Dream Alive and Care Organization graduates 80 students from its Humanitarian Advocacy Programming initiative at a ceremony held
in Nairobi. The programme was delivered in partnership with Royal Priest College of Divinity.
The graduates completed a training programme designed to prepare them to work directly with vulnerable children and communities.
The initiative forms part of the organization's work to keep children in school, particularly those facing barriers to access
and retention.
- Ceremony and Partnership. Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Jannes Omondi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dream Alive and Care Organization, said the graduates would now take on the responsibility of advocating for children whose rights and needs are often overlooked.
- "These graduates have been trained to identify the barriers that keep children out of school and to work with families and communities to remove them," he said. "They will go into the field, into villages and estates, and they will do the work that is needed."
- The partnership with Royal Priest College of Divinity provided the programme with an ethical and moral grounding that both organizations regard as central to humanitarian work. A representative of Royal Priest of Divinity said the two organizations share the conviction that advocacy must be rooted in values, not just in policy or procedure.
- "Advocacy that does not come from a place of moral conviction will not last," the representative said. "What we have invested in these graduates is not just skills. It is a sense of duty."
- Deployment and Responsibilities. The graduates will now be deployed to support the organization's work in communities where children face some of the steepest barriers to education.
- Their responsibilities will include working with schools and families on back-to-school initiatives, supporting advocacy against female genital mutilation and child marriage, promoting the inclusion of children with disabilities, and providing basic psychosocial support to children affected by hardship.
- Reflections from the Cohort. One of the graduates, speaking on behalf of the cohort, described the training as demanding and said it had changed how they understood the challenges facing children in their own communities.
- "We came in with assumptions," the graduate said. "We leave with the knowledge that the work is harder than we thought, and more urgent than we imagined."
- Continued Mentorship and Supervision. The organization confirmed that the graduates will be supported through continued mentorship and supervision to ensure that the training translates into measurable improvements for the children and communities they serve.
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