Malindi Music Festival for CHILDREN

CISP is organizing the Malindi Music Festival for Children on February 19th to promote access to quality education through the Malindi for Education Campaign. Access to education in general is severely lacking in the area surrounding Malindi.

The Festival

Following last year’s successful format, the festival will be free of charge and held at the old Sinbad Hotel. Festivities will commence at 10 am with a children’s fair including various activities for children art sessions for children including street theatre, face painting, balloon modeling, acrobats, a fire show, puppet shows, drama & songs.

The main concert will again take place in the evening starting at 8:30 with a diverse and star-studded international lineup including Paola Turci and Tony Esposito with special guests Eric Wainaina, NyotaNdogo, Susumila, AMREF JuaKali drummers, Mr. Bado and our friends from MADCA.

The Festival, hopes to also build on last year’s theme of celebrating both local culture and ethnic diversity in Malindi as well as in Kenya.

Acces to Education on the Coast

GoK statistics state that close to 66% of the populations of Magarini and Malindi Districts are considered to be living in poverty, unable to meet basic food and non –food requirements. This is significantly above the National average of 56%. Primary school enrollment rates are among the lowest in the country 84% for boys and 67% for girls compared to national averages 0f 95% and 90% respectively. Primary drop out rates stand at 44.7% and 59.9% for boys and girls. Secondary school enrollment rates are 14.7% for boys and 1.7% for girls in the district.

“These enrolment rates are unacceptable” said Marcella Ferracciolo, Country Representative for CISP Kenya. “Our programmes are designed not only to improve access but to ensure a level of quality especially in remote rural areas with no access to education infrastructure.”

The main issues surrounding access to quality education in Malindi and Magarini districts are linked to lack of infrastructure, lack of trained teachers, especially in pre-primary schools, lack of community awareness of the importance of education.

CISP education program

The Malindi for Education campaign supports the CISP’s Education program, initiated in 2007, which now works with 41 rural community schools reaching over 2.850 students in the area north of Malindi now called Magarini District.  The program works more specifically on creating awareness about the importance of education within the impoverished communities, trains teachers and supports a Teacher training college, community school management, government programs linked to improving access to education, water and sanitation and health programs. The project works also to improve education infrastructure including support to public primary schools and building community run schools.

Many organizations have documented, especially in the area surrounding Watamu the fact that children leave school to pursue informal opportunities presented by the access to money that Tourisms bring. The Magarini District Education Office rates child labour as the highest reason for school drop outs, 53% of drop outs for boys and 26% for girls.  Next on the list for girls is early marriage 25% followed by pregnancies 16%.

“We’ve been working with children’s clubs in schools through our Child Protection Program to ensure that children are empowered with information to and have access to an integrated system of child protection in order to combat these trends.” Said Tania Miorin, Area Coordinator for CISP’s Coast office.

The Malindi for Education Campaign, is also designed to raise awareness regarding these issues, in the areas surrounding Malindi but also amongst decision makers and potential donors. The Campaign advocates for increasing access to quality education by promoting the positive results that it yields.

Children who go to school tend to be healthier, safer, and have better futures as education increases potentials for better jobs and better lives for the children themselves and for their communities.

Contribution of Malindi Business Community

The festival is celebrating its second year thanks in large part to the generous support of a diversity of members from the Malindi business community. This year’s festival is promoting the “Malindi for Education Campaign” which identifies access to quality education as a priority. The Campaign also seeks to stimulate resource mobilization from the private sector for actions to improve access to education on the Kenyan Coast.

Key Supporters of last years edition of the Festival such as the Key Group, Casino Malindi, Milano Electronics, Air Kenya and GCM Generators decided to continue the generous support to ensure this year’s edition is just as successful. This year’s edition will focus on promoting the Malindi for Education Campaign, designed to raise awareness about important issues surrounding access to quality education.  New partners this year include Imperial Bank and Royal Professional Sounds.

Thanks to these many generous donations, the festival will once again be held at the rehabilitated “community site” at the old Sinbad Hotel.  The old Sinbad was rehabilitated by CISP and its partners last year in order to become a “community friendly space” which has since been used for many other purposes.  This year, Ganesh Ltd and Naran Danji contributed resources to rehabilitate the area, removing hazards and making it safer so that it may host large numbers of people, specifically children.

One of the major goals of the Malindi for Education Campaign is to sign support agreements with especially Italian Tour Operators and Charter Airlines. Last year, an estimated 90.000 Italian Tourists came to Kenya according to the Kenyan Tourism Board and CISP’s goal is to raise at least one Euro from each tourist.

Picture Gallery

For details please contact:

tmiorin@cisp-nairobi.org Tel: +254 724 204288

visit the CISP web: www.cisp-kenya.org

on facebook at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=156999119428

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