A New Dawn for Youth in Nairobi’s informal Settlem…
New Dawn Ministry started by Irene Tenge Tongoi in 2001 is now 17 years old. This ministry was birthed out of a prompting to equip children on matters HIV/Aids so as to save a generation from the scourge that was looming large at the close of the 20th century.
Starting off with one participant:- the last born daughter to Irene, the programme has grown in leaps and bounds to reach thousands just under 2 decades. New Dawn now a registered organization in Kenya has grown to its youthful age serving the youth in 2 main planks: - secondary school and Tunzwa Programme.
Tunzwa Programme which started in 2001 and curved a niche in mentoring young girls and boys on sexuality matters has served 600 to 800 youths to date. Its founder, Irene had been a stay-home Mum for several years raising her 3 children. Reports of the devastating impact of HIV Aids hit her hard and she thought of doing something with the children to save a generation in coming years. “Today children need to be given information on sexuality to avoid becoming a statistic.” Irene said to herself with full knowledge that little or nothing was being shared with the Kenyan kids; not in school nor at home in regard to sexuality.
Tunzwa which translates to “Preserve” programme’s main focus is on children development into teenage and adulthood. We mentorship girls and boys on sexuality, career development, identity crisis management from a biblical perspective,” says Irene.
The VISION Conference teachings that Rev. Dennis Tongoi was conducting in early 2000 formed the main inspiration of Irene’s teaching on sexuality. Irene had gathered from the VISION Conference that God creates human beings with abilities to use them and she was eager to put to use her God given dispositions to shape the life of Kenyan youth.
Irene had earlier on graduated with degree in Education and realized that she had the time and the experience having raised her own 3 children who were now teenagers. That is what stirred Irene’s determination to face the HIV scourge and set off with the Tunzwa Programme initially called Sexuality.
Irene spent hours, days, weeks and months reading through the bible and unearthing all scriptures on sexuality. The body of knowledge she unearthed is what formed into the Tunzwa training programme for children with focus on sexuality. The resultant body of knowledge has been written into a curriculum and is now due for publication into training manual for young people on maters sexuality.
The young children join Tunzwa Programme from age 8-12 years and are put in groups of 7 for instruction and guidance once every month with a facilitator. Tunzwa Programme is based on a curriculum for the Children Ministry that runs for 3 years before they exit into teenage hood. The goal for a long time has been on HIV Aids but the curriculum has now broadened to cover among other things, mentorship, career guidance, crisis management etc.
About the School
New Dawn Educational Centre started in 2006 in Huruma Village, next to Runda and has focused on the broad principles of wholistic community transformation. This was a result of a visit to Huruma slums which exposed Irene to real poverty situation of some of the church members at a church she had helped found and was an active leader in at the time.
The poverty cycle in the Kijiji was so bad that the children of the poor women only managed to get to class 8 and could not progress for lack of school fees. The visit to the slum area led to one thing and the other. A VISION Conference and the idea of starting a high school to address the hopelessness of the youth in that area was ignited in her spirit and she set herself against all odds to work it out.
A VISION Conference happened at Karurua Chapel in 2004 for the women from the Kijiji followed by another VISION Conference for over 100 youths in 2005. In 2006, the resultant seed project was a high school at the church of one of the local pastors who was serving that community called Pastor Sammy.
Samuel Chege’s journey to a new dawn
Samuel Chege was among the pioneers of New Dawn School joining in 2006 through 2010. Here is his own account of his journey at New Dawn:
“It was not easy coming from Githogoro slums all the way to Huruma Slums; an experience that Sammy describes as coming from the frying pan into the fire,” says Sammy.
Here is his own account of things and the transformation that he has experienced at New Dawn.
I remember my first visit to New Dawn in company of my Mother. I had just finished my class eight and my mother insisted that I go to new dawn where some people were willing to educate children from poor families. When we arrived that morning with my mother, I disliked the place, it was poorer than where my mum and I lived.
At that time, New Dawn was just starting and so there were no enough teachers, no basic facilities and infrastructure. There was no decorum and properly functional school in that school uniform was not even a mandatory requirements as it was obviously out of reach for those of us who joined the school at the time.
It was a very difficult start for the pioneers, both the students and the founders of this noble idea. The ensuing arguments between my mother and I, with interventions from the school administrator then was only resolved when the administrator promised that all those who come to school will be given food! That came as music to my ears as food for the day was my main concern at the moment.
For a long time after joining the school, the only motivation at the time was the word of God which was delivered faithfully, every morning by Mum Irene.
Earlier in life, Samuel had gone through very difficult slum life due to life challenges and hardships.
From class 8 to when he joined form 1, his life was full of evil deeds that engulfed him into fear. Restlessness was with him even when he was at school due to the kind of things he was involved in. He was afraid of his past and what he was doing as a young man till when he was in form 2 when he got converted to Christianity as New Dawn gave him a new beginning for his life.
Samuel is forever grateful to the mother who guided him to New Dawn and Mum Irene for discipling him out of his dark past and leading him to true, wholistic transformation.
Sammy finished form 4 and got a scholarship to study Business Information Technology at one of the local Universities in Kenya. He has since finished and graduated and is currently serving as a volunteer Computer teacher at the New Dawn Education Centre. His prayer is that God opens his way to find a job and help his now ailing mother.
CMS-Africa has directly and indirectly been part of this fruitful collaboration that has resulted in the transformation of the people and community of Huruma, with the VISION Conference trainings forming part of the foundation of the New Dawn work.