Kelvin Nsekwila | Outstanding Partner 2022
We are absolutely delighted to announce that Kelvin Nsekwila is the winner of our Outstanding Partner Award for 2022. This award was established by Children to Health in memory of two giants of international child health and child empowerment, Professor David Morley and Dr Hugh Hawes.
Both these wonderful people inspired the founding of Children for Health, and their ideas continue to inspire our work. This year we are adding another name to our award, Beverley Young, another fantastic educator who was a Trustee for the Child to Child Trust (CTC) in the years that Clare Hanbury was a key member of staff in the 1990s. This year’s award is in his memory too and the Hawes, Morley, Young Award.
Kelvin has been working with us for over two years. We found each other during the Covid Pandemic and started talking about the idea of working on co-creating a wellbeing curriculum based on the ideas of the SuperBetter company.
The SuperBetter model was invented by Jane McGonigal, an American researcher and video game designer. Jane is author of the New York Times bestselling book, SuperBetter, The Power of Living Gamefully. SuperBetter is available as a mobile & web app that has been played by over 1 million people around the world. SuperBetter and the SuperBetter logo are registered trademarks of SuperBetter, LLC, the company behind SuperBetter. Learn more at www.SuperBetter.com
Kelvin Nsekwila is a teacher, and the founder of the Tusekwile Imiti Ikula Foundation (TIIF) in Sansamwenje, Isoka District, Zambia. Kelvin set up TIIF to provide educational services for the most vulnerable and marginalized children in the district.
Over one year Kelvin read, reviewed, piloted, and revised the SuperBetter Children for Health curriculum for young adolescents. This has just been published as a Toolkit for educators. Read more about the collaboration and download the SuperBetter Children for Health Toolkit.
https://www.childrenforhealth.org/SuperBetterChildrenforHealth
Not only this, but Kelvin has also found the time this year to review and pilot our new set of messages on inclusive education and worked with children in two workshops conducting a set of fun activities that have generated lots of story ideas. We are working with him and the children to develop a storybook with activities on the topic of inclusion. He did this all within one month!
Although we have had some funding for these activities it has never been at a level that properly pays Kelvin for his time.
What is so obvious to us is his energy and commitment to making the lives of the children in his community better. He has also been the easiest of partners to work with; working quickly and always communicating clearly, sending photos and videos that help us understand, not just the successes, but also the challenges that we can then work on together.
The prize includes a financial contribution towards his work, our two puppet parrots and a special certificate.
Thank you Kelvin and congratulations!