Milele means forever in Swahili, but what does that really mean to Milele? That is a question that our Trustees have been pondering over the last few months. Whilst we have a wide variety of ages across our 19 sponsored young people, we are now being faced with our first batch of graduates from the sponsorship programme.

As I am sure you will have seen, Emmanuel graduated from University of Nairobi in December 2018 and if you have not seen this then please check out our blog post all about his journey here. Charo has completed some operational courses in driving heavy machinary and is on the cusp of joining the world of work and Josephine is hot on his heels and will be completing her secretarial studies in the coming few months.

Obviously, sponsorship cannot continue forever and to do so would be counterintuitive. We are supporting these young people to equip themselves with the skills they need to build a sustainable life independently.  Having said that, part of the ethos of our charity is that all the children and young people have a sense of community and family together. Which leaves us with a conundrum that sponsorship must come to an end, but we also don’t want to oust our young people from the community and support they have access to.

We are also very aware that building financially independent young adults does not mean that they will never again need extra money or support. Sometimes we are all faced with unexpected costs or perhaps we want to do some further learning or training and this all comes with a price tag.

After many discussions and head scratching, the Trustees of Milele are pleased to introduce our “Graduate Program”. The program has two primary functions.

Firstly, it is committed to maintaining support for our young adult’s emotional wellbeing and family. This means that they will continue to be a part of the Milele family and invited to any group gatherings. Perhaps being a role model for the other children in our programme, as ultimately it is their hard work and dedication that has led to their success and not the sponsorship. Most importantly we wanted to ensure the continued access to the support offered by Rieder and the comfort that they will always be part of the Milele family.

Secondly, using a portion of the incredible amount raised at our ball, we have set up a “Graduate Grant Fund”. This Grant is open to all the graduates of the sponsorship programme. In order to receive funds from the Grant they will need to complete a short application form which sets out what the need the money for, such as training course or living costs for an unpaid internship, and also how much they will need from the fund. The application is a way for our graduates to practice their skills, learn about the process of applications as well as financial planning.

As always Rieder’s Kenyan knowledge and experience is invaluable to Milele and our decision making, with the Graduate Grant being no exception to this. Rieder will be integral in not only supporting with the graduate with their application but also the evaluation of the  application in terms of assessing the viability and sustainability of the proposal in Kenya.

As Trustees we recognise that our strengths lie in the administration of the fund’s resources and the importance of local knowledge in this process cannot be understated. For example, an application to purchase solar phone chargers with a view to operating a business generating income from charging people’s phone may not make any sense when we live in a country with ready access to electricity in every home. However, when looked at from a Kenyan perspective where access to electricity and phone charging facilities can be very limited, it actually presents as an astute business plan.

Although the Graduate Grant is a new mechanism for Milele, we have already been supporting our young people with the type of activities we envisage will be perfect for the grant. For example, with obtaining their driving licence or completing some further education courses.

We are absolutely thrilled to be sharing this new plan with you all and we hope you will agree that it fits with perfectly with our vision of forever.

Hi All, As we approach Milele's 10th anniversary we have been thinking about what Milele has achieved so far and how we define success.

The most obvious measure of success is academic achievement. When the children sponsored by Milele get top grades in a school or university that they would not have been able to attend without sponsorship then we know that Milele is making a big difference in that child's life.  We are endlessly proud of the children sponsored by Milele and they consistently surpass our initial expectations but Milele is not an academic scholarship. We do not consider aptitude for education when children are sponsored so it seems unrealistic that every child will be top of their class in every subject.

The Milele mission statement talks about 'facilitating choice' and perhaps this is more what we are really aiming for. Enabling children to have some level of control over their lives and the ability to make real choices about what they want to do. For so many children across the world their path in life can seem predetermined, reliving their parent's struggles and perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

Milele Mission Statement

For the children on the Milele programme, we hope that they are able to see beyond their immediate situation and imagine themselves having alternative lives. When they are able to do this we feel that they will be able to make an informed decision about their future and make active choices about what they want to do in life. It is perfectly possible that they make the decision to continue living in the family village and work in the family trade but the important point is that they had alternative options and they chose that life.

As Emmanuel Kai approaches the end of his university degree he is starting to think about what he wants to do in life. Having lived in Nairobi for the past few years he may have got a taste for big city life and choose to stay living in Nairobi, or perhaps he will want to go and explore other cities across the world or maybe he will want to move back towards his family and use the skills he has learnt at university on a project closer to home. The point is that whatever he chooses to do he has been able to make an active choice about his life.

I'm proud of all of our children and know that by being part of Milele they are all exposed to more options in life and that the choice of where they go will be in their hands!

Richard

Our second eldest sponsored child, Josephine, has recently finished her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE), successfully gaining a D- as her overall final grade. Well done Josephine! Read our earlier blog post on the KCPE and KCSE exams here. Josephine has undertaken a short computer literacy course in Mtwapa and has now moved on to study for a Certificate in Secretarial Studies at a college in Mombasa, living in a rented apartment in Mtwapa which she will be sharing with her cousin.

She is an exceptionally hardworking and organised young lady and we are sure she will be very well suited to this environment and her chosen career path.

Josephine looking very studious!