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A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

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The Undugu Society of Kenya’s Digital Storytelling Project

Help Raise the Voices of Kenya's Disadvantaged Children and Youth

The students involved in the Undugu Society of Kenya’s Digital Storytelling Project are learning how much a photograph and piece of writing can achieve.  They have been participating in a photography and blogging project to raise awareness about issues affecting their lives. This project is part of USK’s lobbying and advocacy work, which aims to change policy, but also change the negative stereotypes of these rehabilitated street children and poor urban youth, stereotypes that often hold them back.

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Your donation will fund the Digital Storytelling Project’s official launch in mid-August, which is to serve as an exhibition for the students’ work and as Your donation will fund the Digital Storytelling Project’s official launch in an arena for discussion of issues they have raised with key stakeholders. Your donation will also help ensure the continuation of the project by funding additional cameras, memory cards, flash drives, travel expenses for the students and more.

• Read USK's press release
• Learn more from about the Digital Storytelling Project

More About the Students

The students come from the three USK programs that focus on children and youth. About half the students come from USK Street Associations, which are groups of children and youth living and/or working on the streets. The other students come from the Undugu Basic Education Program, which provides free education to children who, for a variety of reasons, cannot attend the government run schools, as well as the Informal Skills Training Program, which trains poor youth in vocational skills so that they can support themselves.

All of the youth come from very poor backgrounds and are thus marginalized in the sense that they don’t have the same resources to express themselves as others in society. This project is equipping them with the knowledge to speak up about issues they care about and want to see the government address. Some of the issues they have raised include police harassment, environmental degradation, poverty and drug use.

Learn more about the students.

Visit the students’ blogs and Flickr pages to discover the project for yourself!

View the Photo Pool

• Amina is 19 years old and is a student at USK’s non-formal school in Pumwani.

• Dominic is 20 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association.

• Eliud is 18 years old and is involved with USK’s informal skills training program. He is learning mechanics.

• Elvis is 16 years old and is involved with USK’s informal skills training program. He is learning spray painting.

• Grivinson is 15 years old and is a student at USK’s non-formal school in Pumwani.

• Harrison is 18 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association.

• John is 18 years old and is a student at USK’s non-formal school in Pumwani.

• Joseph is 18 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association.

• Martin is 21 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association.

• Mavish is 15 years old and is involved with USK’s informal skills training program. She is learning hairdressing.

• Nancy is 14 years old and is a student at USK’s non-formal school in Pumwani.

• Patrick is 22 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association.

• Peter is 20 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association and is involved with USK’s informal skills training program. He is learning hairdressing.

• Piliphan is 14 years old and is a student at USK’s non-formal school in Pumwani.

• Raphael is 18 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association and is involved with USK’s informal skills training program. He is learning mechanics.

• Rispar is 16 years old and is involved with USK’s informal skills training program. She is learning dressmaking.

• Robinson is 20 years old and is a member of a USK Street Association.

Read Peace Fellow Kristina Rosinsky's blog about her work with USK and the Digital Storytelling Project.

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