Flying Kites Global and GoodMakers Creative Arts Program

Flying Kites Global is a nonprofit started four years ago by three college friends wanting to make a difference in the lives of children in the Nairobi area of Kenya. After opening their own children’s home, Flying Kites reached out to build the capacity of other orphanages in developing countries by sharing a proven model of business operation. Flying Kites wanted to introduce their program to the Nairobi community in a fun and engaging way that would involve some of their key member homes.

GoodMakers developed a high impact creative arts program that offered two weeks of intensive workshops to the youth of the orphanages. This was run by the GoodMakers Street Team and a local professional dance troop called Dashy Krew. With the GoodMakers youth team and Dashy Krew, the children crafted dance performances and learned a group choreography. This was all performed at a huge music festival which featured some of Kenya’s top pop stars.

GoodMakers started a sustainable, weekly Creative Arts Program provided by Dashy Krew to Rehema Orphanage and School, one of the children’s home that has over 600 school-aged children. The program allows the children to continue their creative development as well as empowers them to speak out through creative expression about the issues within their community and to share their ideas for a better world through song and dance.  GoodMakers has a goal of providing this creative arts program to additional children’s homes in the coming year. A documentary film will be made of the creative workshops and the music fesitval, highlighting the transformative powers of music and the performing arts, which will help Flying Kites reach a broader audience.