Sevens Tournament where 12 teams competed in the men’s category and 8 teams competed in the women’s category (Kenyan teams won both, of course). On top of seeing local teams, we had visitors competing from France, Belgium, and even the UK. It was really cool to see Nairobi’s potential as an international sports event host city. The men’s final had me questioning my own integrity… On one hand my friend was the team manager for the invitational team and I wanted to support him but on the other, I felt a deep devotion to the Kenyan team. Ultimately, I told myself I chose to support the right side (the winning one, of course).
The Monday after the Safari Sevens we headed to Mathare, Nairobi’s second largest slum, to meet Tito from Canada-Mathare Education Trust (CMETrust). The organization provides community members with scholarships for secondary and post secondary education. On top of that, they offer support with school break programs, entrance applications, and training in various areas – you can read more about it here. Tito introduced us to Doreen and Emanuel (Manu), both of whom have benefitted from the work of CMETrust – Manu will have his grad photo up on the alumni wall next year (yay!). Doreen and Manu were our tour guides for the day but before we got started, we joined in on what I believe was the sweatiest yoga session of my life. Regular yoga becomes (very) hot yoga in a closed off second floor room under the scorching Kenyan sun. The session was hosted by the Mathare Slums Community Association (MaSCA) at the PaaMoja Initiative headquarters. Doreen is part of the PaaMoja team, which has become a community hub that empowers and equips Mathare residents with skills and resources to not only grow as individuals but to give back to their community as well. You can read all about their work here.
We went to Mathare to meet different schools and organizations that were interested in hosting a Cheza Healthy event. The day was long but we met some amazing people and learned so much about this community we had been welcomed into. Our first stop was at the Mathare Community Park. The location used to be a HUGE dumping site and has been completely transformed by the incredible team at MaSCA. After the cleanup, the team built a playground, green area, outdoor meeting spaces (where they often host events and feeding programs), and even a community garden. Completely revitalizing the area wasn’t enough though, MaSCA went above and beyond and provided residents with an alternative garbage disposal solution. Garbage bins were distributed to schools and a large dumpster (called The Pink House, how cute!?) was installed at the park. During our short time there we saw a number of kids walking all the way over from their schools to properly dispose of their full bins. MaSCA volunteers sort through what can be recycled, sold, or repurposed before emptying The Pink House weekly. MaSCA has many other amazing projects, I highly encourage you to check them out here.
After visiting the Mathare Community Park we were introduced to two schools, one orphanage, a care centre for children with disabilities, and a network of elderly Mathare residents. It is absolutely heartwarming to see the smile on the kids’ faces when they see us – they love a good ol’ pair of whities (as we’ve been called) although, most people have been assuming Martin is Indian (I can see it). The first two schools we visited were very excited about the possibility of hosting a Cheza Healthy event but with exams shutting public schools down (and a crazy busy November schedule that you’ll hear about on the next blog), we’ll have to put a pin on it until the next round of Canadian SportWORKS Officers take over. Angels Home was the third school we were welcomed into and because they don’t fall under the closure mandate, we’ve successfully scheduled an event with them; they are also an orphanage housing a number of children from Mathare. Our next stop was meeting Ann from the Mathare Older Persons Network, you will never meet a more kind (and talkative) lady in your life. Ann told us that her community used to have their very own volleyball team and they’ve been wanting to prioritize physical activity once again – a perfect opportunity for a Cheza Healthy event!
Our last stop is called the Mathare Care Centre, which I wanted to talk about last to dedicate a bit more of our time to it. The care centre is specifically for kids with disabilities, it allows parents (often single mothers) to drop off their kids in the morning and make a living during the day without having to worry about the wellbeing of their child. Nairobi is already a very inaccessible city for individuals with disabilities, from poor urban planning, unkept infrastructure, and expensive adaptive resources; now imagine how much more difficult it is to live with a disability in Nairobi’s second largest slum. The Mathare Care Centre offers their services at no cost. They provide all the resources from food, to diapers, and even physical therapy, for free. Even with all their efforts, the care centre is working with the most basic resources you can imagine – Only a few very outdated wheelchairs, limited food options, a few toys. The Mathare Care Centre found a special place in my heart and I have been thinking of how I could offer them additional support beyond Cheza Healthy, and that’s where you come in! If you’re interested in helping out I would absolutely love to chat with you – and there’s so many ways to support! Anything from financial help, clothing/food/toy donations, or even just sharing this message. I do have a special request for any organizations that may be out there reading – if you know of any way to get mobility aids to Mathare (new or used, anything helps), you would be changing many people’s lives. Please reach out to me at stephanygracini@gmail.com if you want to get involved.
The day wrapped up with the four of us hopping on a Matatu (public busses with the funkiest designs spray painted on them) and heading to a local food joint, where I got to try cow intestines for the first time! Honestly… It wasn’t the most pleasant experience.
The rest of the month was relatively quiet in regards to Cheza Healthy as majority of our events will take place in November but, I finally found out why our work group chat is named “Diani” (the name of a beach town in Kenya’s south coast). Apparently the office has been trying to plan a retreat for the last 3 years, which is when the group chat was created, but ended up being used for regular day-to-day work communications. Well my friends, it is with great joy that I tell you that after 3 long years, the trip made it out of the group chat. We began our 9(ish) hour road trip to Diani and arrived Friday night on October 17th. Road trips around the Canadian Rockies are cool and all, we love a good bear sighting, but nothing beats seeing roadside zebras and elephants in the Kenyan countryside. Little sleep was had but who needs sleep when you’re spending your days and nights soaking in the pool, cliff jumping, quadding around the Mambrui Dunes, snorkelling, and looking out for dolphins. I’m very proud to say I did not flip our quad but unfortunately, I can’t say the same for some of my coworkers. As for the cliff jumping, I only left with some bruises and a few new scars that will have a cool story behind them – If you visit the African Pool, beware, it’s more shallow than you think when you jump in.
One thing I feel is necessary to highlight from this trip is TicTac’s insane reach, someone in their marketing department needs a serious raise. Or maybe they need to use their resources to actually help these communities, I’ll let you form your own opinions on that. But I still can’t wrap my head around the number of villages we drove by, some housing less than a dozen families, sometimes living in mud huts, and what do you find right in the middle of it all? A brick building with a very modern, very vivid, and incredibly well-kept TicTac mural. How are they upkeeping them? Why are they even bothering to? This can’t possibly be that good of an investment?? So many questions I may never get the answers to…
Also, I can’t believe I haven’t told you guys yet – I challenged myself to read 10 books during my stay here. As of October, we were going strong at 5 out of 10 complete. Happy to say the number has grown since but I’m going to make you wait until the next blog to find out what we’re at. Average (out of 5) star rating is a 3.6 so we could use some improvement. My “to be read” list of sitting exactly 90 books but I shall happily welcome more recommendations. I was supposed to be reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir with a friend right now but someone keeps delaying it… Kyle please hurry up. Anyways let me know if y’all want to be friends on Goodreads 🤓
That is all for today folks, my most sincere apologies for making you wait a little longer for this second update. I hope the snow hasn’t been causing too much trouble back home – remember to get your winter tires on if you haven’t already (you’re welcome). And as a last reminder, if you’re interested in helping out the Mathare Care Centre, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Siku njema (have a good day)!
Steph