SU Kenya held a very successful Life Skills campaign - ‘Life Skills for Character Development’ - throughout the Kenyain February 2009. Over 15,000 children and young people attended the rallies – along with high ranking government officials, including the Vice President. The rallies were held simultaneously in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Mumias and Busia.

The major event, held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, was addressed by the Vice President of Kenya, Honourable Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, who praised Scripture Union for moulding the youth of the country into responsible citizens. ‘Today’s launch of the Life Skills program is a further testimony of the Scripture Union’s commitment to what the Bible commands us to do,’ he said.

The Scripture Union Regional Director, Rev. David Gichung’wa narrated the history of the Scripture Union, mentioning the involvement of Scripture Union in communities in various parts of Africa. 

The National Director, Mrs.Gertrude Obwoge, thanked the government and reiterated SU’s commitment to continue supplementing the government’s effort in ‘equipping the youth to start life on the right footing’.

Through the media campaign in radio, TV and newspapers, a lot of awareness and interest was created about the ministry and we give God all the glory for that.

The special emphasis on the Life Skills program was in response to the unprecedented aftermath of our disputed presidential election results at the beginning of 2008. As an organisation, we were challenged to address the needs of the younger generation, especially those in schools, by equipping them with skills to cope with life's challenges.

Through the Life Skills program, we will not only address strategies of HIV prevention among the young people, but also equip them with life skills to deal with the psychosocial needs brought about by incidents like the post-election violence that occurred, as well as equip them as peace builders in their local communities.

The Life Skills program target was to work with key influential youth supporters such as head teachers and teachers from the four regions that were adversely affected by the post-election violence. The project targeted 566 schools in these regions, seeking to involve head teachers in the implementation of the program and to train 1,132 school teachers.

The aim was to provide training for 2,264 peer educators from these schools, building teams of 2 girls and 2 boys with leadership abilities to be role models among their peers. They were to be empowered with the life skills necessary in the mitigation and prevention of conflicts, and the facilitation skills to enable them reach out to their peers with life skills and peace messages. Together with their trained teachers, the young people were challenged to reach at least 200 of their peers in their respective schools.

In total we reached 517 schools, involved 504 head teachers and trained 1,022 teachers and 2,030 Peer Educators.

The Life Skills program is still part of the Scripture Union of Kenya programs. The Government has made it part of the curriculum for Primary and High Schools. We are thankful to God that Scripture Union of Kenya has trained thousands of teachers in Life Skills since 1994. These teachers now play a very important role in the implementation of this program in schools across the country. We will continue to partner with the Government in this regard.