What are you doing for your community?

Ever since he turned 17, James Neiliang, 23, has desired to transform lives in whatever small way he can. In 2013, two years after he had finished his studies at Mount Kenya Academy Senior School, he joined Uungwana, a social enterprise where his passion for community service was nurtured for three years.

Scarcely did he imagine though, that a visit to his grandparents’ home in Loita in Narok County in 2017 would hand him his first real opportunity to serve. The poor state of education in the village struck him. It was quite unlike anything he had seen, having not been to the village before.

“My cousins and many other children had either dropped out of school or had never been to school. They lacked books and uniform, which kept them at home. Others were herders,” James recounts.

This sad state of education in the village moved him. He offered to tutor them at his grandparents’ home, using whatever educational material he could get. The response was very encouraging.

“The arrangement became so popular, soon, I was teaching nearly 20 students. Parents and local leaders were very happy, and the principal of Loita High School asked me to teach at his school, an offer I gladly accepted.”

However, James knew that the project was staring at imminent collapse because he would soon be going back to the University of Nairobi, where he was a first year student.

“I was determined to carry on, and even after returning to Nairobi, I kept thinking about how I could keep the project going,” he says.

He later shared his idea with a high school friend, Apollo Kimari, who was, coincidentally, also passionate about community service.

“Apollo was involved in tree-planting drives in Murang’a County where he comes from, so he was excited about my idea and even offered to partner with me in my project.”

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

In January 2018, the two founded a social enterprise that not only promotes education and conservation of the environment, but also mobilises young people to participate in community service in their areas of passion. They named the organisation Youth 4 Unity.

James now had a vehicle to carry on with the work he had started in Loita, but he lacked the resources to achieve tangible results.

“We embarked on raising money and asking for book donations from friends and organisations. The campaign was very exhausting and involved a lot of legwork, but my desire to change the situation in the school motivated me to keep going,” he recalls.

Their efforts eventually paid off. At the beginning of February this year, James went back to Loita High School, where he and his partner donated books worth Sh350,000. A cause nurtured deep in the wild, after facing numerous setbacks, had got off to a flying start.

“It was unbelievable that we had managed to do so much within a year and with no resources of our own. This encouraged us to take our cause even further,” he says.

If all goes according to plan, the team hopes to visit a different school and donate books at least every three months. Their next project is to visit and donate books to a primary school in Murang’a County, a school that faces a shortage of reading material.

“To do this, we must step up our campaign. So far, mobilising for resources has been our biggest challenge, considering the level of need in the communities we target,” he notes.

He adds that while asking for money and book donations worked during the inaugural drive, this strategy may not work for long.

“There is only so much support you can ask for from your friends and family. While they may appreciate your work, this is not a sustainable strategy,” he says, and observes that working with organisations is a more effective approach with continuity in mind.

To this effect, the duo is seeking to partner with a local publisher and an airline, partnerships they believe will help them to increase coverage.

“The publisher has committed to donate books whenever we have school visits while the airline wants to tap into our initiative as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. We are currently finalising the partnership deeds.”

As part of their two-pronged initiative, the team hopes to plant trees in every school they visit.

“I am in good books with my lecturers, who always excuse me from class whenever I have an engagement,” he says, adding that he is able to comfortably juggle this work with his studies.

Young people in Kenya, he says, need to embrace a “proactive mentality” where they take charge of development in their own capacity instead of relying on the government.

“It helps to exploit the community service programmes available within your community. Ask yourself what you can do to transform the lives of other people. You would be surprised by how much support you can mobilise.”

“You only need to have integrity. For an initiative such as this one to thrive, building trust, honesty and confidence in people and organisations is very important. After all, they are the pillar of your support,.”