Get ready to meet some of the world’s cutest Global Citizens. As the Designer and Social Media Officer here at the Global Citizen office in the UK, I spend quite a lot of my day trying to get as many people as possible to join the movement to end extreme poverty. Then I took three weeks off to work for the small charity I founded in Kenya - Nakuru Children’s Project - and guess what? I found my kids in Kenya LOVED the idea of becoming Global Citizens!
So let me introduce them a little. Our newest Global Citizens attend a public primary school in the suburbs of Nakuru, a city in Kenya. They are all 10 or 11-years-old, and are bouncy, crazy, energetic little things! They love school, although public schools in Kenya are faced with a lot of challenges. Our newest Global Citizens learn in classes of 70 pupils, with just one teacher per class. Many of them come from backgrounds of extreme poverty, where just getting a hot meal in the evening can be a problem. They all work very hard - writing and reading all day at school, then walking home to cook, clean and wash clothes for their families. A number of them are refugees from South Sudan, displaced by the civil war but determined to stay in school and learn. But - as you’ll see - they love to laugh, sing, dance and play. They are hopeful of a better future for not only themselves, but the whole world!
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project
I sat my kids down in class, and asked them ‘when you hear of bad things happening to other people, how does that make you feel?’. The whole class - all 74 of them - shouted to me: “it makes us feel bad”, “very unhappy” and “we feel like we want to help those people”. I asked: “does it matter where they live? Do we only care about people who live in Kenya?” The children told me a resounding ‘NO!’. They hear news from all over the world, in the same way that we do. Bad news makes them feel bad. I explained to them that this means they are Global Citizens - they don’t just care about themselves, but for all people, no matter where they are born.
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project
Together, we talked about the best ways that they could be Global Citizens, and help make the world a better place. I asked them to complete the sentence: “A Global Citizen should…” - and here’s what they came up with:
A Global Citizen should love others
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project
The children told me “you can love others by helping them!”; “you should share your things with your friends. If your friend doesn’t have a pencil you should lend them yours”; and “you should love your friends, family and your teachers because they are trying to help you”.
A Global Citizen should be kind
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project
“If you’re kind to people they’ll also be kind to you!” - “If everyone in the world was kind to each other, nobody would have problems and there would be no fighting”
A Global Citizen should love the planet
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project
“Because we live on the planet so we need to keep it nice for everybody!”
A Global Citizen should be happy!
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project
This really made me melt inside. The kids told me ‘we should be happy so that we can make other people happy’. When I asked ‘which things are you happy about in your life?’ they told me ‘we are happy because we have education’, ‘we have shelter’, ‘food!’ and ‘we are happy because our family, teachers and friends love us’.
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project
My children in Nakuru, Kenya, are optimistic about the the future - and so are we.
We are building a movement of people who believe that extreme poverty can and will be ended by 2030. We are taking action so that every child - no matter where they are born - has access to good education, healthcare and human rights. Will you join our little Global Citizens in Kenya and sign up now?
Photo by Zoe Kelland/Nakuru Children’s Project