The mission of  the YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION  states interalia
" to unite all young people who regard Jesus christ as their saviour
and extend Gods  kingdom on earth transcending race, religion, sex ,
nationality----".

The National Council of y.m.c.a has by and large met most of its
objectives since its inception as an autonomous National Movement in 1961.
However, i am a firm believer of change and etablishment of new systems
as the defining documents of international Y.M.C.A  Affriming Paris
basis adopted in 1855 and Kampala Principles of 1973 and especially
challenge 21 of 1998 dictate.

Y.M.C.A.  has fairly succeded in establishing over 30 branches country
wide which traverse Busia, Indalangasi, Mugona, ELdoret among other
areas.Suprisingly a keen investigation  will reveal branches with little
to show for their existance, delipidating resources and crumbing walls
are a common scenery in almost every  branch. Whether this is due to
mismanagement or hard economic times, no one can tell.

Youth recreational facilities in Nairobi Central branch e.g. Swimming
pool, Lawn tennis and Basketball exist just on the notice boards .
Shaurimoyo branch displays great resilienze in vigorous & determined youth
who nevertheless use the depreicated infrastructure to the maximum. Its
fair though to state that squash courts at N.C branch and Basketball
court at Shauri Moyo are still functional and keep members busy.

Thika Y.M.C.A. branch roars with projects of great success with a
dispensary to support community health needs to its credit. Limuru and
Ngecha Y.M.C.A.  invoke memories of white elephant projects in the late 80's
,with empty zero grazing units and obsolute farm machinery littering
their bushy deserted grounds.

Naivasha displays the potential of a world class camp school weeping
for  recognisition the lake, and Hells gate within its vicinity. This
scenerio across the board  it therefore makes it quite hard for the youth
to spend their time productively within Y.M.C.A. branches, without
feeling exploited in the name of volunteerism.

Although a few branches manage to organise instruction programmes for
young people with great success reported to the vocational Training
Centres in Shauri Moyo and Limuru branches the skills acquired e.g typing,
capentry, plumbing, knitting, pottery, joinery e.t.c. have become less
desirable or irrelevant in the Information Technology (I.A) there is
need therefore for the movement to initiate modern demand driven training
to compete with commercial colleges.

Other opportunities which would greatly benefit youth countrywide are
the controversial cultural exchange programmes e.g. International Camp
Counsellors Programme  (I.C.C.P) for U.S.A which have greatly  been used
as a bait, to lure members to register for very expensive local camps
in the name of training,only for  well placed unqualified individuals to
use it as a channel to immigrate illegally thus defeating the main
purpose of the programme and discrediting Kenya's image abroad.

Kenya Y.M.C.A.  needs to speak out louder on the many hills afffliting
the youth in our country e.g. unemployment, drug abuse and insecurity.
It should also focus its energy on child rights and aggresively fight
issues like child labour and corruption because this one issues that
current youth can relate with. Otherwise great improvement  can be
achieved by open dialogue with youth in the movement as opposed to using
Machevilian or draconian loop holes within the Y.M.C.A  constitution to
supress genuine youth concerns. Y.M.C.A. Kenya lacks the voice of an
International N.G.O. that champions the issues affecting youth.  A great
example is its pedestrian role in the just concluded constitution review
process, Anti Drug -Abuse Campaign, Environmental conservation,
unemployment, child labour and campaigns for physcially handicapped.

  What is the movements contribution on the Free Education policy
championed by other politicians?

.A overhaul of the Y.M.C.A Managerial  systems is urgently  required to
ease red tape and long procedures within their Network, which at times
work to the detriment of the organisation.Great motivation and
professionalism is needed in motivating and retaining of staff. The eviction of
staff from the staff quarters with the intention to rent them out for
additional income without due consideration to the hard economic times
is ironical and does not befit an institution who's pioneers viewed
housing as challenging hence the idea of  y.m.c.a hostels. It would also
appear queer that elective posts within the leadership of this great 
N.G.O.  has rotated or stuck with a few individuals of two ethnic
communities for over twenty years.I might not be qualified to comment on the
issue of donor fatigue on projects of particuar institutions but a keen
observation would reveal that they consider change in leadership in
elective posts  as a factor to lending.

Y.M.C.A needs new energy to represent youth needs effectively.

YOURS FAITHFULLY,

IBRAHIM ISICHE   (youth intern 2oo2)