Students and staff from Viaro Global School in Barcelona, Spain, visited Nairobi for a two-week volunteer work camp hosted by Eastlands College of Technology (ECT) from June 19th to June 25th, 2022. The Viaro Global School was made up of six teachers who were in charge of supervision and management, as well as 36 volunteer students. Furthermore, several local contacts collaborated with the team, providing information, management, and resolution of the problems encountered.
During their two-week stay in Nairobi, they worked on a number of projects around ECT by engaging in a variety of social and educational initiatives in the slum areas. They did this by giving back to society and those living in extreme poverty through education and volunteer activities.
After arriving in Nairobi, the Viaro Global volunteers made contact with the residents of the Viwandani area, one of the biggest slum areas in Nairobi, where they spent time with the slum children and visited several families. They helped the teachers in content delivery in three schools as well as two mental health treatment facilities. The three schools where the collaborative work was done, namely Utu Wema Community Center, Brains Wealth Academy, and Golden Heart School, were all within Viwandani’s boundaries, with the farthest being Utu Wema Community Center, which is on the border between Mukuru and Viwandani.
In each of these schools, volunteers interacted with students and taught them subjects such as Geography and Art and Crafts. Additionally, they engaged the students in enjoyable activities such as letter writing, English dictation, and practice of English and Swahili songs and dances. They also gave out gifts like pens and other writing materials and helped to fabricate 20 desks which were later donated to Holy Spirit Catholic Elite School. The Viaro students also interacted with the mentally challenged students at Nile Road Special School and Corpus Christi Special School, helping to feed them, clean the center, and play with them.
During the afternoons, they participated in group fun activities such as football, engaging the local schools in hotly contested matches. The schools included Aquinas High School and Ofafa Jericho High School. They also paid visits to the poor in Mukuru Slum and distributed food stuffs. As part of their safaris, they visited Crescent Island Nature Reserve in Naivasha, where they saw the various birds, warthog, hippos, buffalo to name but a few
“This is a nice experience and we’d like to come back next year with more students” was one of the last phrases from Cucho, the leader of the group.