The Beyond Sciences Initiative Moi University chapter collaboration was started in June 2015 by visiting Immunology faculty from the University of Toronto together with the Department of Immunology, Moi University and students from Moi University. It comprises of faculty and students at the Moi University College of Health Sciences drawn from the School of Medicine, School of Nursing and School of Dentistry. Together with other global BSI collaborations, BSI Moi University aims to bridge the gap in access to academic knowledge through global communication.

Projects

Tumaini Innovation Center for Jenga Vijana

This past weekend the BSI Moi team joined the Tumaini Innovation Center for Jenga Vijana. The street community in Eldoret, as with many other places, is home to many talented youths who find themselves stuck in a bad situation. Jenga Vijana aimed to raise funds for recruiting 1000 street kids/ youths into the Tumaini community where they will have an opportunity to learn how to write and read as well as develop employable skills that will allow long-term sustainability. Aside from helping with fundraising, BSI Moi contributes to Tuamini through mentorship programs, delivering health talks and participating in workshops. To get involved, please contact us through the Facebook page or by email at beyondsciencesinitiative@gmail.com

School Talks

School talks are a prospect we feel can reach out to the tomorrow’s generation – another “small step but giant leap” in the making. On our conquests to various schools we have tried to empower and better the students by talking about being passionate, working smart/professional and even being independent when need be. A topic that has extensively been explored is career choices as it is known to be very crucial and tricky for students, with all the various factors on its weighing scale. Being extraordinary and achieving the highest/best possibility out there have been common themes in many of the talks. These talks have also become opportunities to allow us to reminisce and shed our experiences of school to a large audience in the hopes to also generate learning experiences. Talks touching on aspects of research, philanthropy and self-empowerment have been planned for. The “talking” approach has been shunned and more student interaction and relevant analogies have been encouraged for our visits.

The talks on a higher level give us the chance to improve our public speaking, child interaction and mentor-ship skills so that when the time comes and we’re face to face with those less fortunate, such as the refugees and orphans in our up and ongoing projects, we’re improved individuals and ready.

Tumaini (Hope)

BSI-Moi is in the process of setting a mentorship programme for the children at the Tumaini Centre, Eldoret. The programme allows the youth, most of whom are from vulnerable social settings, to be able to engage with individuals in society showing a genuine concern for their well-being and social development, while developing the sense of confidence and trust towards the society around them, which they are relatively hesitant towards. In addition, the mentorship programme will help allow the children to be able to realise their true goals and potentials with the support and guidance of an individual whom they can confide in as one of their peers and not necessarily a figure of authority.

Kakuma Refugee Camp

The BSI Moi University Chapter seeks to undertake a Kakuma Refugee project in partnership with Windle Trust Kenya. The project seeks to promote the education of students within the secondary schools by providing mentorship to the students The camp has a total of four secondary schools with an enrolment of 3,086 students,. The barriers that exist to education within the camp are complex t and we hope that mentorship to the students will increase motivation and satisfaction to the students, teachers and the community within Kakuma.

Research

BSI is involved in student’s research activities and programmes. We aim to create partnerships among students from the various institutions which will enable them share research ideas and materials and have bidirectional dialogues on matters related to their various fields. BSI also provides different platforms for bidirectional exchange of knowledge with other BSI global partners and members from the different institutions. BSI Moi University chapter participated in the first ever remote online conference in January 2016 spearheaded by the University of Toronto. The conference brought together all collaborations from around the world through the exchange of knowledge, ideas and research activities conducted.