The Place for Culture Based Experiential Learning
The mainstream education system has reduced home based transmission of indigenous knowledge and instead promoted the process of assimilation of indigenous children into mainstream alien lifestyle. The experiential learning of cultural practices and skills are about practical learning by young people on culture through participation and training by elders.
The strategy applies multiple approaches that are aimed at stimulating, promoting and encouraging culture club members to acquire cultural skills and be able to participate in the cultural practices and social economic affairs of their communities.
This is a new initiative by Kivulini Trust that nurtures young people to be the future leaders and custodians of their natural and cultural heritage in order to promote adaptive socio-cultural transformation.
The learning centers that are sprouting across the region aim to reorient and cultivate proud, respectful, culturally grounded, visionary youth who are aware of themselves, their identity and practicing positive ethnicity.
Through documentation and publishing culture and indigenous knowledge, these centers aim to develop information knowledge banks from where current and future generations can retrieve their ancestral Indigenous knowledge that, if necessary, will help them go back in their communities’ historical timeline and recreate their diminished or lost languages and cultural practices documented and archived in print and electronic formats.
Finally, our program recognizes the importance of contemporary universal education and the critical role it plays in the enhancement of personal development and social growth. The transmission Indigenous Knowledge and values revitalizes the cultural practices, promotes relationships among generations and combined with formal education, offers the child the best of both worlds.
The initiative is driven by the following vision and outcomes:
Progressive societies that cherishes and celebrates their culture, respect their natural environment and enjoying social harmony and self-made prosperity.
Peaceful communities that value the sanctity of life and celebrate their natural resources and heritage through actions, music and documentation
Spontaneous birth of vibrant youth for culture movements where languages and indigenous knowledge can find space to shelter, germinate, propel and prosper into the future.
The Centers’ activities are developed to provide cultural education materials and teaching for children and youth in order to mold, empower and inspire them through:
Experiential learning, Culture clubs and inter-school forums, Essay and Art competitions on cultural issues, Excursions and outdoors, Documentation of bio-cultural heritage, Training in filming and video editing and Cultural festivals