Dubbelleuk

The past five years have seen considerable growth in the education sector especially with the introduction of free primary education. This growth however has not been able to spill over to the slum based informal institutions commonly referred to as the Non Formal Schools. Such schools are community based and strive to cater for the low income slum population who would otherwise be unable to secure enrollment in other government funded public schools or the more expensive private schools. These schools are however widely unrecognized by the government apparently due to their informal setup and this has greatly hampered their growth and level of service to the same communities. The schools are more often than not poorly structured, poorly equipped and grossly understaffed and the students learn under diverse conditions. They are largely dependent on donations from well wisher as most of their pupils are from poor, single parent or orphaned families who can barely afford to pay the meager school fee. Matters are further complicated by the fact that some run feeding programs as an impetus to the kids. Needless to say to some of the students this is the only meal they partake in a day.

Thousands of miles away in the Netherlands an Organization has for the past five years or so taken it upon itself to cushion children of deprived background from the hardship that is synonymous with their lives by holding an annual event in Bloemendaal. Dubbelleuk (www.dubbelleuk.nl) is a non profit making Dutch foundation created by young parents who, as professional volunteers try to add some extra value to society. Established in 2000, the foundation consists of various people from different walks of life. The word 'dubbelleuk' literally means 'double fun'.

Each year Dubbelleuk organizes a theatre event in the Netherlands for thousands of socially deprived children (i.e. children of drug parents, abused children, orphans etc). The philosophy is to offer them an enjoyable afternoon of high quality theatre, music and dance alongside free food and drinks. The event is sponsored by companies and private persons who provide donations in the form of cash, supplies and personnel. The event whose underlying theme is theatre brings children from disadvantaged backgrounds together in a fun-filled day in a bid to preserve, in their hearts, that soft spot for love and happiness despite the goings on around them thus their slogan 'Children need to smile'.

Apart from the performances the event also offers nourishment to the kids. Dubbelleuk has in the past used proceeds from their event to reach out to International Children's Organizations with similar objectives like War Child (www.warchild.org) and Childslife Trust (www.childslife.org). One institution that has been a beneficiary is Kibera based Stara Rescue Centre which caters for AIDS orphaned children. Dubbelleuk has supported this centre to some degree through the Childslife Trust.

However last year to celebrate their 5th Anniversary Dubbelleuk saw it fit to take their theatre event abroad and through their link with Sarakasi Trust picked on Nairobi's non-formal (primary) schools as a deserving target. Plans were put in place to hold arguably the greatest theatre tour the city has ever witnessed. With Sarakasi providing logistic and artistic support, the Nairobi School's Tour visited 26 schools in 5 days and reached over 16000 students.

The tour kicked off on 30th of October 2006 at Kibera's Jeremic Adventist School combining students from the same school, Three Bells Academy, St. Christine Children Centre and Stara Rescue Centre before moving to Gatoto, Mukuru, Ngunyumu and Mutirithia Schools the following day. 1st October saw the tour visit Mwangaza, Kabiro, Riverside Memorial and Christian Women Centre Schools and Galilee, Pehucci Children Centre, Three In One and Moyo Academy on 2nd October. The event wound up on Friday the 3rd at Mathare Polytechnic with students from St. James Feeding Program, Rosa Mystica, Valley View Academy and Eastland Education Centre.

Dubbelleuk is currently sponsoring a Training Program in all the above schools in acrobatics, dance and drumming conducted by trainers from Sarakasi.