Silantoi Youth Initiative is a community-based organization that uses sports to empower children, women and youths in the rural and urban areas of Narok County, Kenya. SYI uses sports integrated with life skills to educate and build capacity of children, women and youths to access quality basic education/scholarships programs, Gender based violence, sexual reproductive health rights, sustainable livelihood, challenges of forced early marriage, Female Genital Mutilation, mental health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
The project is also designed to increase the number of boys and men who support and champion for the fundamental rights and freedoms of girls and young women from traditional Maasai norms that allow early marriages and female genital mutilation. One of the objective of the program is also to engage boys and young men as agents of positive change in challenging the traditional Maasai culture, attitudes and norms that threaten the lives of young teenage girls ,as well as encouraging the boys and young men to become actively involved in preventing and responding to Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Early marriages, Female circumcision, female school dropout as well as promotion of reproductive health and rights of girls and young women in Narok county through sports for development.
As an entry point, Silantoi Youth Initiative has identified the need to put in place appropriate strategies to help children, women and youths to grow and develop non-violent values and effective interpersonal skills that will enable them to respect and appreciate differences. Furthermore, the Initiative forms the basis of providing a breakthrough in the cycle of violence, and hence averts the violence that the whole community is engulfed in as potential future leaders. Children, youth and women are the ones that effectively become positive change agents for a better world.
Silantoi Youth Initiative works for, or hopes to work towards the improvement of the community needs and equipped children, women and youth with some life skills, techniques and knowledge on conflict identification, management and transformation as well as champion for women Rights.
At Silantoi Youth Initiative, we have four main goals:
We believe in our mission, vision, and core values. These three elements are the driving force behind our initiative. They inspire us to change the world every single day.
