Democratic Learning Services

⚠️ SCAM ALERT for CBO project leaders. Please watch out for any individuals or groups claiming association with international organizations like CARE International or similar aid groups in Africa. They then ask you to pay *them* a fee to qualify for assistance.

Real aid groups *never* demand cash transfers, mobile money fees, or processing payments for jobs or grants.

💰 Anyone who asks for a processing fee, or asks you to pay to join the organisation to get assistance is running a donation fraud scheme (scam).

I see some of the project leaders I work with are posting about a specific "person" (English surname and name) offering assistance through Care International. They ask you to pay $9 to join. It is a scam.

Such basic safe-sounding English names are frequently used by online fraudsters operating fake profiles on social media and community marketplace groups to run advance-fee and peer-to-peer selling scams. The photos and AI generated videos are fake.

Stay safe out there. Do your research!

To any CBOs offering our courses: If you make a social media post about offering the courses, we expect that you mention the courses were donated by Democratic Learning Services.
✅Clear statement inside the social media post saying that DLS donated the course.
❌ Not adding me or DLS to a long list of groups that did not donate anything.
🖐🏽 I understand you are tagging other organisations to get funding, but please do not put me or DLS into that list!
🦁🦁 The same goes for mentioning the Dolls & Lions Project.
Thank you!
Elsa

International Day of Play was yesterday (11 June)

Siku ya Kimataifa ya Mchezo - 11 Juni
🧒🏿👦🏾👦🏽👧🏻👧🏿

Kwa nini watoto hucheza? Kucheza si kwa wanadamu pekee. Wanyama pia hucheza. Kupitia mchezo, tunajifunza kufanya mambo tunayohitaji kufanya tunapokua. Tunajifunza jinsi ya kufanya kazi katika jamii yetu kupitia kucheza.

Why do children play? Play is not unique to humans. Animals also play. Through play, we learn to do the things we need to do when we grow up. We learn how to function in our community through playing.

Mara ya kwanza tunajifunza tu kutambua nyuso na kujua miili yetu wenyewe. Tunapozeeka tunaanza kutangamana na watu wengine na hapo ndipo tunapozidiwa kwa urahisi kabisa. K**a watoto tunataka kila kitu kiwe jinsi tunavyotaka wawe. Baadhi ya watu kubaki hivyo. :)

At first we just learn to recognise faces and get to know our own bodies. As we get older we start interacting with other people and that is when we get overwhelmed quite easily. As children we want everything to be the way we want them to be. Some people remain like that. :)

Kujifunza kwamba sisi sio kitovu cha ulimwengu ni muhimu sana. Tunahitaji kucheza na wengine na hatimaye kuishi na kufanya kazi pamoja na wengine. Kwa hilo tunapaswa kuelewa kwamba matendo yetu yana matokeo na kwamba kila mtu ana hisia. Utaona jinsi watoto wanavyokua katika mchezo wao wa kufikiria na jinsi wanavyojifunza polepole kudhibiti hisia zao.

To learn that we are not the centre of the universe is quite important. We need to play with others and eventually to live and work with others. For that we need to understand that our actions have consequences and that everyone has feelings. You will see how children develop in their imaginative play and how they gradually learn to regulate their feelings.

K**a mtu mzima mlezi wa mtoto unaweza kumsaidia mtoto kwa kupendekeza hatua mbadala za kusaidia katika udhibiti. Usimlazimishe mtoto kufuata mapendekezo yako, lakini toa usaidizi inapofaa, na uwe tayari kumsaidia ikiwa mtoto atafadhaika au kutenda kwa njia ambayo inaweza kuwa hatari kwa watoto wengine.

As an adult carer of the child you are able to assist the child by suggesting alternative actions to help with regulation. Do not force the child to follow your suggestions, but offer assistance when it is suitable, and always be available to help if the child gets frustrated or acts in a way that can be dangerous to other children.

Elsa Raubenheimer Lilienfeld

Image: Dolls & Lions Project celebration Future for All in Kalobeyei, Kenya.
Photographer: Matendo Matendo Nzika

Yesterday the Dolls & Lions Project team celebrated by sharing joy with 60 children at SACVI in Kakuma. Despite the rain and damage in some areas of the camp the celebration went ahead smoothly. Thank you to the team at SACVI and, as always, to the Dolls & Lions Team.
Matendo Nzika and the talented team of dollmakers: Zawadi, Mercy, Noella, Mpenzi for making the first batch of smaller dolls, allowing us to share some ugali as well.
at Refugee Resilience and Hope RRH CBO for liaison, organisation and presentation.
Enjoy your day!
Elsa
Dolls and Lions Project
Democratic Learning Services

When we aren't training, the Dolls & Lions Project continues in the community.

All the best to the community mentors taking the Nurture+ Kakuma project (by FHE) into the wider community of Kakuma and Kalobeyei this week to educate pregnant and lactating mothers (up to the first year). This exciting project focuses on health and nutrition, including microgardening skills.
I hope the 5-day DLS training and booklet on maternal health and child development come in handy. Remember to check your WhatsApp on Fridays for additional materials.
The Nurture+ Kakuma Project is run by Farming and health education."FHE". It This project was a finalist in the Good Start Challenge providing funding for this stage. Good work by Marcelin Petro and his team.
(Google Good Start Challenge for future challenges.)
Elsa at DLS

As we head into the end-of-year break, many of the organisations presented here will be running holiday activities for children. A great way to make it exciting for children is to tell stories. Here are some good story resources.

Pangea Education has 40+ African-themed children's ebooks available in English in their digital library: https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/lzftf/ - this is a lovely library!

Global Storybooks: The digital storybooks are presented online where you can select from many languages and choose the literacy level. You can even play the audio so you don't have to do the reading yourself! Very entertaining. For African languages, start at https://storybooksafricanlanguages.net/. But there are many others available under https://globalstorybooks.net/.

Bloom is another great site with many good options available: https://bloomlibrary.org/

Nalibali is a favourite of mine with a free digital library: https://nalibali.org/stories/ -- they also offer online training for teachers on encouraging reading, etc.

These should help educators find stories to share.

Stay safe and happy reading!

Elsa at Democratic Learning Services

Pangea Educational Development's Bookshelf | FlipHTML5

See proposed crochet training. Organisations that can get the small amount of funding together to do this, may contact us to discuss.

🧶PROPOSED CROCHET TRAINING🧶

💰Note that we do not currently have funding available to do this, but we have the capacity to bring crochet training to you (in Kakuma/Kalobeyei, Turkana, Kenya) if you have funding or can secure some.

❤️ It is extremely affordable compared to most training, at approximately:
US$100 to $115 or
AU$150 to $175
per cohort of 15 trainees (6 sessions)!

It is ideal to ask your individual or small groups of donors to fund such training.

Full details below. We like to be very clear about our costs to help people understand where the money goes!

*Planning*

15 students per cohort
1 facilitator + 1 assistant
6 half-day sessions

*More details:*
We propose teaching trainees to make a baby hat (beanie) and/or baby socks (booties) depending on their progress.

In the process they will learn skills they can use to help their own families and to make items to sell. The crochet technique is adaptable to all thicknesses of yarn and can later be used to make other garments, toys, blankets or mats.

Students will leave the training course with a crochet hook and enough wool to make 1+ baby hat/s or 3+ pairs of baby socks. (The wool to make these items again costs 60-120ksh. As part of the course, we show trainees how to price any items they resell to cover the cost of materials and their manufacturing time.)

*Suggested training length:*
We suggest 6 sessions of 2+ hours each. In this time they will easily be able to finish the first hat and start a second.

*Facilities required:*
A shaded area where 15 participants can be seated. Often participants prefer to sit on groundsheets or mats to do craft and needlework. Please ensure a clean space with tarpaulin or mats, especially if you do not have sufficient chairs. Nearby access to a toilet and water is a requirement.

This course can definitely be taught in Kakuma/Kalobeyei without the internet, data and a screen, but if available, we might use it.

Languages catered for:
Kiswahili
English
By special arrangement: Arabic & Somali assistance.
Ask if you need other options and we might be able to help.

-------
*Materials required:*
As part of the course, participants will be provided with a:
*Student Pack (costing approx 500ksh each)*
The student will use these materials during the training, and will keep the crochet hook and remaining materials.

* Instruction sheet
* Crochet hook
* 5 balls of wool
Optional:
* Zip lock bag? If available locally.
-------
*COSTING*

*Materials*
Costing for the materials in pack:
500ksh x 15 = 7,000ksh
300ksh for demonstration materials.
>>Subtotal: 7,500ksh

*Facilitation costs*

*Facilitator per cohort
500ksh x 6 sessions =3,000ksh

Assistant facilitator per cohort
300ksh x 6 sessions =1,800ksh

*If needed. Transport per cohort.
Approx 300ksh per session
300 x 6 = 1,800ksh

>>Subtotal: 4,800 to 6,600ksh

-----------
*ESTIMATED TOTAL:*
Per cohort of 15 trainees for 6 sessions, including facilitation and student pack of materials:

12,300 to 14,100ksh.

That is approximately:
US$100 to $115
AU$150 to $175

Note:
This does NOT include refreshments or a certificate celebration. Those funds can be spent better on training more cohorts.
If you have access to funding to add it, that will be up to you.
________________

WHAT NEXT?

If your organisation has funds available to offer this to your community, we can go ahead to organise it from next year (Jan 2026). We are currently fully booked.

You will need to clearly state your intention to and ability to offer the course. There might be a waiting period before it can be offered. Once we have agreed on a date, you can start a waiting list, restricted to 15 students.

If you do not have the funding available but will be interested, you can continue to follow this chat and watch progress.

IDEAS?

If you have possible sponsors who might be willing to help you, you could ask them to sponsor this particular short course.
As you will be able to share very clear costing, they might be willing to help.

The team offering training are from the Dolls & Lions Project and we have a proven record in Kakuma. Your sponsors can check us out on Facebook.

WHO DO YOU PLAN TO HELP?

It is up to you to share with proposed donors/sponsors which sector of the community you would like to help. This course will be suitable mainly for these groups:

* Adult females (including widows and the elderly)
* Young females (including adolescents, pregnant women and young mothers)
* Children of both genders (10 years and older, including orphans). See note below.
• If men in your community are interested to learn, they may also apply to go on your waiting list! We do not discriminate.

Note: A person needs to have a fairly good memory, strong hand grip and good hand-eye coordination to crochet. Unfortunately that means that some severely disabled children/adults, very young children and very old people might not be able to master crochet skills. Please check that trainees will be able to do the course before approaching us.

NOT IN KAKUMA OR KALOBEYEI?
This is not the best option, but we can also teach online, or train facilitators to teach your community. You would need to have access to an internet-connected screen in a classroom and you would have to pay your own connection costs (internet/data) or ask a donor to help with that. You would still need to supply each participant with a starter pack of materials. See details above.