• Know Your Basics:

  Before you’re out the door, make sure your home address and your parents’ phone numbers are etched in your brain. It’s like having a safety net you can always fall back on.

• Stay Alert:

  Keep those peepers peeled and listen to that little voice inside your head. If something feels weird, it’s time to bail and tell someone you trust.

• Speak Up: Got that uneasy feeling? Don’t just sit there—let it out! Shout, scream, do a little dance—whatever it takes to get people to notice.

• Buddy System: There’s power in numbers, folks. Traveling in a pack isn’t just more fun—it’s also a solid strategy for staying out of trouble.

• Stranger Danger:

  New faces can be cool, but they can also be sketchy. Trust your instincts and keep a safe distance if someone’s giving you the heebie-jeebies.

• Talk It Out:

  Whether it’s school drama, friend issues, or something else, your family is your ultimate support squad. Open up to them—they’ve got your back.

• Secrets Aren’t Always Good:

  If someone’s vibe is off, especially if they’re supposed to be trustworthy, it’s time to spill the beans to your family.

• Watch Your Circle:

  Friends who pressure you into uncomfortable situations? That’s a no from us. It’s okay to take a step back and reevaluate your friendships.

The post Holidays Safety Guidelines appeared first on Skills Maishani.

Reproductive health is characterized by complete physical, mental, and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions. A crucial element of reproductive health is the emphasis on menstrual hygiene to maintain social well-being.

What is menstrual hygiene?
Menstrual hygiene involves cleaning oneself and ensuring proper disposal of used menstrual products.

Menstruation which is commonly referred to as a ‘period’ is a normal biological occurrence that women worldwide experience every month. A period occurs when the uterus sheds blood and tissue from the uterine lining, which exits the body through the vagina. As such, it necessitates the need for women to utilise menstrual hygiene products on a monthly basis to keep themselves and their environment clean.

Good menstrual health and hygiene habits prevent infections, reduce bad odour and assist a person to stay comfortable during the period.

To absorb or collect blood during your period, you can choose numerous types of menstrual products including sanitary pads, tampons, menstrual cups, discs, and period underwear.

When handling menstrual products, ensure that you:

• Wash your hands before and after using the lavatory and before using a menstrual product.
• Wash the outside of your vagina (vulva) and bottom every day. When you go to the bathroom, wipe from the front of your body toward the back, not the other way. Use only water to rinse your vulva. The vagina is a self-cleaning organ.
• Discard used disposable menstrual products properly: wrap them with toilet paper, a tissue, or other material and then toss in a trash bin. Do not flush menstrual products down the toilet.
• Sanitary pads: Change sanitary pads every few hours, no matter how light the flow. Change them more frequently if your period is heavy.
• Tampons: Change tampons every 4 to 8 hours
• Do not wear a single tampon for more than 8 hours at a time.
  • Use the lowest-absorbency tampon needed. If you can wear one tampon for up to 8 hours without changing, the absorbency may be too high.
• Menstrual cups: Clean cups every day after use. Sanitise menstrual cups after your period is over by rinsing them thoroughly and then placing them in boiling water for one to two minutes.
• Period underwear: These can be hand washed with detergent and water. Ensure that the period  underwear is hung under sunlight and well aerated.

Get an annual comprehensive check-up that includes a pap smear, pelvic exam, and breast examination to ensure excellent reproductive health because they can detect early signs of cancer or other illnesses.

Skills Maishani Teen and Youth programs focus on instilling skills on sexual & reproductive health, safety (online and offline), financial literacy and legal life skills.

As such, we have developed a guiding booklet for first time adolescents to assist them in understanding the new biological changes they are experiencing.

The post Reproductive Health; Menstrual Hygiene for Teens. appeared first on Skills Maishani.

Skills Maishani aims to mentor young people and equip them with the knowledge on essential life skills influenced by social and environmental factors. These include; how to keep safe online and offline, their reproductive health, financial literacy and legal life skills. These areas require use and nurturing of critical thinking skills, social and emotional skills developed through fun and interactive ways of engagement where they get to learn from their peers. 

  “Nurture the teens, build our youths.”

Life Skills Development Methods at Skills Maishani

This is why Life Skills Matter to us.

The post Why life skills matter to us appeared first on Skills Maishani.

As we look forward to sharing young people’s stories, we bear in mind that it’s the stories that matter, not their identities. As such, Skills Maishani has now joined the #OVEREXPOSED campaign initiated by Chance for Childhood.  This campaign couldn’t have come at a better moment, as we have witnessed how frequently children’s photographs have been used over the years to support claims made in projects and to raise awareness of the situation of children. Which raises the issue? Can we tell their stories without revealing too much about them? We affirm that we can. We should be sufficiently moved by the stories themselves to provide a secure and caring environment for children in our culture. An orphaned child. A teenage mother. A boy in despair. All children need to be protected, but identity protection is more crucial now because we live in a digital age and the internet never forgets.

Methods of ensuring Identity Protection

Parental Involvement

It is paramount for parents or guardians of the children to be informed of the intention to publicize their children’s images/videos on social media or organisation’s website. Before giving consent, they must comprehend the reasons, the risks and the outcome of such publication.

Note; parental involvement should not be obtained through coercion or bribery. 

Use of distorted Images

Another method of assuring child protection is to distort the minor’s facial characteristics in photos by capturing them at a distance or blurring the images to make the minor(s) unrecognizable.

Concealing the faces

The minors can cover their faces with their hands in a fashionable gesture or turn around such that only the back is visible.

The Code of Conduct developed by the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development (CONCORD) working in the areas of emergency relief, long term development and development education, was developed to offer organisations a guiding principle to assist them in effectively communicating their programmes in a manner that embodies values of human dignity.

Code of Conduct on Images and Messages

Guiding principles

Choices of images and messages will be made based on the paramount principles of:

• Respect for the dignity of the people concerned;
• Belief in the equality of all people;
• Acceptance of the need to promote fairness, solidarity and justice.

With the Code of Conduct in place, all organisations should make an effort to embrace the values of human dignity in their operations.

By choosing to support the overexposed campaign, we are pledging to reshape thinking on how minor’s images are used and put an end to unethical use of images and stories of minors.

The post Share My Story, not My Face appeared first on Skills Maishani.

Skills Maishani is a platform that provides much-needed life skills and knowledge to young people in the areas of safety and wellness, finance, legal knowledge in respect to labour, intellectual property laws, and sexual and reproductive health. Skills Maishani, which loosely translated to skills for life, as the name suggests seeks to inculcate general life skills that every child and young person requires and which they would need for the rest of their lives. These are skills meant to nurture and assist young people in understanding the world in all its socio-economic and political forms and help them navigate through society, education, career, etc. 

We believe that our teens and youths are unique individuals who need to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically and socially hence Skills Maishani is dedicated to providing that stepping stone in capacity building and providing the necessary knowledge which puts them in an advantageous position to avert incidences of falling victim to fraudsters, drug use, other criminal activities, teenage pregnancies and provides an understanding of their health and general well being together with knowledge on how to navigate through their chosen career paths, management of finances and other job related social and legal skills.

Our objectives

1. To support and provide mentorship to young people in acquiring life skills and knowledge 

2. To engage young people in interactive learning focusing on building confidence, improving self-awareness, and encouraging initiative taking.

Our vision

Promote the learning, sharing, growth, and development of life skills.

Our why

To create an enabling environment for children and youth where they can garner essential life skills which in turn improve their social skills and broaden their capacity to navigate through life and mitigate challenges.

Target

Our child and youth programs target pre and adolescents 11-17 years and young adults 18-25 years both boys and girls who require flexible, cost-effective, and measurable solutions to solve challenges and promote holistic development.

Life Skills Programs under Skills Maishani

1  Teen Wellness Program

2   Youth Wellness Program

3  Work Ready Youth Program

Skills Maishani Life Skills Programs help teens and youths: ( gotten from kidshape)

To build Mental Strength through

Resilience

Making smart choices

To create healthy social habits through:

• Boosting positive body image & self-esteem
• Understanding their social environment
• Learn their rights and responsibilities
• Understand the world of work

To develop well-rounded individuals to:

• Mitigate risky behaviors

      1  Teen Wellness Program

Watoto (children) wellness program was established to impact adolescent teens with out-of-school life skills vital for the children’s physical, mental and social well-being. Wellness skills necessitate an out of the box thinking and enhances critical and decision-making capabilities. It creates a fertile ground for engagement and interactions among children leading to improved morale and boosting confidence and cooperation with peers.

•  Safety 4 Teenies

This program aims at inculcating children with knowledge on how to keep safe through observing their environment, detecting danger, and learning how to mitigate and report it. As the world embraces technological advancements and career parents, the focus on child security has become paramount. Children ought to learn how to keep safe at an early age to prevent or inhibit instances of child trafficking, peer pressure, molestation, and other forms of violence meted at them or people around them.

• Jifunze  Body Care

This program aims at imparting general knowledge of one’s body, anatomy, overall reproductive health, and the concept of personal space. The target group is adolescent children whose developmental stage leads to curiosity and discomfort towards their bodies. This program would equip children with knowledge of health and wellness, and reproductive health and embody the values of body autonomy. 

2. Youth Wellness Program

• Safety 4 Youths

Young people require a constant flow of information on matters pertaining to personal security. Having attained majority age does not negate the fact that they are young, active, and susceptible to peer pressure. Safety 4 Youths program is categorized into two;

A) Online safety skills educate youths on how to navigate the internet world by learning how to make smart choices with regard to online behavior.

B) GBV safety skills educate young people with knowledge on what constitutes abuse, mitigation and 

• My Reproductive Health

3.  Work Ready Youth Program

• Legal skills

This is a program aimed at impacting young people with basic legal education on matters pertaining to labour, employment, and intellectual property. Many young people find themselves green yet as adults of a majority age they are expected to earn a living and come up with innovations. As such they are susceptible to unfair employment terms, unfavorable working conditions, poor pay, and theft of ideas and innovations by unscrupulous companies. Legal life skills would equip young people with the necessary knowledge to navigate the working world.

• Financial Literacy

This category is aimed at providing young people with prerequisite tools to understand the concept of money, saving through banks, SACCOs, credit management, and most importantly the legal liabilities attached to money such as taxes, licenses, etc.

Our Activities

Advocacy – Use of digital media to disseminate information on life skills to teenagers and young adults on the development of life skills.

Training; training of educators, parents and others who are interested in non-formal methods of developing life skills.

Membership; cooperation with schools to take part in life skills programs through the introduction of Skills Maishani Club for teens and young adults.

Mentoring: cooperation with international educational groups and institutes in promoting transformational social change through mentorship.

Network building: Participation in international conferences and seminars.

The post Skills Maishani – Who We Are appeared first on Skills Maishani.