Yatima Outreach held its annual team building activity on Thursday 30th November and Friday 1st December, 2023.  It brought together Yatima Outreach employees from all its centres within and outside Nairobi. Patmos Cottage School was represented by Heads of Department and also included the Founder and school Director/Administrator Mr Richard Wanjala Manya, the Assistant Administrator, the Head teacher, Mrs. Masinde, as well as the head of the social work department and colleagues from the accounts department.  The event was held at               which is about 70 Km north of Nairobi.

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On the first day an indoor session was held.  There were five presentations, led by the Yatima Outreach Country Director, Tom Wambulwa, who spoke about the importance of sustainable performance of the organisation and this topic formed the focus of speeches by all the other presenters.

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In his presentation Tom highlighted 3 key points, namely equitability, meaningfulness and validity that will ensure sustainability in employee performance. The second presenter was Madam Josephine who is an expert in team building forums.  She explored various aspects on these same topics and invited colleagues to participate in different themed activities.  Mr Inganga, the third presenter, engaged the team on strategic planning and the importance of  widening their perception on the strategic plan and how best objectives can be delivered in the various centres.  The final two presenters, Mr. Stanley and Mr. Paul ended the  first day session by talking about finance, procurement and HR policies.  The session ended at 6pm.

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The second day of the event was held at Oak Place Hotel.  This hotel has a big open space for outdoor activities as most of the activities on the 2nd day were outdoor oriented. The only facilitator on day 2 was Madam Josephine who took the participants through various team work activities. The session placed emphasis on team-building activities as well as on leadership and problem solving skills. The group was divided into small teams and the activities were designed to be fun, to promote team work whilst also widening the participants reasoning to help them see each other in a different light and to allow them to connect in an informal setting which was very different to the work environment.  The sessions encouraged interaction between staff from the different schools and management.  After each exercise, the facilitator collected feedback which she used to explain team work and leadership skills.

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The purpose of the team building activity was to motivate employees to keep working together, have increased communication, encourage good planning skills and to develop their strengths.  It was also designed to  encourage better collaboration between all the centres and their staff.  The day 2 session ended at 5pm.

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At the end of this two day event, various staff members/departments were presented with awards in recognition of their work.  We are delighted to report that Peter Akolongo from Patmos Cottage School won the Employee of the year 2022 award.  Ms. Linda Wekesa received the most improved employee of 2022 award, while Mr. Elijah Wekesa won the first runners up employee of the year award.  The ACK Madeleine Centre received 3 awards, including  its education department winning the Department of the Year,  while Naisoya Integrated Community centre won Program of the Year award. Patmos Cottage School won an award as First Runner Up for its Education Department.

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Participants in this two day team building program found the event to be educational, exciting and fun and a good way of interacting with other members of staff.  They gave thanks to Yatima Outreach for organising this event.

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