Can Make It To University, *UNADSAC-ONUSS School Outreach Event, To Gathuri Secondary and Primary Schools in Gatundu, Kiambu County, On 03 Oct 2014.

Abstract

The event aimed at challenging the students and pupils to strive to make it to university, irrespective of being in a village school. This is because education is not in a school but in the books which are rural-urban universal.

The University was represented by a delegation of forty two people including seven members of staff. Dr. Deresse of Chemistry Department begun by giving an enthusiastic talk to the high school students, on the chemistry behind addictions. The presentation entailed candid images of the types of substances abused, including drugs and food. It also showed graphic deterrent images of the consequences of substance abuse for instance that of tobacco and other hard drugs. Students did participate by seeking clarifications and asking questions that had loomed in their minds over time. In the mean time, some university students and members of staff engaged the primary school pupils in a set-up in the field. The university students gave of their experiences in school and how they balanced studies and other activities in order to attain desirable grades. They even motivated some pupils with gifts in the course of the interaction. This encouraged the pupils to participate more in the engagement. Eventually, everybody including the high school students and the primary school pupils converged in the field under a shade courtesy of the school tree-integrated fence. Here, more university students talked of life at the university. They spoke of study tactics aimed at dispelling peer influence as it is a major culprit in interfering with students’ academic life at the university. They also talked of how grades could get one to university but only discipline, both academic and social, maintained one there. The university students also indulged the host students and pupils on matters of social life at the university. In the last leg, Annett Mugo of the School of Maths gave a testimony of how she made it through education amidst undesirable family disruptive episodes. Then the crew from the University Health Services, namely Dr. Mapelu and Mrs Nyaga, took over. Dr. Mapelu related how various practices in substance abuse contribute to the HIV and AIDS menace. Mrs Nyaga on the other hand concentrated on the reproductive health sensitization. Her talk culminated into a sincere demonstration of how to apply condoms both male and female. This was with the aid of both male and female genital models. The genuineness of the talk must have left lasting imprints of knowledge on even the younger pupils’ minds. *UNADSAC – University of Nairobi Anti-Drugs and Substance Abuse Club. ONUSS – Organisation of Nairobi University Science Students