Creating safe spaces for young people to learn about and grow their emotional well-being.
Kumkucha Quest (KQ) is an innovative, youth-led consortium of Kenyan community-based organizations working to address conflict, injustice, and the impacts of trauma. As healing-centered activists, our consortium consists of SambaSports Youth Agenda and the Green String Network as technical partner.
Targeting 10-24 year olds
Youth in Kenya - representing upwards of 60% of the population - experience chronic stress as a result of high levels of poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, police harassment, and exposure to traumatic events such as violent crime, electoral violence, witnessing extra-judicial killings, and terrorism. There are also high levels of fear and stigma in Kenya when it comes to talking about mental health. It is these issues we are looking to address through peer-support groups and youth mentoring programming.
Trauma affects young people in many different ways, some of which they may not even realize. Accordingly, they need to understand emotional distress before they can begin to individually and collectively heal from it, become resilient to it, and break down the harm it has caused.
KQ highlights young people's lived experiences to improve connections amongst children, youth, and adults, thereby creating peer support groups that can be used as learning platforms for issues of mental health, and for promoting peace and justice. The program uses music, storytelling, and the arts as mediums for emotional regulation and for helping young people cope with emotional distress.
Young people are the focus of KQ because, as the leaders of tomorrow, they are best positioned to realize long-lasting social well-being for themselves, their wider community, and the generations to come.
What Participants Are Saying
“I use to be a lonely person and not greet anyone, but now I greet a lot of people and I have friends.”
— Male Participant in Kwale
“I used to suffer so much pain from conflicts, but now I reach out to the people concerned and reconcile, and my heart remains lighter.”
— Male Participant in Majengo
“If I notice anyone is not okay or is stressed out, I have the capacity to sit them down to guide to guide or counsel them on the ways forward.”
— Female participant
Contact us to discuss adding KQ to your youth programs.
info@green-string.org
+254 722 205 484