CMS 3700 class concludes project handover at Promise Giving Childrens Home
By Margaret Munyae, Edith Amuhaya, Peterson Mwangi, Charity Muraguri
The USIU-Africa Community Service Learning (CMS 3700) course is one of the signature courses that all undergraduate students must complete before graduation. The purpose of this course is to teach the students the meaning and importance of volunteerism, charity, community service and their place in community development. Through this course, students learn about the roles they can play as citizens to make society better. The course is two-pronged where full-time students have to complete, at minimum, 90 hours of community service over 10 weeks, while part-time students work complete 10 hours of hands on service to enable them then decide on and complete a community service project guided by the Sustainable Development goals (SDGs).
Through this course, USIU-Africa aligns itself with the resolution on ‘Volunteering for the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development’ which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2018. This resolution encourages the participation and integration of all people, including the youth, in volunteer activities. The CMS 3700 Community Service Learning course is also in line with the Kenya National Volunteerism Policy, which is anchored on the Constitution of Kenya as well as the Kenya Vision 2030.
This semester, the CMS 3700 Project and hands-on students embarked on their community service in May. As the semester drew to an end, the project students started handing over their projects through handover ceremonies. One such project was conducted by Saleef Nyambok (Senior, Journalism), Allan Lumumba (Senior, IBA), Susan Njangi (Sophomore, IBA, Benjamin Mwawuda (Sophomore, IR), Moses Saruni (Senior, APT), Daniel Akama Okello (Senior, APT). The students carried out their community service project at Promise Giving Children’s Home, which is located in Tena.
The facility is home to 100 children whose ages range from 2 months to 18 years. Until 2019, the facility made ends meet through the selling of onions, a venture that ended when their vehicle was totaled following a traffic accident. Since then they have relied on well-wishers for food, goods and cash donations to keep the facility and activities going. Following discussions with the facility director, Mr. George Onyango, the 6 students raised Ksh. 120,020 to enable them purchase an industrial Juki Straight Sewing machine as well as an Industrial Siruba Overlock Machine. Additionally, the students purchased several yards of material, sewing threads, needles, scissors, among other items. These items will enable the facility sew uniforms for their school going children. To make the project sustainable, the facility expressed its intention to sew and sell school uniforms to the neighboring schools. By doing so, the organization will become self-reliant and avoid relying entirely on donations.
Promise Giving Children’s home also hosted 5 hands-on students namely, Ronald Rotich, Fenton Mwangi, Jemimma Wambui, Mayardit Awut, and Anok Ayang. Having witnessed the challenges the organization was facing, the students decided to join hands with the project students and separately raised additional funds which were used to purchase a second industrial Juki Straight Sewing machine. In total, the USIU-Africa students purchased three industrial sewing machines for the organization. With this purchase, the students have helped Promise Giving Children’s Home realize their dream of becoming self-reliant and indeed continuing to care for vulnerable children in their community.
