YEP! Party at the Recreation Centre-
A big Drinking, Dancing and Donating success!!!
by Claudia Hasse and Maurice Odera
The Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP!) can look back at a very successful fundraising party which was held at the UN Recreation Centre last Friday.
About 200 people including UN staff, participants of the UN Habitat GC and others attended the Party and helped to make it a great night.
YEP! Was formed by interns in August of 2005 to provide assistance to the Mathare Community Educational Development Organisation (MCEDO) School in the Mathare Valley Slum. To date, YEP has managed to involve cooperating partners like the World Food Programme, bamboo planting programme in partnership with the World Agro forestry Centre (ICRAF) as well as the Australian High Commission who assisted in the construction of toilets and showers.
However, the main donor is the Chinese Government who through the Chinese ambassador to Kenya provided financial support to MCEDO 4 months ago for the construction of a new school building, wipe out rental obligations and establish a permanent educational institution that can continue serving the community and grow for years to come. This building is near completion but in order to finish the construction YEP had to raise around 100.000 kSh and therefore decided to organize this Fundraising Party.
The Chinese Ambassador H.E. Mr. Zhang Ming was in attendance at the Party and thanked YEP in his speech for supporting the MCEDO School with all their efforts and for presenting this project to him in the first place. On top of that he promised to cooperate with YEP in future projects in the Mathare Slum.
Benedict Kiage, a representative and teacher of the MCEDO School was also present and thanked YEP in his speech for their support and invited everyone to visit Mathare Valley at some point to see all the progress they have made.
Besides mentioning his present and future support of YEP, the President of Staff Union Nairobi chapter Mr. Michael Mwangi donated 100.000 KSh on behalf of the staff Union to the YEP Programme.
Christina Boelcke, UNEP’s Director for Regional Cooperation on behalf of the Executive Director of UNEP Mr. Achim Steiner, thanked YEP and all people involved for taking action in this local initiative in Mathare Slum. The Executive Director had earlier announced YEP in his News Update two weeks ago and asked all staff for their full support.
The Party went on until Midnight with the Band Performances by Maya von Leckow and Centerline as well as two DJ’s – DJ of the Dhow Race and DJ Ugomatic.
Guests danced all night long and not even the rain could stop them. The jovial atmosphere got all YEP members excited and in the end great success was achieved as over 4000 Dollars was raised at the Party from entrance fees, drinks, donations and T- Shirt Sales.
This positive outcome shall see construction of the school building completed and hopefully invite all of you to participate in the inauguration ceremony due in May 2007.
YEP and MCEDO would like to thank everyone who participated in the preparation and organization of the Party and those who came to the party not only to fundraise but also made it such a great night for all and most importantly giving the children in Mathare a reason to dream and high hopes for the future.
More information is available online at http://yep.unon.org
or email yep.nairobi@gmail.com
by Claudia Hasse and Maurice Odera
The Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP!) can look back at a very successful fundraising party which was held at the UN Recreation Centre last Friday.
About 200 people including UN staff, participants of the UN Habitat GC and others attended the Party and helped to make it a great night.
YEP! Was formed by interns in August of 2005 to provide assistance to the Mathare Community Educational Development Organisation (MCEDO) School in the Mathare Valley Slum. To date, YEP has managed to involve cooperating partners like the World Food Programme, bamboo planting programme in partnership with the World Agro forestry Centre (ICRAF) as well as the Australian High Commission who assisted in the construction of toilets and showers.
However, the main donor is the Chinese Government who through the Chinese ambassador to Kenya provided financial support to MCEDO 4 months ago for the construction of a new school building, wipe out rental obligations and establish a permanent educational institution that can continue serving the community and grow for years to come. This building is near completion but in order to finish the construction YEP had to raise around 100.000 kSh and therefore decided to organize this Fundraising Party.
The Chinese Ambassador H.E. Mr. Zhang Ming was in attendance at the Party and thanked YEP in his speech for supporting the MCEDO School with all their efforts and for presenting this project to him in the first place. On top of that he promised to cooperate with YEP in future projects in the Mathare Slum.
Benedict Kiage, a representative and teacher of the MCEDO School was also present and thanked YEP in his speech for their support and invited everyone to visit Mathare Valley at some point to see all the progress they have made.
Besides mentioning his present and future support of YEP, the President of Staff Union Nairobi chapter Mr. Michael Mwangi donated 100.000 KSh on behalf of the staff Union to the YEP Programme.
Christina Boelcke, UNEP’s Director for Regional Cooperation on behalf of the Executive Director of UNEP Mr. Achim Steiner, thanked YEP and all people involved for taking action in this local initiative in Mathare Slum. The Executive Director had earlier announced YEP in his News Update two weeks ago and asked all staff for their full support.
The Party went on until Midnight with the Band Performances by Maya von Leckow and Centerline as well as two DJ’s – DJ of the Dhow Race and DJ Ugomatic.
Guests danced all night long and not even the rain could stop them. The jovial atmosphere got all YEP members excited and in the end great success was achieved as over 4000 Dollars was raised at the Party from entrance fees, drinks, donations and T- Shirt Sales.
This positive outcome shall see construction of the school building completed and hopefully invite all of you to participate in the inauguration ceremony due in May 2007.
YEP and MCEDO would like to thank everyone who participated in the preparation and organization of the Party and those who came to the party not only to fundraise but also made it such a great night for all and most importantly giving the children in Mathare a reason to dream and high hopes for the future.
More information is available online at http://yep.unon.org
or email yep.nairobi@gmail.com
benundclaudia - 23. Apr, 13:00