Chui & Simba child clubs
How child clubs initiated a project in school to sustain iMlango and care for its girls.
Mariakani town straddles the Mombasa – Nairobi Highway on a flat coastal plan. It is a fast growing town and has a fairly cosmopolitan outlook due to its position as a resting point for travellers on the busy highway. It is a fast growing hospitality centre with rapidly expanding settlements.
This is the home of Mariakani primary school. The school has established two iMlango child clubs; Chui club for boys, and Simba club for girls. Each club has its leaders elected by the group members and are separately run but with similar objectives, to extend knowledge and skills using the iMlango portal.
Simba iMlango girls only club
The iMlango child club leaders are also tasked with the role of ensuring access of members to the iMlango portal during breaks, weekends and other suitable periods. Online magazines, poems and stories are also key resource items for the pupils.
As competency grows, the Club reports that students are developing a culture of independence in seeking knowledge and subsequent application in their daily lives. The Clubs enable free time to be constructively utilized and the enthusiasm for knowledge is growing. Members of the clubs are tasked as role models for “source of knowledge”.
One of the topics the clubs learned from life skills was “What is a good learning environment?” The club members narrated how boys now care for the girls, how they want to keep the environment clean and ensure the child club doesn’t stop running. They have initiated a project to plant trees which will grow big and help to make their school more beautiful; and by planting trees they hope to stop environmental degradation in the school. They plan to sell the trees to the local nurseries which are a vital source of plants and already have a market in the school and surrounding areas. This is a very lucrative business in Mariakani, Mombasa and its environs.
Chui boys only child club
The school also has sweet potato gardens which have been established to provide know how to the learners and serve as sources of revenue. The clubs run these gardens separately in a spirit of competition. The revenue generated will help the school sustain the iMlango project by paying the electricity bill and helping the girls and boys in both Chui and Simba child clubs to remain in school. When there is no power in school the club members cannot access the computer lab so they take such opportunities to plant, check their nursery bed and to develop other skills e.g. art and drawing; which has been included as an assignment. Pupils have found this a great form of self-expression by sketching cartoons, pictures of animals, people and scenes. These clubs are now introducing a new approach to learning where the children seek out knowledge and are sources of knowledge for their peers.