Reaching out to teens

Kiundu Waweru

The KCSE examinations are under way amid tight security to guard against cheating. Rampant cheating has been born of the education system that leans too much on exams, a much criticised and debated issue.

The 8-4-4 system of education is also blamed for not imparting confidence, self-reliance and life skills, and the advice has been: Go to school, get good grades, and become a good employee.

Realising this, one woman left a lucrative career in finance and marketing, having worked with top cream company’s with her name punctuated by big titles, and decided to work with schools, reaching children with interactive activities.

From left, Jane Gatonye, daughter Joy Richu and husband Paul Richu go through some of Manenoworld products. [PHOTOS: KIUNDU WAWERU/STANDARD]

And in 10 years, Ms Jane Gatonye, CEO, Manenoworld, looks back in satisfaction. Her husband, Paul Richu, also quit his highflying job at a media house to join Manenoworld full time.

"Manenoworld runs youth edutainment programmes and also offers media for daily interactions among parents, teachers and students, with teenagers being the core audience," Gatonye says, adding that most businesses fail for ignoring youths and teenagers who dominate the market.

The teenagers and young adults are mostly in primary, public and private high schools. "We work closely with teachers and parents to develop good morals, positive and ethical behaviour, all-round personality growth, discipline and confidence. Our programmes and publications focus on the long-term success of the individual students we interact with and we are particularly sensitive to family values, morals, diversity and challenges facing the youth."

Captivate readers

They distribute Manenoworld Magazine termly and Maneno School Diary annually.

"The magazine is written by the targeted youth, ages 10-17, who provide 60 per cent editorial content. It is full of educational stories, information, comics and interactive activities designed to captivate and entertain its target readers, including messages that guard against vices that children in this age group engage in due to peer pressure, like smoking or premarital sex."

Gatonye says the magazine is the only one distributed directly by the Standard Group’s PDS division to schools in Kenyan, Uganda and Tanzania.

And the diary is a unique creation of which Mr Richu says: "All modern schools encourage use of diaries as a tool for communication and performance management. Maneno Schools’ Diary is a multi-purpose annual contact among teachers, parents and students. It incorporates vital daily three-way communication and feedback forum between the parents, teachers and students. The diary also has useful guidelines and information, including study tips, general knowledge and fun facts. It reaches about 100,000 students and 10,000 teachers daily."

You will also find company adverts in the diary, Richu adds.

And a unique and creative aspect of business, which Manenoworld is proud of, is what they call brands’ experiential and activation initiative. "In experiential and activation, we use fan and creativity to activate brands in schools. This as opposed to TV adverts that highlight the brand, we give experience of the brand to people, as they practically use it."

To showcase how it works, Gatonye talks about a positive response they created in an otherwise gloomy topic that plagued Nairobi — water shortage.

"On behalf of our client, Nairobi Water Company, we went to churches teaching people water saving tips. For instance, we told them not to use running water to brush their teeth or wash vegetables and to use a shower instead of running a bath. This was taken as gospel truth and you will hear children admonish their parents when they see them go against this. In general, it created awareness that we can conserve water."

She adds that children in their target age group, 14-19, are a significant majority of the population that are in school and will influence the future generation. Also, while discovering themselves, they are very demanding and will influence their parents and teachers to use the products they want to identify with, thus parents will endorse these products.

High values

"Also, the programmes we ran in schools are relevant to students and at the same time add value to the school and the community."

In these programmes, Manenoworld works closely with the Ministry of Education and regulatory authorities.

The activation programmes are akin to TV shows like the Omo Pick-a-Box and Tusker Project Fame. Omo Pick-a-Box was a Manenoworld initiative, the first of its kind.

Also, they were behind KTN’s children show, Club Kiboko, before relinquishing to target the teenage group.

Gatonye says she is driven by passion to transform children’s lives through the interactive programmes. "I’m happy when I see children striving to live to our high values and morals. We have a children’s members club open for free, Manenoworld Club, which children identify with as cool."

And in celebration of the Manenoworld Club members, they hold an annual event that provides members, teachers, parents and premium brands ideal experiential forum to interact and network in an open and fun packed environment. In this day, prizes and awards for activities that have been running through the year are given.

"This year’s fun day will be on November 21 at Queen of Apostles Seminary playing field. We are targeting 5,000 members, but expecting more."

 

 

Read all about: teens KCSE Jane Gatonye Manenoworld Paul Richu

 

 

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