Inspiration Initiative

Construction by Design Club at ISK strives to improve our community through Design Thinking and Construction. Following the Design Cycle our aim is to consult with members of the chosen community on what they need and what they want, secondly we carry out site visits in order to get a closer look to what we are dealing with and a better idea of what to plan and design. We prototype and then fabricate and construct sustainable designs in collaboration with our community partners. Every year we organize five ‘builds’ where members of the club together with members of the Kenyan community spend a day designing, constructing and fabricating.

Embrace The Amazing is a Middle School and High School Service Learning Group that works to create an autism-friendly inclusive community and spread awareness and understanding of autism. The group looks to have a strong community built on compassion and empathy towards those affected by autism, and hosts monthly events with Autism Support Center Kenya to achieve this.

Greenhouse teaches youth about food production, gardening, and farming techniques. We help in building a sustainable community at ISK through efficient and waste reduced food production. We meet weekly to work in the ISK greenhouse, develop gardening projects we could take on, and travel to other schools to set up gardens and greenhouses. We also build sustainable gardens in other communities and schools around Kenya and develop innovative planting, watering, and farming techniques.

Hand Out is a student-led organization with the goal of providing underprivileged disabled youth around Kenya with prosthetic limbs. The prosthetic limbs we provide are made using ISK's 3D printers. Hand Out currently supports 2 recipients: Christine and Paul, and is always looking for more potential recipients. Hand Out is currently the only group in East Africa affiliated with e-NABLE, a global network of organizations using 3D printed technology to design prosthetics. As a self-funded club, Hand Out always appreciates donations to support its work and help meet the needs of our recipients for the duration of their lives. To find out more please visit http://handoutisk.com/about/

Healing through the Arts hosts kids from the Shangilia school every Wednesday for an afternoon of fun-filled artistic activities. We strive to create amazing friendships and bonds between ISK members and Shangilia students. HeArts aims at opening creative doors to people that have not had this opportunity – and creating a safe space for them to explore their ambitions. Our activities (such as arts and crafts, drama, singing, dancing – you name it!) aim at exploring students' abilities and creativity. We love seeing Kenyan students explore and understand the importance of arts, and we hope to see them grow into future artists!

Plastiki Rafiki is a non-profit student-led club committed towards a cleaner and greener Kenya. We create unique products from waste plastic using a range of plastic moulding techniques.

By using the machines built by Construction by Design, our club takes plastic waste and shreds it, so that usable products can be made. We are also collaborators, in that we share the manufacturing processes we develop with other communities around Kenya, providing a means for them to collect plastic waste and turn it into something usable. Through the sales of our products, we hope to fund the manufacture of more machines, so that other communities around Kenya can join us in eliminating plastic from the environment. Plastiki Rafiki has grown from a proof of concept to a fully functional social enterprise.

SFE is a student-led club that empowers students to create projects that involve their peers in making ISK a more environmentally-friendly community. Student groups organize themselves to promote environmental values and design environmental projects. One of the campaigns that SFE has managed to lead effectively is championing for ISK to become a single-use plastic free environment.

The Round Square Committee is a diverse network that elaborates upon six pillars (IDEALS). Our six pillars include Internationalism, Democracy, Environmentalism, Adventure, Leadership, and Service. Round Square at ISK aims to promote a better understanding of the IDEALS throughout the ISK community. We encourage students to get involved in co-curricular activities offered in school, which will instill a better understanding of the communities around them. We strive to help students make a commitment to character education and experiential learning built around the six themes. Round Square strives to help leaders become self-confident, determined, motivated, intuitive decision-makers, persuasive and able to negotiate, which allows them to creatively solve problems by being able to recognize opportunities and take calculated risks.

Tukimbie Pamoja club works closely with the Faraja Cancer Support Trust that provides emotional, practical and healing support to anyone affected by cancer. We mainly work with young patients making sure they are able to spend an enjoyable Wednesday afternoon or Saturday morning. We also run the 5k/2k Cancer Run.

This is a project aimed at helping Kenyan children from the Tumshangilieni Mtoto Foundation. Every week, we work on long term projects in music and the arts, with the help of ISK staff and students and the Shangilia staff and children. Outside the club, we make efforts to fundraise for the numerous learning environment improvements which go towards better soccer pitches and equipment, textbooks, pens, musical instruments, among others. We also engage with the children in their various sporting activities and organize a concert to showcase the children's work in collaboration with ArtsCo.

Click here to learn more about ISK Student-Led Community Initiatives.