One of the days I looked forward to in high school and campus was the Rotary Sunshine Rally event. The Rotary Club is an international non profit and non political club that is all about community engagement and professional development. The club membership starts from primary school all the way to adulthood with categorization based on age and location. The age groups are the Rotaract Club for members aged 18-35 and Rotary Club for members aged above 35. The Clubs may be institution based (eg in Universities and Colleges) or Community based eg Nairobi or Thika..
Before Covid struck, the Rotary Clubs in Kenya used to organise one mega fun day event for children with disabilities. So huge were some of the event that the last event that took place had an attendance of 7000 children with disabilities from Nairobi, Kiambu and Machakos just to mention some of the places involved. Named The Rotary Sunshine Rally, the event was a day of fun for children with different disabilities to have fun. No pity partying.
The preparations for the event were always massive in terms of logistics. But that was solved by the might of the sponsors involved. The who is who in the Corporate world in Kenya chipped in. Safaricom, Nation Media Group, Capital FM, Homeboyz Entertainment, Chandaria Industries, you name it. These Companies collaborated to make the event a success. Add that to entertainers who would come to perform and keep the crowd in high spirits Nameless, Habida, Moji Short Baba, comedians, DJs, and famous Zangalewa Dancers.
Sunshine Rally began as a way of bringing out children with disabilities out to the society and engaging them in fun activities like other children. It is said that one of the Rotarians noticed his relative who was hearing impaired had less friends and rarely engaged in any fun activity. On asking around, his friends gave him the same story, that children with disabilities had few engagements in fun activities and so The Rotary Sunshine Rally Event was born.
The event involved Rotaractors (18-35 years) going to pick children from their schools and children's homes. Once assigned to the school, the Rotaractor was supposed to be their caregivers for the day although the professional caregivers would also accompany them in case of anything. Their Rotaractors role at the event involves distribution of food and keeping them company for the day..As most of the Rotaractors are students in Universities and Colleges, they also give them advice on life matters.
Upon arrival at the event (the venue was the Jamuhuri ASK Showground) the children alight from their buses and are given snacks for breakfast. From there you do as you wish. Play, sing, dance, walk around and everything in between.
Midday comes and lunch is provided as well before another round of entertainment is unleashed. In the afternoon Celebrities take to the stage and that's when you know disability is never a hindrance to children having a good time. Sema kukatika. When the celebrities leave the stage, the Teenagers follow them just to have a photo with them..Once Nameless was surrounded by the children and didn't seem to mind. Sometimes the barriers to communication don't work here since the hearing impaired still show their affection to the celebrity never mind they can't utter a word and the celeb doesn't know sign language. That's when you know music is powerful.
The climax of the show Is the safari Rally racing around the field with cars spinning around. The children love it more than anything perhaps because of the speed involved. While leaving the field, the Zangalewa Dancers 'chase' them to the amusement of the kids..Snacks and gifts are given again and then everyone goes back their buses to go home. By then everyone is tired but exceedingly happy gladly looking forward to the next year's event.
That's why I say again Valentine Means Sunshine Rally..Happy Valentine everyone. Cheers.