This year I have also been nominated again for the Legacy award, the highest recognition in the Diana Award. I also got nominated for the Children’s Peace Prize. This is huge!! Surely, I cannot continue to do it alone. I am not the messiah! If I managed to recruit my sister and 160+ boys and girls in my football team, then I am certain I can influence you to create your own kind of ripple for change…
Kikao is a Swahili word. It means Gathering / Coming together.
Where I’m from - the Green City in the sun - The place of cool waters, it is the only way things got done. People often came together to plan their course in many things ranging from when a child was born, there would be a kikao for the child’s naming ceremony.
When the rains came, there would be a kikao for various things, like deciding which crops to plant and which teams would participate in the initial planting session and then which teams would participate in the maintenance of the crops until full bloom and then finally which teams would be in charge of the harvesting.
Basically, people were more in tune with each other and their environment and there was a solid sense of responsibility all around. When a person died, the whole community would be involved. The grief was shared.
Honestly, I am still trying to figure out at what point people moved away from this togetherness to the individual selfishness that I was born to find.
I guess by now you get why Kikao is such a significant thing for me.
Cultures, I don’t have to break down.
Kikao Cultures is my WHAT.
WHERE- all around the world.
WHY to make sure that my peers and the future Generations all have a shot at setting up a decent future for themselves and the future generations.
When I received the Diana Award for the work that I have been doing to push SDG #4 Education, I decided that I am not the only one that can be a hero. All my peers can be heroes. Just like I did not know a lot of my peers do not know we have rights. If you are new here read my previous post. The UNCRC is important. I will break it down in the future. We can use our voices! We can drive change! Because I am doing it, and there is impact, I will show you how, we can do it together.
Our forefathers had many sit-downs to discuss many things over time. One such that caught my attention was the United Nations General Assembly session that took place in 2015, 193 member countries agreed to rally together to make our world a better place to correct the wrongs that are happening in the world.
Their kikao brought about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also known as the Global Goals, an ambitious 15 year plan to - at the very bottom line ensure that we can come together involving everyone and leaving no one behind in creating the world we want.
I have not come to this alone. I have people who have helped my 13year-old brain to understand all this and now because I got it, I want to make sure my peers get it too. It is crucial to take a stand to use our voice, our hands, our influence, out perspectives and get to work about this. How, in the most fun ways. Do you want to be a part of the Kikao Cultures?
There is a lot of material I will share through the Kikao Cultures Platforms. Be sure to look out for it in our social media - Facebook, Instagram, twitter.
WE CAN BE THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE!!