Provisional World Children's Parliament in Kenya

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I'm Hope Wilder, and I'm fundraising for the Provisional World Children's Parliament via Governance from Below. The goal of the fundraiser is to form a new chapter of the Children's Parliament in the slums of Kiberia, Kenya in partnership with the Coffee Ministry Community Organization.

The PWCP is a parliament of children from all around the world working locally and globally towards the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Participants in the PWCP have included members from the US, the UK, India, Chile, Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, and Greece.

The Children's Parliament movement has had great success in India, where it has been established for over 25 years. Successes include raising awareness around domestic violence, providing breakfasts for children in low-income neighborhoods, improving sanitation, starting libraries, working towards the inclusion of all children in education, and getting electricity and running water to homes.

The children from the PWCP have decided to focus this fundraiser on forming a new chapter of the PWCP in Kiberia, Kenya. Funds will be disbursed as follows:

Costs of starting a Children's Parliament in Kenya:

Training: Training will consist of 10 two-hour sessions for up to 50 children associated with the Kibera community and their adult allies. Some of the children are associated with the community orphanage. Others are participants in the Kibera after-school instructional program. In addition, there will be 5 more two-hour sessions for the Kenyan adult allies who will assist in parliament organization.

The trainers will be remote, primarily Edwin John and Swarnalakshmi Ravi of India, also assisted by John Buck, of the USA, and Joseph Rathinam of India.

Food for the participants will be provided because of the acute poverty conditions.

Materials will be primarily printed materials. It is necessary to provide printed copies because none of the children have regular access to computers.

Child-led projects: 50% of all funds raised will become budgets for the child-led community improvement projects. The Kenyan children's parliaments will determine the design of the projects. Typical expenses might include travel expenses for the children to present petitions to the government, purchase of trees for planting, etc.

Coffe Ministry Administration: All funds will be administered by Mr. Sammy “Gomez” Odhiambo Mwangi, the director of The CBO “Coffee Ministry”, Director of the Kibera Community. (Learn more about The Coffee Ministry Community Organization, Kenya registered organization number #02172.) Mr. Mwangi will provide periodic, detailed itemized reports of all expenses, and his report will be shared with all Go Fund Me donors who provide their email addresses.

More about The Coffee Ministry and Kiberia, Kenya

Woven story on the status of the Coffee Ministry in Kibera, Kenya.

Mr. Sammy “Gomez” Odhiambo Mwangi , the founder and director of The CBO “Coffee Ministry,” age 27, was born and brought up in Kibera, one of the largest slums in Kenya. His perseverance and determination to get educated and support his community earned him a scholarship to get a quality education outside of his slum. Per his deeply felt mission, he completed a college degree and returned back to his community to extend his helping hands.

As a first step toward raising the standard of living of his community people, he established the “Coffee Ministry”, a Community Based Organization (CBO) in 2017. He got it registered with the Kenyan government in 2020. Among its many projects, the Coffee Ministry runs an orphanage of about 30 children. It offers a special education program in the evenings for area children - many of whom, if they even go to school during the day, typically have 100 children or more in their classroom.

Kibera, Kenya has a population of about 1.5 million living in deplorable conditions. For example:

It is an area where we believe children’s parliaments will be able to make a big difference in enhancing the quality of life.

Fundraising Event: Power to the Children Screening

November 20th, 16 UTC

To further support the cause, we are hosting an online and in-person screening of "Power to the Children," a film about Children's Parliaments in India. The screening will conclude with a Q&A with Swarnalakshmi Ravi, who is featured in the film as the former Prime Minister of the India national children's parliament. Two PWCP members will also join.

For more informaion on the PWCP:

See an interview with child ministers and adult allies from the Provisional World Children's Parliament here.