The report below has been created by George Adede who, together with his sister founded WaMiel Foundation and facilitated the Deep Sea Slum YES Challenge in Nairobi…

A total of 10  youth groups participated. The age of the youth was between  12  and 16. The total number of youth that participated was 30. Each group received a total of Ksh. 1000 as trust based investment.

Outcome of the YES Challenge

• 8 groups managed to return the funds of the trust based investment they received.
• 6 teams returned the trust based investment without having made a profit.
• 3 teams made a profit in the youth-led changemaking activity and returned the trust based investment.
• 1 teams made a profit in the youth-led changemaking activity but broke the agreement and failed to  return the trust based investment. (unfortunately one team member took off with all the cash 😕)

The biggest achievement of the youth in the eyes of the facilitator is that they were very excited to try out the YES challenge.  Watching them as they worked as a team, delegating responsibilities to each other  and striving to be better than the previous day, that they were not afraid to ask questions and seek help where they were stuck instead of giving up.

What was the feedback of the youth regarding their experience in the youth-led changemaking activity: 

• They were very excited to do the project and went and spread the word to the rest of the kids in the community. 
• They learnt a lot on how to invest and plan out a small business activity. They learnt to appreciate the value of money and the discipline of managing the cash
• They learnt how to tackle their challenges as a team and they kept asking for direction. 
• Requested for time to plan well because the time was very short and the cash came on a Sunday which meant they didn’t have proper time to do their shopping for their products. 
• For the next challenge if the funds can get to them before the weekend then they are able to shop on Saturday.

Any stories or feedback from the changemaking activity that inspired you / really resonated with you / was memorable for you?:

• One of the kids would ask to leave school earlier so she can have time to sell her sweets in the evening. Unfortunately she was meant to stay behind to extended studies.

• She was too excited to participate in the challenge. We however with her parents found a resolve that she should sell in the evening or take up the marketing/sales part and sell over the weekend. 

• Parents were willing to help the kids with advice and where to buy their products. 

• After word went round of the project many other kids came to me in already formed groups willing to join and did request to be considered for the next round.

Recommendations of the facilitator 

•  Give the youth more time to work on the project so they have ample time to plan and execute. 

• It’s an amazing project that older youth within the community can be helped to engage in. Their challenges is getting capital to do the business and be helped to navigate. 



• The form four candidates will soon be done with high school and will be on a long holiday, if they can be roped in then we will keep them busy while making some money for themselves Instead of being idle and engaging in activities that don’t promote self growth.