Jambo! Karibu Kenya. Hello and welcome to Kenya. My name is John Bigingi, I am a father of three, married to my beautiful wife Sarah, a reverend in my community, I work as an Uber Driver, I am the Director of a (pre) primary school called Bignet Education Centre and… I am a proud Local Guide!
The best part of being a Local Guide? Allowing people to discover local treasures around Nairobi!
Working as an Uber driver in Kenya, I often transport tourists who ask me to show them the real Nairobi – not just the tourist hotspots. Also locals ask me for the best places to enjoy a meal, particularly the popular Kenyan dish “nyama choma” with “chapatti”. As I know every street and corner store in the greater Nairobi area, I can give them expert advice.
As a Local Guide, I can share my recommendations with even more people by putting these treasured places on the maps… Google Maps! This way everyone gets the chance to explore a different part of the city, to support local businesses and to empower local communities.
Have you discovered the treasures around my community, Dagoretti, yet?
The neighborhood in which I live, is called “Dagoretti” and it is off the radar for many people visiting or living in Nairobi. It is, however, worth exploring! Where to go first: Bignet Education Centre!
Bignet Education Centre is a community school that is committed to providing quality and affordable education to 300 children. All of our students are motivated, eager to learn, kind, brave, creative and smart. Growing up under challenging circumstances has made our students resilient.
What are some of the challenges our students face? Most parents work as day laborers and might only earn KSH 100 (or USD 1) a day, so 2/3 of the students do not have textbooks and food is sometimes scarce. Houses in the area are often one room made from metal sheets, and when doing their homework kids will need to share this space with their siblings who are playing, their parents who are cooking and their grandparents who are chatting. Some of our students have mental or physical disabilities, while other students are orphaned.
The power of technology is connecting children within my community to the world
Thanks to the power of technology, the world is more interconnected than ever and also Bignet Education Centre is part of this connection!
Now that Bignet Education Centre is on the map, partners have discovered us and together we are doing our utmost to make sure that our students get all the opportunities they deserve.
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One partner, a fashion label called Moto Moto, organized a fundraiser, collecting more than USD 8,000 from all around the world. The donations ensure that the children have daily school meals and allowed us to build an industrial gas stove, so that meals can be prepared without chopping trees for firewood. Hungry for education is great! But hungry while studying definitely is not.
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Around Kenya, limited access to sanitary pads has unfortunately led to girls dropping out of school. Together with African Girl Foundation, we are putting a stop to that. African Girl Foundation donated female hygiene kits, which include reusable sanitary pads. Thanks to this, girls feel empowered to attend class any time of the year.
- The Giraffe Centre offered our students an educational excursion, during which they learnt about endangered animals and got to feed giraffes!
- The construction company Didar provided our school with new desks for the students. Some desks had broken after one classroom collapsed. Luckily there was no one inside the building at that time.
- Nairobi Art Centre is helping our students express their creative sides through arts and crafts!
We want to step up the game and keep this positive connectivity going!
Our dream? Building a sustainable school, so that classrooms are safe and protected from rain and sun. The school would be fully eco. We would harvest rainwater, recycle wastewater, create biogas for cooking, and use solar power to light classrooms. We would even have a garden, allowing us to grow our own vegetables.
Within the school we want to create a community library with computers, so our students and others from our community can learn, explore and become Local Guides themselves!
