There was some unrest over the past few months because of the presidential elections. Participants and parents were referring to Sadili as a “safe haven”. How did that come about?

We had a similar experience in 2007, when Kenya almost went to war because of the elections. Violence erupted in Kibera. Women and children were particularly badly affected. Many had nothing to eat, had been injured or had raped. We tried to help them. Sadili became a safe place – while everyone else was being attacked, the community actually protected Sadili because their children were here.

We were even funded by the EU and the International Olympic Committee. We used the funds to provide blankets, food and medical assistance. It was quite an experience for us, and the population of Kibera continued to trust us more. Every time something goes wrong now, they know that their children are safe at Sadili. It has become part of the knowledge base.

What sort of children come to Sadili?

Sadili is first of all a place of very contrasting people. It is between the middle-class neighbourhoods and the Kibera slum, one of the poorest areas in the whole of Africa. Most people in Kibera live in houses made of cardboard, mud and iron sheets – on average there are six people living in a four by four metre space. And they use that space for cooking, eating, sleeping and studying.

There isn’t really electricity or running water. The cost of water is amongst the highest in the world. Toilets are generally very few and far between, and they are not well-maintained. The toilets are dangerous for women and children, because they are shared and not in the safest positions. The children of Kibera are lucky to get one meal a day and there is little space for play. And we enable this space.

What was your plan at the beginning, for working with children from such different backgrounds?

At the beginning, we weren’t planning to focus so strongly on the children of Kibera. It was the community of Kibera that came to us. And then, you know, I always worked with young people in education, mentored young people and helped them improve their lives through sports. It didn’t make any difference to me whether it’s boys or girls in the beginning. And there was a lot of change happening with boys. It took a while to realise why the girls were not turning up in large numbers.

You mean the girls from Kibera didn’t come to Sadili?

No, barely any girls came. And even when they did, they would be inconsistent. It took a while for me to work out why. It has to do with the parents’ concerns about safety, and the feeling that girls do not need to play sport. Girls are often expected to carry out chores at home, take care of other siblings and generally share the parent’s work. Parents often forget that their daughters are still children, as much as the sons. These are problems that we are still working on.

And how are you addressing this?

The most important thing is to go where the children spend most of their time: schools. So we started to partner with the schools, and through the schools we meet the parents. And we run a lot of activities, organise competitions and community meetings – that helped us to show parents what we do. We also use these times to talk about safeguarding and education for both boys and girls to grow, and how sports can play a role.

Some of the children are very successful too. They have been awarded university scholarships. One boy from Sadili even played in the Kenyan Davis Cup team. There is also the fact that we are consistently there. The parents can recognise the utility of our work. They accept us.

The reasons for founding Sadili in 1992 and the problems you’re working on today are not the same. You wanted to set up a sports school and today, Sadili is an NGO.

We have achieved so much. We are working with between 700 and 900 children a year. By the end of 2019, we expect to have 2,100 children below 12 years in our programmes. In total, we have worked with around 11,000 people. Sadili has done an incredible amount. We have also realised that we are one of the few organisations around the world that operates as a social enterprise. This means that we expect to make money with Sadili even if it is limited. But it helps us to keep the programmes alive.

Do you earn the money through sports lessons?

We earn money in different ways. We rent out our facilities. We have accommodation, office space, sport facility hire and kitchens. We assist people in running sporting events. We also offer our skills to other organisations. So it could be in terms of coaching or in running children’s programmes. And I often have speaking engagements. All those things raise money. We are about 47% self-supporting, and this helps to cover recurrent expenditure.

Working with Sadili was a very positive experience for SAD. We had a partner with a strong local presence and a good network of parents, schools and authorities. Sadili’s team was very committed too. What did Sadili get out of working with SAD?

Firstly, our team learned how to run sport for change activities. It was new for us to use simple generalized games so that the children below 12 years learnt by playing rather than through specific specialised sport. SAD is good at developing manuals, and at monitoring and evaluation. Additionally, SAD gave us an understanding of the bystander approach* and supported us with improving knowledge base on child protection measures. We already had a child protection policy, but it was six years old and needed updating. We had brilliant help from SAD in the process. And now we have a draft which is acceptable to the communities we work with and which is going to be submitted to our Board by the end of the year for approval.

And more than anything else we’ve seen a lot of excitement and interest from the Kibera community. You can see it from the way that parents come by and give us little gifts and say, “Thank you so much for teaching my child.” Kibera is not a safe place any day. There are certain skills that children need to survive: both boys and girls, but especially the little ones who tend to be the biggest worry for parents. This is just the beginning of what will grow into a much more comprehensive programme.

Nadia Lanfranchi interviewed Elizabeth Odera.

 

* The bystander approach for sexual violence prevention breaks through the victim-perpetrator model and does not see young men first and foremost as potential perpetrators of violence. Young women are not viewed first and foremost as victims of sexual violence. The approach sees both men and women as people who can work together, and who can intervene and support people who are affected.