Hyrax Hill Museum in Nakuru has commenced a program to empower primary children through creativity club.
According to Hyrax Hill Museum Curator Ms Lilian Amwanda, the creativity club was started at the Museum way back in 2017 after she realized that there was a gap in terms of children empowerment.
She adds that after noticing that the children who used to visit the Museum had talents and there was no channel to explore them hence formation of the creativity club at the Museum was of great impact in nurturing the young talents.
Over 50 children from different schools around the Museum who are now registered members of the club are involved in various artistic works among them beading, painting, ornaments development, poetry, music and dance.
“We realized that it is only through creativity club that their talents can be realized and that is why we started the club way back in 2017”said Ms Amwanda.
She adds that the y have set aside some fund for the program to facilitate the purchase of the education materials.
Apart from the artistic works, the children are also taught matters history about the Hyrax Hill Museum as well as culture and heritage.
According to Ms Amwanda, the program that is now over two years old has been embraced by parents who were also invited during the launch.
While assuring of children’s security while at the Hyrax Hill Museum Creativity Club, Ms Amwanda called on parents to make use of the facility and the club to empower their children during this holiday season.
“We have maximum security for the children. We only have them here from morning when they check in and we follow up on them when they live for home at noon. So I urge parents not to let their children just sit at home but they bring them here for free since we don’t charge them” said Ms Amwanda.
Sentiments echoed by Ms Rachael Nawate whom the children are familiar with as ‘Teacher Rachael’.
Some of the children already enrolled in the creativity club are optimistic that the club will help nurture their talents and move them to the next level.
Led by Loise Mbula and Wayne Njoroge, the young artistes are also grateful to the Hyrax Hill Museum for coming up with such.“We are grateful for this program as it will help us nurture our talents” they said.
Located within Nakuru town, Hyrax Hill Museum depicts the lifestyle of seasonal settlement by prehistoric people at least 3,000 years old. The Museum is a former farmhouse ceded to the monument in 1965, by the Late Mr. A. Selfe.
The hill was named after hyraxes which are found in abundance, living in cracks within rocks found in this area.The Kenya Government gazetted Hyrax hill as a National Monument in 1943, four years after the first archeological excavation on the hill.
Hyrax hill lies in the middle of Kenya’s Rift valley, about 4 km from Nakuru town. The site is close to the Nairobi-Nakuru highway. It is about 150 km away from Nairobi. From Lake Nakuru, the hill is about 4.5 km with its base about 100m above the Lake.
PHOTO/Mediamax:A sign post showing the main entrance to Hyrax Hill Museum.
