Genfest Kenya

Greetings from Kenya. We held the Genfest in August this year. We have been preparing for this Genfest since the beginning of this year. We did a lot of activities to try to raise enough funds for the success of the event. We cooked and sold samosa, Chapatis and Mandazis, we held a cultural day event to bring the Nairobi community together and to get funds from it also, we opened a bar during the focolarini retreat here in the centre, among others. In the end, we were fortunate enough to have one of our own represent us in Brazil for the main Genfest and fund ourselves for the Local Genfest in August.

We decided that it would be nice to merge the Mariapolis and the Local Genfest, and at that time we recorded about 160 youths and about 50 adults present. It was really nice seeing how everyone took part in one activity or the other. What amused us was how the topics were relatable to both the younger ones and old ones. The thought of everyone of all ages seated together and having something to say about a certain topic was really nice. The most engaging topic was about the struggle of the youth in the country.
(Side note: the Gen Z generation had been having demonstrations across the country for 3months, asking for the government’s accountability, and many of the youths were being killed in the peaceful demonstrations.)

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It was really nice seeing that the other generation was empathising with us the youth. The other heated topic was about the neglected boy child in our society. In the spirit of unity and love, the conclusion to such discussions only ended up making us even more
united and understanding of each other’s situations

The topic of mental health was in itself touching, in that it cut across all age groups. This is because many people in the country don’t really value their mental health hence taking their indicators lightly. The term mental health was defined to us as a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. Then we were informed of some of the signs for example feeling unhappy, withdrawing from others, and having low energy, these are just a few of the many signs. Not forgetting what the causatives are first one being it can be in the family history.

We concluded this wonderful event with performances from the youth, the floor was open to everyone regardless of their age. We went and had sports for peace session and later finished our feast with a bonfire. This was a true testament of how one we are, we just need a platform to be able to understand each other. As the Gen we agreed to finish this up in December on our mini, week-long, Genschool. Uno!