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Profile

The Turning Point Trust works to prevent and rehabilitate street-children within Africa’s largest slum, Kibera, Kenya. When a child comes from the streets to the Turning Point Project, they bring with them behavioural characteristics that they have learnt in that environment. This behaviour frequently prevents them from immediately returning to school and a period of rehabilitation is required. This is provided through our School Transition Class, which provides a holistic range of programmes to approximately 35 youth per year.

Through the ADE Online Book Project, former street-children and other acutely vulnerable youth in the School Transition Class will be given the opportunity to write both fiction and non-fictional stories and publish them online.

Advocacy
We believe that the poverty these children suffer from is denying them their basic rights and yet they lack the resources to make their voices heard in order to demand their rights. We believe they deserve the opportunity to have their voices and their stories heard, that it is wrong for society to shut its ears to the voices of marginalised people. Through the production of e-books we aim to provide ostracised youth with a platform to speak out about the challenges street-children face and call for change. E-books can also be easily printed in order to distribute them amongst the local community with the aim of raising awareness of the problems faced by street-children and the reasons that children resort to the streets.

Development
Writing these stories will serve as a means of counselling the youth and encouraging them to explore both their past and the possibilities for their future. The project will provide ostracized youth with the opportunity to explore their identity and gain confidence through the knowledge that their voices are being heard by others around the world.

Education
Producing e-books will help the children to develop crucial information technology skills which will help with employment in the future.

Producing online story books will also allow the children to improve their English language and creative writing skills, which will be invaluable to them when they re-enter mainstream educational establishments, which teach the Kenyan curriculum in English.

Once published online, the e-books will be stored in an online library which is accessible globally through the internet. This will allow the e-books to be shared with partner schools and youth groups, encouraging global understanding and cultural sensitivity amongst young people. The e-books will also provide donors and supporters with information about our work from the viewpoint of a beneficiary, which will strengthen donor development, which is vital for a small charity like The Turning Point Trust

Hear what beneficiaries have to say about Turning Point Trust!

History

The Turning Point Trust have been working with street-children in Kibera since 2003. To date, we have supported almost 200 children to access education, enabling them to create positive futures for themselves away from life on the streets. The ADE online book project is a new and innovative project which we are hoping to establish alongside our Transition Class as a means of advocacy, development and education for former street-children.

Impact

1. Creativity Room at our Mashimoni centre in Kibera equipped with five laptops, each with RealeWriter software installed.
2. Access to internet provided at Mashimoni Centre in Kibera.
3. Teachers trained in using RealeWriter software and able to cascade this knowledge to youth in the Transition Class.
4. Youth in Transition Class regularly producing and publishing online e-books.
5. Youth in Transition Class able to talk openly about their past and come to terms with challenges they have faced.
6. Youth in Transition Class able to imagine positive futures for themselves away from poverty.
7. Youth in Transition Class able to think and write creatively.
8. Improved English language skills amongst youth in Transition Class
9. Acquisition of basic IT skills by both youth in Transition Class and teachers.
10. Creation of an online library to enable sharing of e-books with other organisations using RealeWriter software.
11. Partnerships created with other youth groups and schools around the globe to increase awareness of issues surrounding street-children and Turning Point’s work.
12. Global awareness and cultural understanding amongst youth
13. Improved relationships with Turning Point donors and supporters

Team Credentials

The Turning Point Trust is a non-governmental organization which is duly registered in the UK and Kenya. We began our work in Africa’s largest slum, Kibera, in March 2003. Since this time, due to our many successes, we have grown both in the scope of our projects and the number of children we support. We currently provide a holistic range of programmes to over 300 children. We work to towards the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the end to poverty and hunger, universal education and the promotion of child health. Turning Poitn work by invitation from the local slum community and at a grassroots level, allowing local community members to be extensively involved in all of Turing Point’s work.

An introduction to Turning Point's work in Kibera
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Updates

  • 08 JUL 2011

    Ebook Update from Turning Point Trust!

    The potential impact of the Advocacy-Development e-book project is huge. The Turning point children come from a literacy-starved environment. The reading material in the slum mostly consists of hand painted signs on the local vegetable stalls or hair salons, and perhaps the occasional newspaper. Even for those in education, most schools do not have enough basic text books, let alone picture books or story books. So what effect does it have growing up without books? Words not only have their own sound, flow, and force, but they create and stir feelings in us. They can make us angry or help us feel understood. They can raise questions or inspire creativity. They are not only to be read, but to be heard aloud. Hearing the stories of others is a powerful experience, and starts to shape our voice as we think about our own story. What was my beginning? If it was as a slum child, does that automatically mean the rest of the story is already written, with an inevitable ending? Or could it b...
  • 18 FEB 2011

    Update from Turning Point Trust

    At Turning Point we are very excited about running the Advocacy Development e-book project in 2011. There The transition class is full of new students who started in January, all at very different levels in literacy. We believe this project will be a really fun and exciting way for the kids to develop their reading and writing and to stretch their imaginations. Brighton is a student from transition class, he loves making up stories and acting them out with his friends during break time - the stories usually involve action heroes! The e-book project will give Brighton the opportunity to get his stories down on paper and to share them with the world online. Brighton, is an imaginative and curious kid who is brilliant at creating fun wherever he finds himself. Growing up in Kibera does not need to stop him from achieving in life, the e-book project will also help the children in Transition class to process and work through some of the tough things they have experienced living in Kibera...
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Donors

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