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Special needs children benefit from music therapy.

Research documents that many children with special needs exhibit a high level of preference for music and show processing capabilities for musical stimuli that support deficits in related non-music areas. In this way, music can be used as a motivator and alternate learning avenue for select skills that may be more difficult for an individual to achieve using typical non-music instructional approaches.

It is estimated that 3000 people die every year in road accidents in Kenya with 8 people dying daily. These statistics together with daily experiences on our Kenyan roads have prompted us to play our part and enlist the assistance of stakeholders to equip our children with road safety information.

The Associated Automobiles of Kenya in conjunction with FIA Foundation and the Ministries of Education and Roads has been carrying out training programmes for school children at the Children’s Traffic Parks located in Nairobi, Nyeri, Kisii, Kisumu and Kakamega.

Students from Headstart school were taken to the Traffic park for a day of training on traffic rules and road safety. This training goes along way in ensuring that the children are aware and alert while crossing the road, in a bus or a busy street.

We are very grateful to AA for this much needed training!

It is in the toughest of times that ideals are formed or lost. There is a limit to which one can be pushed and for most young people living in slum areas that limit was long crossed.  It is in those defining moments that most of them get lost in the life of crime or get swallowed in the cycle of poverty.  Against all odds, Maji Mazuri youth group members have been striving to come out of the valley and make something of their lives.

Maji Mazuri Children’s Centre recently opened a Craft shop. This is a small, neatly laid wooden structure near the main gate, where the children’s work is on display. Two of the older students run the shop with assistance from teacher Carol. In a world where we are constantly reminded of what we cannot do, I share with you today a story about one person who has worked very hard to remind the Children of Maji Mazuri Centre of what they can do.

Teacher Caroline Oguta works at the Maji Mazuri Children’s Centre with a group of children who are either mentally or physically handicapped. Over the years she has worked tirelessly, with a lot of patience to teach these children some skills in beadwork, embroidery, knitting and sewing. She constantly reminds them that they are not disabled, they just have different abilities. Children who came to the centre having no skills at all are now making a difference in their lives.

43. That is the number of youth from Mathare valley  who showed up for the computer training intake at the Maji Mazuri Training Center in Mathare this April. Only 30 positions were available.  That is the number that the training centre is equipped to train per intake. The Maji Mazuri Training centre was started in September 2009 when Maji Mazuri partnered with an organization that has been offering computer training to disadvantaged youth for years.

I met John in 2008, a short while after he was brought to the Maji Mazuri Children’s Centre in Kasarani. He had been born in 1999 without any complications but things started going wrong at the age of 8 months, where his body started folding up. His parents were not in a position to seek the right medical advice until he was 2 years old, and by then his legs had folded up into a w-shape, he couldn’t talk or carry out any activity and his hands had lost coordination.  The family could only afford therapy for one year, due to financial constraints.

While appreciating the growth in each of the projects since then, of key note is Maji Mazuri Children’s Centre, Kasarani. We have watched as the children have transited from one level to the other, with enduring encouragement from the staff ...one example is a young man who came to the centre when under deep trauma through horrible experiences on the streets of Nairobi, he just couldn’t talk, but with encouragement and acceptance from the staff and children, he now smiles, talks, and makes beaded necklaces and woven mats for sale at the centre’s craft stand. Maji Mazuri is making a huge huge difference!.

On 5^th January 2006 I walked into the Maji Mazuri Head office as a volunteer after responding to an ad in one of the local dailies... four years later, I can confidently say it was one of the best decisions I ever made... I have watched Maji Mazuri grow under the tireless effort of our Director, Dr. Kironyo and a very dynamic team. There has been times when things have been difficult, but that has also built us and helped us grow, in those times we combine our little strengths and move as a team guided by the combined strength of a chain linked by hope and a reminder that the children under our care are family. You don’t ever see things the same way... I am now working as an Administrative Assistant in the same office, and also working with the youth in a film project, and as a re-evaluation counselor in the schools.

That was the turning point for me in Maji Mazuri. It was on a Saturday afternoon in 2006, I was with the teen’s group children in Mathare Valley and they offered to teach me a game named fire on the mountain. We had had several sessions together before that but this was the first time they reached out to me and I felt I belonged to the group more. The game involved running around in a circle and responding to the leader, and when he/she shouted a certain number e.g. 8 we were to form a group of that number or be kicked out of the game. I remember being tugged in a million directions and laughing and bonding... that was my moment, Maji Mazuri became a second home for me... I get to be part of this huge loving family.

Over the next 45 years, with all growth occurring in less developed regions of the world,  the global population is predicted to  rise from the present 6.5 Billion, hitting 9.1 billion by 2050, according to Official UN Estimates.

NEW YORK, 24 February -- World population is expected to increase by 2.6 billion over the next 45 years, from 6.5 billion today to 9.1 billion in 2050. Almost all growth will take place in the less developed regions, where today’s 5.3 billion population is expected to swell to 7.8 billion in 2050. By contrast, the population of the more developed regions will remain mostly unchanged, at 1.2 billion.

These figures are from the 2004 Revision of the official United Nations population estimates and projections, released today by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The report provides crucial demographic information and population figures for the coming assessment of progress made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Other key findings of the 2004 Revision, which is based on the most recent national censuses, numerous specialized population surveys, and comprehensive review of past worldwide population trends and future prospects, include:

-- By July 2005, the world will have 6.5 billion inhabitants, 380 million more than in 2000 or a gain of 76 million annually. Despite the lower fertility levels projected, by 2050 the world population is expected to reach 9.1 billion according to the medium variant and would still be adding 34 million persons annually by mid-century.