{"id":12,"date":"2019-02-04T21:04:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T21:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/topkenya.com\/\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2019-02-04T21:04:29","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T21:04:29","slug":"a-homepage-section","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/","title":{"rendered":"About TOP Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOP<\/span>\u00a0KENYA<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In a hot summer \u00a0day of March 2016, inside the \u201chut of wisdom\u201d at Joel Omino Secondary School an idea came like an inspiration from God our creator, thusTOP<\/span>\u00a0KENYA<\/span> became into being. Seated there were the \u00a0then school principal James<\/span>\u00a0A. Otieno, Eyal Bloch of David Yellin College Jerusalem, Sebastian Maina of YARD\u00a0Kenya<\/span>\u00a0Lily and Angela of KWEN and Eliud and Tabitha of RODIKenya<\/span>. It was a discovery that so many organizations in\u00a0Kenya<\/span>\u00a0were already implementing Education for Sustainable \u00a0Development (ESD) although referring to it in different titles. Within no time Jane Muthiga of Elimu TV and John of SCOPE\u00a0Kenya<\/span>\u00a0joined the already moving train.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 1st\u00a0leadership connectedness \u00a0course took place in February 2017 at RODIKenya<\/span> in Ruiru. The highlight \u00a0of the course as described by Philippe Scheimann from Israel and I quote ‘is’ The vision of Top<\/span>\u00a0Kenya<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0is to develop young leaders who can use simple approaches to connect with the environment\u201d. While Eyal Bloch, the\u00a0Top<\/span> Global founder says \u00a0\u201cthe objectives are to address basic life necessities using sustainable materials with minimum maintenance costs\u201d. One of the trainee summarized the course like this and I quote:<\/span><\/p>\n


\n\u201c Have you ever wondered how it would feel when all the years you spent in school were reduced to one week and the things that were hard are now more than possible \u00a0and reality. I have shifted from\u00a0\u201cI cannot do it\u201d to I \u00a0can’.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The following February i.e 2018, saw the number of participants trippled \u00a0ie the facilitators and the trainees. The famous world documentary maker Ran Levy Yamamori spent a whole week with enthusiastic young people on creating film documentary and being able to tell their stories. A very energetic man by the name Yaniv Fieldust from Jerusalem had the largest class entitled\u00a0\u201ccreating greenwalls ,for food security and environmental upgrading\u201d\u00a0. Emma \u00a0Aime from France taught the class of \u201c\u00a0up-cycling of food\u201d. This has become the new baby in the house as everyone wants to know what is meant by up-cycling.<\/span><\/p>\n

2019 marks the next level of\u00a0TOP<\/span> movement, on one hand 11 of our graduates were able to transform their home or institute into a TOP<\/span>\u00a0center, a center where visitors can learn and be inspired. On the other hand we are joining hand with ministry of education and as ministry of small business\u00a0and some the\u00a0best<\/span>companies that are leading\u00a0Kenya<\/span> towards meeting the 17 sustainable development goals like GOIP, Green bright, Strauss energy and more<\/p>\n

In Mtwapa we meet the giant Sahajanand special school where the children with various disabilities have created a beautiful greenwall along the school perimeter wall. This school will also host the first African conference of persons with disabilities in July 2019. This confirms disability is not inability.
\nIn Thika Joytown Special School for the physically challenged were the first to create a greenwall<\/a>. Here one of their teacher by the name Mr. Stephen Gichuki having been trained by\u00a0TOP<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0Kenya<\/span> was in January 2019 in Berlin Germany sharing on various ways they use to empower young people and this involves among others establishment of a greenwall.
\nIn Siaya County you meet Senior Principal Madam Florence Okut inspecting her greenwall laid by the students as a result of the farm manager Mr. Mutula who attended the course. The school has been suddenly transformed as one approaches the principal\u2019s office , you will be amazed how food has become \u201cflowers\u201d. They grow anywhere \u00a0including on top<\/span>\u00a0of a septic tank, old wheelbarrows, school bus garage, staff room wall etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joel Omino Mixed Secondary School, the \u00a0pioneer ESD model center has gone places to cascade the message of ESD as a way of life. The then principal Mr.James<\/span>\u00a0Aggrey Otieno (the current\u00a0TOP<\/span>\u00a0Kenya<\/span> coordinator) in September 2016 had the privilege to address a special UNGA (United Nation General Assembly), in New York City on behalf of MASHAV<\/a> (Israeli International Cooperation and Development Agency). In attendance were 23 African head of states and the meeting was hosted by the Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The school has continued to shine the light of ESD not only on the ground but far and wide. In 2018 the students captured the attention of the director general of education \u00a0at their presentation at KEMI during the launch of KEMI ESD model centers.<\/span><\/p>\n

RODI\u00a0Kenya<\/span>, SCOPE\u00a0Kenya<\/span>\u00a0and YARD\u00a0Kenya<\/span>\u00a0have transformed many people\u2019s lives through permaculture programs in schools and prisons in\u00a0Kenya<\/span> and beyond. With this simple technology people like Justus, although hails from tea zone areas \u00a0produces vegetable and energy saving jiko that has created employments\/ jobs. Elimu TV has used its large communication network to reach out with simple technologies, while KWEN has equally transformed the lives of over 4,000 women in Bomet.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOP\u00a0KENYA In a hot summer \u00a0day of March 2016, inside the \u201chut of wisdom\u201d at Joel Omino Secondary School an idea came like an inspiration from God our creator, thusTOP\u00a0KENYA became into being. Seated there were the \u00a0then school principal James\u00a0A. Otieno, Eyal Bloch of David Yellin College Jerusalem, Sebastian Maina of YARD\u00a0Kenya\u00a0Lily and Angela … Continue reading “About TOP Kenya”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/topkenya.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}