United African Evangelical Ministry

As a nonprofit community organization that seek to solve the issue of quality education for children, and young people in the refugee camps and local communities, we're passionate about creating a environment where these children and young people will acquire quality education and skills they need to develop them personally and professionally so as to sustainably live a happy and meaningful life. 

Our Vision is to see a world in which communities are holistically transformed in the way that bring hope.

Our Mission is to reach the unreachable communities around Turkana west County in Kenya, provide quality education to their children and young people, and  holistically transform them through empowering the new generation with entrepreneurship skills, creative art and permaculture, for their sustainable future life.

Our Core values

Our core values are reflected in the sense of humor to the people we serve. These are our core values;

1. Compassion

2. Collaboration

3. inclusiveness

4. Equality

Our organization is build on the foundation of team working, partnership and collaboration that enable every one in the organization to work in harmony, peacefully and respect . This also enable our team lead to work effectively.

The team lead is responsible in making sure that the organization projects are running well in accordance to our vision and mission, Planning of activities and making sure every planed work and goals are met in due time without delay of work, Raising of funds, Compiling the full report and submit to the donors and other relevant partners and stakeholders, Approving project budgets and doing Monitoring and Evaluation.

Being able to work without ceasing nor with a negative purpose is our priority in our working environment cycle. We are exposed to working under the pressure of our passion, values, and compassion toward children and young people in refugee camps and local communities. Our team is equipped with skills and knowledge that enables us to work with multiple stakeholders and projects that are essential in bringing forth community development. 

Due to the well equipped team we have, given that our priority activities are not obstacle nor can they hinder us toward implementing the LEAP Project., the team is able to work effectively in supporting the LEAP Project. We have a working plan that assist us to accomplish our work as needed. 

Our experience and knowledge of the area and beneficiaries we serve is also a vital aspect of our position in implementing the LEAP Project.

We are working to address the issue of quality education for children and youth in refugee camps and local communities.

Over recent decades, it has become increasingly clear that many children all across the world are not efficiently developing their reading skills. Even though the vast majority of children are attending school, many of them are not acquiring the fundamentals. In addition, the World Bank estimates that 260 million children worldwide are not even enrolled in school. The beginning of a learning crisis that undercuts governments' efforts to build human capital and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to a report published in 2016 by UNHCR, the UN agency for refugees, more than half (3.7 million) of the six million school-age children under its purview do not have access to an education. 1.95 million refugee teenagers and 1.75 million refugee children respectively do not attend secondary school. Five times more refugees are likely to not be in school than the typical person worldwide.

“This represents a crisis for millions of refugee children,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “Refugee education is sorely neglected, when it is one of the few opportunities we have to transform and build the next generation so they can change the fortunes of the tens of millions of forcibly displaced people globally.”

Over half of Kenya's refugees are school-age children (4-18 years). In the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps, as well as the Kalobeyei settlement, the majority of refugee and asylum-seeking students attend pre-primary, primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions. Despite the fact that there are many schools, many children do not have access to quality education that will enable them to be literally and creatively skilled. As a result of overcrowding in classrooms and inexperienced teachers, many children drop out and many 12 years kids get pressured in joining gangs groups and drug abuse resulting insecurity in the camp, and a generation of kids who are psychologically unwell. As a result, our organization developed a solution called "Child-Relief," which is a program that focuses on children aged 5 to 12 who participate in this four-month program. Through the "Online Kids Library" we developed, with the help of physical facilitators and trainers, these kids are able to learn reading and writing skills, creative art, and digital skills (online website and app creation). 

The importance of opening a free learning space for literacy, creative art, and digital skills was critical to our organization as it is the sole solution that we could offer to these refugees and most marginalized children from the local communities for them to be able to get quality education that will enable them to be literally and creatively skilled.

Our solution has always been to help, empower, and transform these children into social and technological entrepreneurs. Because learning variability is a concern that need to be address, we focus on ensuring that all children (those with and without learning difficulties) can acquire and comprehend the relevant given skill. We accomplish this by utilizing the VARK (Visual, Aural/Audio, Read/Write, Kinesthetic) learning model and bringing it to life through the use of our "Online Kids Library," which contains video, audio, graphics, and written content.

We are able to deliver these contents in a professional, learner-centered approach with the assistance of our trained and equipped facilitators, using various learning materials and learning techniques such as Jigzaw and Action Learning. Our classes have few students, which allows us to use all necessary means to ensure that no one is left behind, while also addressing the issue of inability to access quality education in the Kakuma refugee camp schools, which is a result of overcrowded classrooms, unskilled teachers, and insufficient learning materials.

In 2018, we launched a community-focused ministry with the goal of reaching the unreached refugees and members of local communities by changing and transforming community livelihoods through holistic sustainable empowerment programs that address community challenges, particularly for schoolchildren, young refugees, and marginalized youths from local communities, and women by providing them with equitable and quality education, permaculture skills, and ICT skills.  

In order to make the changes we need to see, come up with lasting solution, and achieve the fourth sustainable development goal, SDG-4 (Quality Education), we had first to take the step of doing basic research to gain a thorough understanding of the issue that affects hundreds of children in the society. The basic research we did helped us first pinpoint the issue affecting schoolchildren in the Kukuma Refugee Camp, as well as its underlying causes, symptoms, and effects. It also helped us understand potential new problems that might develop if the issue is not resolved. 

In order to understand the effectiveness of our solution, we had to undertake foundational research for two weeks before moving on to formative research for one month due to the limited resources available to our organization. In the first round of research, which was limited to reading articles on the Kakuma refugee camp, we looked at other studies conducted by other organizations that looked at how tech-based solutions could improve kids' learning. The UNHCR, as well as national and local research organizations, provided these articles. We were only able to obtain a small amount of data that could assist us comprehend the potential effects that our solution would have on the community since we needed clear, vivid, and valid data. 

During the second research which was formative research, based on usability and feasibility, we were able to collect data that effectively demonstrated our solution. Questions like, "can evidence based education improve the quality of education in the Kakuma refugee camp"?, "How could learning variability work to improve the learning process for multinational students in the camp"?, "How could technology based learning help 5-12 years age children learn better"? These and many more questions were a way toward understanding how our solution is effective. 

We conducted a community based survey, asking parents, other members of the community, community leaders, school teachers, and community-based organizations. We discovered the evidence that supported our assumption and made it so creative by posing appropriate and accurate questions. Based on the research we conducted, the effectiveness of our solution has become apparent. According to this survey, some of the key factors that lead to school dropout and inequality education includes family poverty, an inability to pay for school uniforms and supplies, living without parents or legal guardians, and family duties, lack of learning resources, unskilled teachers, and class overcrowding; this prompted us to develop a long-term solution that would address these children's pertinent educational needs.

Normally, we would not realize that the possibilities of societal transformation and development, particularly for children, is in continuing with solutions and considerably raising the levels of solutions in extremely high conditions. The research has revealed that, the necessity of our solution is so due in a manner that it has the potential to bring the impact and the effect that we long for as an organisation. The significance of our answer stems from the fact that the challenge itself is evident and has affected many children, their parents, and society in general; also, the repercussions of the problem itself are quite serious if it is not addressed. Because it is critical for us to continue to provide these children with a high-quality and innovative education, as well as to provide a better and more meaningful life for them in the future, this research strengthens our resolve and motivates us to do better.

Since our solution involves children who are generally of a young age and again with ambitious educational needs, as an organization we have every reason to need various things that can generally be an additional way to enable these children to get a good and highly beneficial education, and that can make our solution be more effective and strengthen the evidence base of our solution. 

Among the things we need is to have a strong team that is generally based on detailed and additional studies capable of revealing the reality of how our solution could expand and have better and positive results for children and society in general. this team could be strong and effective enough through this program and not any other at this moment as it carries the capability of bringing about the necessary researched based ultimate solution.

As it is, joining this program is a successful step for us because it could give us leadership, and a great ability to know, and understand, additional steps to develop our solution. For example, we are in a refugee camp where many of our children have additional needs in educational matters, and so we need to have additional studied based strategies to ensure that our solution has brought better results now and ever.

Through this program, we can get to toward developing those strategies which will definitely be a big step to strengthen our team, and our solution in general. It is through this program that we will be able to have a movement that will truly make these children able to benefit from our solutions based on the desired outcome.

There are fundamental questions that as an organisation we ought to give out answers but could not be in the position to do so as the result of insufficient resources; we hope through this program, this questions would be answered. The following are the questions we really need to get their answers. 

1. Can evidence based education improve the quality of education in the Kakuma refugee camp? 

2. How could learning variability work to improve the learning process for multinational students in the camp?

3. How could technology based learning help 5-12 years age children learn better? 

Normally, the results of the research could bring changes that are a great need for our organization, as is the need for the children who receive our education to have a better education through a better system. In that, or after the research is done, in following the guidelines and strategies that the could be provided by the fellow, which will be able to give according to the results of the research; every step that is better, stronger and more effective in the improvement and development of our solution must be followed without hesitation. It is our need that, the outcome we want is to be altogether in accordance with the results of the research, which it is to have answers to the questions above, that those answers will produce the right strategies, and the knowledge that should lead us toward achieving our goal of having children with good education in the refugee camp of Kakuma.

In the course of this program, there are certain outcomes that we unquestionably hope to achieve, including those that will enhance the education of children in the Kakuma Refugee Camp using a variety of services, including the effective use of technology to enhance children's education, and the preparation of alternate strategies that will enable these kids to attend school and learn in due course, as well as with the improvement of the environment. The school system should improve as a result of these findings in the nearby villages as well as the refugee camp.

It is clear that the results of this program will give us a great picture and light on what needs to be done to improve the solution and make it more effective and fruitful.

According to the results, we plan to set plans and strategies that will ensure that these children get quality education and that has a standard; improving our technological strategies, and improving the relationship between our team, facilitators, and our learners in order to have an effective established sufficient relationships between learners and the teachers.

We will ensure that the results of this program have focused on establishing strong strategies that will enable our solution to be very effective. Among the plans includes, ensuring the relationship between our students and technology is strong through advance tech based teaching and learning, and by increasing the quality of our tech equipment, and the online learning software; and the quality of education through internet. 

Similarly, to increase the educational skills of teachers by giving them additional opportunities to study how to use technology on a large scale and how to increase the knowledge of giving training to children of different races, gender, and variability.

In that too, improving the infrastructure, such as classes that will be able to take children in reasonable numbers and not like those of other normal schools; to improve the learning center where these children gather every time, and its environment so as to have an eco-friendly learning center.

The short and long-term outcome we need after this program includes, to ensure that children are given the best education that enables them to manage themselves in life and to be able to do great things that accompany the education they have received; to be able to read, and write in English, count, draw, sculpt, and use computer; have the ability to understand themselves and have skills and high educational standards that can be accepted internationally. We expect these children to be able to get scholarships. In terms of teachers, we expect teachers to have the standards to provide education skillfully, and to have the best methods to enable them to teach children well.

In a long run, we want the children to be able to use technology in their day to day life. We want to ensure that the education provided is improved in the refugee camp and in communities on the sidelines with low income levels. We want this program to impact and reach as many people as possible in areas that are many children are suffering from the problem of inequality education. 

We want to see this program bring growth to our organisation in terms of