On May 4th of May, CMETrust was honored to launch the Wezesha Kike! (Empower Her!) program supported by Global Affairs Canada.  The project is a community approach to gender equitable education that will address gender barriers to education over the next five years by increasing access to academic opportunities, basic life skills training, and education support for marginalized young women in Kenya.

The Honorable Christopher Thornley, Canadian High Commissioner to Kenya, gave the keynote address in Utalii hotel in Nairobi to more than 100 guests including CMETrust staff, secondary school scholars, post secondary school scholars, parents, a gender expert. and external partner organizations within Mathare and beyond.

CMETrust Program Manager Esther Njenga, was the MC for a day which also included entertainment from two of our post-secondary scholars, Esther Adhiambo and Emmanuel Agwenyi  remarks from Titus Kuria, Co-founder and Executive Director of CMETrust, and CMETrust Board President Heather Arnold,.

Those in attendance heard about the challenges girls and women in Mathare face, and some CMETrust positive impact stories. especially related to girl scholars and Wezesha Kike!. They also had the chance to congratulate our Wezesha Kike! Gender Equality and Leadership 2022 Award winners;  Jeremy Okudo and Damaris Muthini. 

This past summer, Jesse Jacktone had the opportunity to participate in a three month volunteer assignment with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. Jesse shared some of his thoughts on the experience and we'd like to share them with you: 

As I finish up my assignment for the three months as a volunteer at ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency) Kenya, specifically on Makueni Drought Response project in Kibwezi East Sub-County, I want to thank CMETrust for linking me up with an opportunity that enabled me to learn, work, collaborate and interact with colleagues at ADRA Kenya. 

The opportunity has contributed greatly to both my personal and professional development. For instance, writing reports, captions, and stories were enjoyable things to do. Those moments reminded me of the good old days at CMETrust school break programs where we learnt basic photography and caption-writing skills -- the skills really came in handy.

I was able to assist the project team to oversee and coordinate field activities, facilitate the voucher commodity distributions, create better understanding on the intervention’s objectives and implementing activities among all stakeholders. The other enjoyable thing that I really loved was to seat at the comfort of my office while I was updating the beneficiaries’ database, M&E reports and doing necessary follow-ups related to the project. All these terms of reference made me learn and deliver my assignments accordingly. 

Am proud to say that our determination as a team led to project extension by two months with new beneficiaries identified. However, I regrettably had to turn down the two months additional contract due to other pre-planned commitments. However, I remain in the ADRA Kenya network and continue to receive project updates and share similar opportunities with some of interested scholars.

Thank you again CMETrust for creating the opportunity and for enabling me to serve humanity. I look forward to working with ADRA in future if another opportunity presents itself.

CMETrust is looking for a Gender Equality Consultant to enhance the capacity of CMETrust’s local Kenyan team.

See the full Expression of Interest here. 

As a lead up to our annual Walk-a-thon, CMETrust is hosting a book drive!

For more information email [email protected]. 

Calling all CMETrust Post-Secondary Alumni!

CMETrust, in partnership with HALI Access Network is offering this exciting scholarships opportunity. 

Read the poster below for all the details - Applications are due September 9th, 2022!

One of our talented scholars was selected for an internship with the United Nation Environmental Programme (Governance Affairs Office).

In this post Daniel shares an update on his experience in the program. Big congratulations Daniel!

UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMME INTERNSHIP REPORT – DANIEL SHIRAKU

It is a pleasure to take this opportunity and share with you my six months’ experience as an intern at the United Nation Environmental Programme (Governance Affairs Office). After a successful application for the internship with the help of the CMETrust Kenya personnel, I began my internship in October 2021, the end date being March 2022. My role in the internship was administrative-related, but also primarily comprised of ICT work. Before the internship, I had graduated with a diploma in Graphic Design and Web Development from Maji Mazuri School of ICT.

For the first four months, I did my internship virtually from home since it was still the peak of the Covid- 19 pandemic, and every UN staff worked remotely. After four months of remote work, the UN offices were reopened because of the upcoming UNEA 5.2 and UNEP@50. The return-to-office model was adopted to speed up the planning process for these two events whose preparations had begun at the start of my internship.

During these two major events, I was stationed at the registration and logistic desk, which enabled me to get to meet different people from all over the world including ambassadors, UNEP member states, UN staff, and my fellow interns. Through my interactions with the different categories of people, I gained a lot of relevant insights relating to my career as I networked with different people. I also learned how to solve different issues at the events in my designation as I helped out with logistics-related tasks, and this was very thrilling and exciting.

Having worked in two distinctive working models during my internship (remote and on-site), I learned various challenges that come with each model. While working from home, I experienced challenges like power interruptions and internet issues, which made me often have to go to the CMETrust office for reliable internet and electricity. The key challenges that I faced while working from the UN complex were financial and logistical issues such as transportation, and at times I had to reach out for help to family members, friends, and CMETrust Kenya personnel.

Despite these challenges, my internship was a success and I gained a lot of experience and created a wide network from my interactions with UN staff as well as other interns from all over the world. I was also very happy to be part of the organizing team which made UNEA 5.2 and UNEP@50 successful.
After completion of my internship in March, I successfully secured an online UN volunteer position related to Graphic design work for three months with the UNDP-Global Fund for Coral Reefs, and that is my current designation. I am grateful to the CMETrust Kenya personnel for their support and always believing in me. Thank you!

The Deadline for applications is April 1, 2022 

Application forms are available at the CMETrust Mathare office. 

On Sunday, December 5th, CMETrust hosted a Canada-Kenyan Coffee Chat to share some updates with donors and supporters. The event was part of our annual Holiday Campaign to fundraise for education in Mathare. This year our goal is to raise $15K for 15 scholarships.

The recording is now available and you can check it out here!