“Remand Home” is a term that I have learned in Kenya. Back home I have quickly learned to explain this term first before talking about it. Here we go.
The Remand Home of the city of Kisumu serves as a correctional institution or temporary home that also offers prevention support to children and youths. It is one of the major partner institutions Better Me is working with. There are regular times to show up to provide classes or workshops. 3 times a week.
Some of them staying there have been rescued from the street in order to prevent any wrongdoings or to avoid any kind of trouble. Another group had to grew up under unstable or unworthy circumstances and need protection and shelter. Yet another group of children or youths may have conflicted with the law; they might have been sentenced or there are ongoing investigations against them. Some of them must serve already. I had the opportunity to talk to some of them who were willing to share their story. Those won’t be shared here. For sure they all deserve a better life. These are all nice young people growing up under difficult circumstances. I feel so sorry for them.
However, the children’s Remand Home is their place for a while. They have to stay there, may receive visitors but are not allowed to leave the compound unless an official appointment takes place. Boys and girls stay in separated dormitories. There’s a large dining room to have the meals together. And there are two classrooms for two groups, older and younger children. For the sake of the children’s privacy, faces on pictures will be blurred where needed.
My first visit was on my second in Kenya while getting familiar with things and circumstances, in a country that I haven’t visited before, on a continent wehre I never was before. I must say that I was shocked in the first place. I can’t say what I have expected, perhaps something less equipped, a place with lower possibilities, some improvising. But, when we entered one of the rooms used as a classroom I saw however a chair, a shelf and a box with older books books and in another room a couple of benches and a table. Somehow it was way below my imagination although I wasn’t sure what I could expect. It took me 2-3 sessions to get familiar with it, to see what’s in place, what materials and tools we can use and what we can do in general. I had the freedom to develop ideas how to run classes and how to motivate the children to focus on the class 2 times a week for 2 hours. And how to encounter in general. To make one thing clear: this is not to blame anyone or anything. I only describe things that I have seen and situations I found myself within.
This day was the only day where we held the session in that small room. Later we moved to a bigger room where we could find chairs, benches and tables. Anyway, on this day I had to take my time to process everything I saw. I felt sad for the circumstances those youths have to deal with each day. At the same time it was my first contact with local people apart of the my team.
I went to this place along with Ruth, one of the social workers with Better Me. She introduced me, wanted me to observe and engaged me to take pictures for documentation. Later it turned out that we have to report our activities for several reasons. Those reports can be found here.
In general we offer an “alternative” English class for separated groups, the younger and older ones. On this day I stayed with the younger ones and we went through the alphabet to refresh skills. Already at this point I could see the different education levels and individual backgrounds. Later it turned out that many of them are very smart and obviously did have access to education but for some reason they are now here at the Remand Home. It has appeared to me that some of the children were not able to stick with the class and/or to follow. Or some did not care at all. Not sure about it, but I felt concerned.
On this day it didn’t take much time until two of the children engaged me to support them to write down the alphabet letter by letter. They quickly broke the ice. One of them apparently does not speak. They kinda challenged me by drawing attention one after another once they have managed a task. They did this like children do, without any concerns, even if you meet them for the first time and they don’t know your name. Actually, I liked the way how they asked me to review any tiny result they came up with as we went over to use self drawn pictures in order to name it and to write it down latter by latter. This already gave me some inspiration and ideas for future sessions.
At times they needed some time to write down the correct latter but I gave them support as good as I could, however the trick was to not only tell them the solution but to train them to it find out themselves. The result was a lot papers with smaller pictures and the correctly written word below.
The definite highlight on that day was that one of the boys, Naphtali, was able to write down his name. I had some mixed feelings about it as he already should be able to do so by his age, but eventually he managed which was a happy moment for all of us. Overall, it was a very emotional day for me.
For me the Remand Home is sort of a “default location” where I went to regularly. Things have developed well, I could see an impact of our work. Apart of this I could witness some children being allowed to return to their families while some others have just arrived at the Remand Home.
What we do is to help them to learn the alphabet, to improve their language skills in various ways and to train their ability to focus and to stick with the class. Where needed and possible we also helped to gain and keep up good manners. In the beginning some children have left the room and returned. Or some went to sleep in a corner or simply did anything else than paying attention to the class. In the beginning it was confusing to me. Since I had the freedom to do so, I have helped to establish a slightly different type of teaching, by using some sweets as a reward for a good behaviour and/or performance. In addition, I brought some learning material (books) that I have bought in Kenya. Have missed some useful materials until then at the Remand Home. Another kind of donation if you want so. Side note: this book is really helpful, that’s why I bought it for myself too as it helps to improve my Swahili.
What we did at the Remand Home was more or less the same of what we did in Korando during the extra English classes during the time of the school break. In fact, the idea was born in Korando. Those who behave well and appropriately, who stick with the class and who perform well overall, will receive a sweet as a reward afterwards. This includes results of some mini exams based on topics discussed during an earlier session. Depending on the exam result students received a few sweets. As a result, we had much more improvement due to much more interest and attention by the children (even if bought). A boy who spoke for the group later said that “god may bless me with many children” for this. This is a cultural thing in Kenya. However, we also could conclude that the children quickly noted how it works and as a result there was less disturbance and interference. On the contrary, we did have much more attention and structure throughout the two-hour classes. In fact, children could not wait to start and were welcoming us quite excited.
We kept visiting them two times a week for English classes and had to bring all the materials such as pens for the board, pencils and paper. Eventually, for each week they got a new paper for the mini exam and noted new knowledge on its backside. For security reasons they could not keep pencils. At this point I have realised once more a detail of their circumstances. Particularly it were the English classes that the children have enjoyed so much, not at last thanks to the sweet rewards. And they were quite open to work together on new vocabulary. Once we arrived at the Remand Home, children quickly gathered to welcome us and went to prepare the room for the class. At times we open the sessions with some simple exercises and close the session with African beats where children happily dance to. It is so obvious that they’re happy we pay a visit to them. A bit of colour in their grey life. And some fun too. We help to enable them for a better future. Some of them give thanks for it personally, give us a hug for “hello” and “good bye”. A simple appreciation. So nice.
At the beginning of each session we ran a review of the previous exam and let each of them know, what went wrong during the exam. They may keep it for their reference. Then we do a new exam covering the vocabulary we went through last time. After that we started to learn new vocabulary (15-20 per session to not overwhelm any of them). Each day before I had prepared the exams and the new vocabulary taken from the book. It has offered new vocabulary in Swahili and they had to name it in English and write it down.
For all this we have to consider different backgrounds and abilities of the children. When learning new vocabulary, a student had to name the English term based on a picture or Swahili translation, had to spell it and to write it down on the whiteboard. After that the group had to spell it together. Regardless of individual skills, each of them did have a chance for the sake of fair play since a good performance might result in sweet rewards. And the children happily attended. As an exception, if the children could not await the exam results, we marked the exams and provided the results right away.
This brings us to life skills. Once in a week for “life skill coaching”. Life skills means to share life experience, talk about the children’s future/dreams, manners, hobbies etc. or drawing as a kind of mental detox. The idea is to fill some gaps that their parents have left. And what can I say? It was a success. For instance to draw in order to express feelings and emotions.
Life skills also means some distraction. Playing a game, even if improvised. Or football. For my very last day until at the Remand Home, at this time, children have requested to play football. So we did. Just had to bring a ball. One team wore shirts, the other team has removed their shirt. To distinguish. I barely play football but I wasn’t that bad. Caused a goal and scored twice. The final result didn’t matter as we all enjoyed this day, in particular these two hours.
Also worth to know:
- During one session we handled “value and faith” related vocabulary where we also had the opportunity to discuss what the values (e.g. behaviour, respect, excuses, gratitude, lies) actually mean; this was a great side effect.
- Bracelets made of beads on strings are very famous in Kenya (and other African countries). Children at the Remand Home may ask you for your name in order to create a bracelet with your name along with the Kenyan flag. These bracelets will be applied once and are supposed to remain on your wrist for a while. That way they can earn some money, as long as they find someone donating them beads and strings. Did so for a while on a local Maasai market. Eventually I got even a couple of them on my ankle as I took the opportunity to request “personalised” bracelets applied on my ankle. These were well done by Ashley, a very different and special kind of tattoo from my point of view. 😁🤓
- Ashley is at the age of 17 at this time. I had a good relationship with her along with George, whose age I don’t know. He’s 15-17 I believe. Both of them are very smart, eager and have helped me organising the sessions on premise in many ways. At times they had to call for order. And they helped the other children if any support was needed.
- There’s a lack of material, most children do not have a pen (for security reasons) and exercise book for their notes; during the class we provide pens (and collect them back). They use the backside of the exam paper for new vocabulary.
- Some students are really smart and/or eager to learn, which reflects as seen by the exam results above.
- If you want to learn more about it, kindly find a some activity reports here (not only but also about the Remand Home).
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