Young people have been affected by the secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with serious consequences for mental health and well-being. The youths in low-income countries are especially vulnerable to economic hardship and disrupted education, and least likely to receive adequate psychosocial care.
As part of the Youth Excel implementation research activity, The Youth Cafe will conduct a 6-month project activity that is seeking to equip young people with key media literacy skills: critical thinking, fact-checking, online safety, social media verification, and quality assessment of online information and their sources through a dedicated handbook.
The Youth Cafe recently made and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding agreement with GiveDirectly Inc., thereby forming a partnership between the two organizations. The purpose of this Unconditional COVID-19 Cash Transfer Program partnership is to contribute to enhanced economic empowerment within identified locations of Nairobi and ultimate eradication of poverty which in turn will positively impact the lives of the beneficiaries and communities. This program focuses on the disbursement of emergency grants (cash grants) by GiveDirectly to people mainly living in informal settlements in Kenya in which The Youth Café currently works. As a result of this partnership, thousands of youths have been able to benefit from this program where they each received a monthly disbursement of $30 for period of 4 months.
This project has trained 1,200 young people from selected universities and communities on digital storytelling for empowered voices. Community Media for Youth (CM4Y) is a community-based transformative learning partnership that seeks to empower marginalised communities and groups in Kenya through the development of active community media partnerships, knowledge sharing and training. The project aims to utilise information, media and communications technology to build community capacity and empower the voices of the disenfranchised. Established 6years ago, CM4Y continues to expand through active collaboration with our partners, CM4Y explores ways in which community radio and media can be made accessible to diverse Kenyan communities so they may harness the benefits of the digital age.
