In 2013, KCEF-partner schools began teaming with the Tanari Trust in Kenya. Since 2016, 8th-grade students in those schools have participated in Tanari’s Rights of Passage Education (ROPES), a year-long program that concludes with a six-day, five-night camping experience.
The purpose of ROPES is to build self-worth, self-confidence, and team work at this critical time in young lives. Through Tanari, students from all KCEF-partner schools meet each other and together explore issues faced in the transition to adulthood. Rites of passage is an important concept in Kenyan culture, and Tanari combines this with a strong emphasis on character development and Christian discipleship. 
ROPES has proved to be rewarding–“life changing”–to the students and has opened new ways of learning and teaching to the school staff that participate. Teachers are trained in various methods of experiential learning that they take back to their schools and classrooms, thereby having impact on students of all ages and classes. Parents, also, are invited to share the celebration on the last day of camp.
Another Tanari activity is a yearly visit to Mt. Longonot National Park. Many of the students have lived their lives in the shadow of Mt. Longonot, yet have never visited the park or climbed the mountain. Most have never been outside the slums where they live.
Cooperative and team-building games lead to discussions of dreams and aspirations. Attention is also given to adolescent development and sexuality. These are vital in a country where the scourge of AIDS and frequency of teen pregnancy take a toll on so many lives.
KCEF is grateful to be able to work with Tanari on projects that educate children and show teachers the value of experiential learning as an effective teaching technique and important way to equip children for survival in the predatory world of the slums of Nairobi.
How can I Help? Support another Tanari camp experience for our students.
From a teacher at Mawewe primary school in the Mathare slum of Nairobi:
“One highlight of the [ROPES Program] experience is that all our learners had an opportunity to redeem their relationship with Jesus. ROPES program has continued to be a very key program in our journey of transformation. Our learners have gone ahead to transition into high school and also settle pretty well and fast, courtesy of the program. The program has also been key in helping us relate with our parents as it’s a journey we take together with them. The resources provided have equipped us, as teachers, with various ways of handling parents. We forever remain very grateful for the program and each year we look forward to walking the journey again with a different class.”
