Lukenya Pillars of Transformation (LPT) is a Kenyan Non-profit, Student led Community Based Organization that seeks to build a people’s capacity for self-reliant skills through projects and initiatives, active participation in training and mentorship programs and thereby improving the standards of life.

The Lukenya Community is one of the major communities surrounding Daystar University Athi River Campus and is located approximately 50 kilometers south of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. It is home to close to 10,000 people. It is a commercial as well as an educational center which is rapidly urbanizing due to a high demand of houses and food products. Being an educational center, Daystar Athi River campus has seen an influx of students from within and outside Kenya coming to pursue their careers and improve their living standards. This has further attracted a large number of people from outside coming to invest in rental houses and in business. The University has offered employment to close to 2,500 people majority being security guards, cooks, drivers and cleaners.

LPT has two mayor projects underway: One sponsorship program with the main aim to boost the less fortunate children at Daystar Mulandi, especially in terms of paying their school fees which is only Ksh 450 to 500 KES (not even 5 USD) for the pre unit children per term. This program will have a tremendous impact not only in the child’s life but also endorse their families‘ financial stability.The second mayor program is a mentorship program with the goal to connect the youth in the community with individuals who are fully skilled in their area of interest. Currently the mentors are undergoing a two week training before they are connected with their mentees.

Support the students of Lukenya Community in their future-oriented and sustainable project and either donate directly or share and like their contents on your preferred channels!

In 1966 Fehmi Gönüleğlendiren, a young man from Adana in Turkey arrived in the German city Mönchengladbach. He was one of the so called guest workers (Gastarbeiter) who came to help building up post-war Germany. He came among throusands of other unprofessional workers from Turkey. They were living in collective accommodations, ten to twelve men sharing a room. Because of the shift work in the factories, there was a permanent coming and going, day and night.

Fehmi Gönüleğlendiren was the grandfather of Çağdaş Eren Yüksel. The young filmmaker never got to know his grandfather, because he died much too early in a car accident. But now, Yüksel – who is known for his film „Asyland“ – is retracing his family’s roots and thus putting up a historical phenomenon to discussion which is more than ever an up-to-date topic in Germany: „I want to tell the story of the first generation of Turks who came to Germany in the 1960s,“ he says. „It’s our last chance, because these people will leave us soon.“

For several months now, he has been talking intensively with first-generation guest workers as with Germans who recall the 1960s and 1970s. The first days in rainy Germany. The first Turkish neighbor. The first German-Turkish love.

Çağdaş  Yüksel processes the stories he collected in his film „Gleis 11“, meaning „Track 11“ which was the arrival track of guest workers at the station in Mönchengladbach. Thanks to the stories told, Yüksel provides the audience with a glimpse of the living conditions and circumstances at that time. „I want to tell the untold stories,“ he explains.

The team of young filmmakers involved in this project are in need of funding in order to continue their production of this independently produced film which is planned to be released in spring 2018- more than half a century after Yüksel’s grandfather arrived on track 11. Feel encouraged to donate on the crowdfunding platform startnext, or like and share this great and necessary project!

As fighting rages in Aleppo, Mosul, Sana’a, Donetsk, Kunduz, and beyond, and even hospitals and schools have been hit, millions of civilians are trapped in the crossfire. Many families have disabled, elderly, or young dependents who are difficult to evacuate, or cannot afford to flee, so they are at high risk of getting killed or injured.

How does one speed up evacuations? Prepare bomb shelters? Convert items at home to shield family members with a reinforced shielded bed, a combat crib, or a sniper blind?  How do you zone living space and courtyards for risk of gunfire or sniper fire? What alternate foods can one eat during shortages in isolation?

There are many medical, humanitarian, and mine action response teams aiming to help them, but the realities of war mean that most of that help comes months or even years after the community has already been destroyed. Therefore, most civilians are left to their own devices in the lead up and first months of violence and isolation. That’s why the non-profit organisation Humanitarian Bazaar decided to create the War Survivors Advisory as a multimedia project harvesting the wisdom of survivors of past wars to create advocacy and training tools to help protect civilians newly at risk. The main goal of the NGO with its vast network of aid workers, war journalists, and refugee advisers, is to provide a more local, organic approach to “pre-combat” civilian protection.

You can support this important project by donating an amount of your choice and like and share the contents of Humanitarian Bazaar. You may also support them by signing up for one of their webinars or workshops or contribute your own knowledge and skills in case you are a war survivor. 

Credits: Humanitarian Bazaar

Photo: Daniel J. Gerstle