Kenya: Made in the Streets Summer Program

kenyaschool

Made in the Streets program integrates rigorous scientific research with service learning and Christian faith exploration and development in Malibu and in Kenya. The mission of Pepperdine’s local partner program, Made in the Streets (MITS), is to provide education, vocational training, and sustainable living to street children through relationships, academic learning, and hands-on training. Students will engage in scientific research that will help enhance and enrich the MITS community. Essential to the experience are meaningful service opportunities that require our students and faculty to work side-by-side with people who are committed to both learning from and investing in underserved people in Kenya. More information about Made in the Streets can be found at https://www.madeinthestreets.org .

This program is for:

Students who are committed to learning and growing through service and are humble, open-minded, and respectful of other cultures.
Students who are interested in learning more about how non-governmental organizations function in other parts of the world.
While this program is not limited to any specific academic major, the program fits particularly well with Biology and Nutritional Science Majors and those with an aim toward pre-med, public health, or similar fields.

Program Dates

June 9, 2025 - July 6, 2025

The dates listed above are planned group arrival dates to the Malibu campus for the first part of the program. The group will depart from LAX around June 20th or 21st.

Costs

Visa Information

Health Information

Visit the health toggle on the US Department of State's Travel Advisory page for Kenya for health details including recommended vaccines.

Course Requirements and Offerings

Refer to the academics page for details on the minimum unit requirements and class pre-requisites for the program. Textbook lists will be provided by the program staff.

Faculty-in-Residence

Hung Le

Senior Vice Chancellor, Alumni Affairs, Advancement

Hung.Le@pepperdine.edu

Hung Le has spent the last 32 years in various fields of student services at Pepperdine University. He currently serves as senior vice chancellor of Alumni Affairs.

An alumnus of Pepperdine University, Hung is married to Corinne, who is also a Pepperdine alumna. They have four children, Zach, Ben, Jaime and Garrett. They live on campus and worship with the University Church where Corinne serves as the Children’s Minister.

Hung and his family have served at Made in the Streets (MITS) since 2012. He has directed Pepperdine’s Kenya-Made in the Streets Program since 2014. Hung is well-versed in the mission and operation of MITS and is committed to the life-transforming work of this ministry and organization. As someone whose heart has been deeply touched and profoundly transformed by the children of MITS, Hung looks forward to sharing this experience with students who will embark on this transformative journey.

Dr. Loan Kim

Professor of Nutritional Science, Natural Science Division, Seaver College

Loan.Kim@pepperdine.edu

Loan Kim is professor of nutritional science and public health at Seaver College. She holds a B.S. from UC Berkeley in Clinical Dietetics, an M.S. from San Jose State University in Nutritional Science. She is also a registered dietitian nutritionist (R.D.N.) and she received her dietetic training from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center. Dr. Kim received her Ph.D. in public health from UCLA, with a concentration in community health sciences. As a public health nutritionist, Dr. Kim’s research focuses on understanding how sociocultural factors impact the health of communities in the U.S. and around the world. In this Kenya IP program, Dr. Kim will brings her passion for public health to the classroom to engage students in experiential learning about global health issues that specifically impact Kenyan communities. The Kenya program combines academic rigor with service-learning that is heavily focused on caring for youth who have lived through the challenges of living on the streets. The overall goals for the Kenya summer IP are: 1) To increase students’ understanding of and appreciation for the problems of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition globally, 2) To allow students the opportunity for “hands-on” application of nutritional science, and 3) To encourage students to make a positive difference by serving others.

Dr. Donna Nofziger

Professor of Biology, Natural Science Division, Seaver College

Donna.Nofziger.Plank@pepperdine.edu

Donna Nofziger is professor of biology at Seaver College and teaches classes in cellular, molecular, and developmental biology. She is a Los Angeles native who earned her undergraduate degree in biology at Baylor University and her PhD from UCLA as part of the Molecular Biology Institute. She has loved every moment of her 24 years teaching at Pepperdine and in particular enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for learning about the natural world with her students. She has served International Programs on multiple occasions in Buenos Aires, Kenya, and Fiji. In returning to Kenya and Made in the Streets (MITS), she is excited to share this experience with Pepperdine students and allow them to live the mission of Pepperdine by connecting the scientific knowledge they have learned in the classroom with service. She is grateful for the opportunity to work with MITS as they work to provide love, education, and job training to children from the streets of Nairobi, Kenya.

Additional Information

Made in the Streets (MITS) is an organization and a ministry which rescues street children from the slums of Nairobi, Kenya and provides these children with a new life filled with hope and a bright future. The street children are often abandoned, abused, and/or orphaned. Some of them come from families that do not have enough to feed them, so they resort to living on the streets, begging and scavenging for food to survive. Life on the streets is cruel and harsh. These children often live on garbage because it is a source of food as well as scraps that they can scavenge to sell. Rotting garbage produces methane, which can serve as a source of heat on cold nights. The street children often become addicted to streets drugs, the most common of which are kerosene, glue and bang (marijuana). They are often seen huffing glue from bottles practically stuck to their faces or sniffing kerosene-soaked rags. The glue or kerosene helps to stave of the terrible hunger pains that they feel from the lack of food and little hope of being able to get anything to eat. In addition to scavenging for their own food, the children must also find ways to make money to pay the adult members of their bases, or living communities, who are supposed to help keep them safe. They live in a society which despises the poor and have very little hope of escaping the life to which they have been sentenced merely by the geography of their birth.

MITS' inner-city programs operate in Eastleigh, the skid row of Nairobi. The staff at the Eastleigh Center scour the streets to minister to children and others in need. The staff members are trained to perform basic first aid, teach Bible studies, provide food, counsel, and recreation. They also assist the older kids to get national identity cards so they can get jobs, care for young mothers, and work with conflict resolution among the bases and their members. A major part of the Eastleigh ministry is the identification of children who seek to build a new life, free from drugs and filled with hope. After a thorough vetting and transition process that include getting off of drugs and meeting all governmental requirements for admission to the MITS program, the children are brought to Kamulu, a village about 45 minutes outside of Nairobi, where they would live, learn, develop and prepare for a productive life.

According to the MITS website, "The boys and girls who come to live with us in Kamulu are blessed with a loving, safe and healthy environment. We have separate boys and girls compounds with dorms and kitchens. Students are in charge of cooking their breakfasts and evening meals and work to keep their clothes cleaned and living quarters kept up. There are dorm supervisors who oversee the students and make sure their needs are met.
There are many aspects to life in Kamulu. Every day starts with a chapel time, full of singing, praying, words of encouragement and announcements for the day. Students have daily studies in Bible, Math, Computers and English. They learn to live together as a family through sports, chores and working alongside teachers and visitors. Students are also active in the church, giving them opportunities to grow in spirit and service.

kenyacooking

Skills training is available to students once they turn 16. Students choose a skills path in the area of auto mechanics, sewing, woodworking, catering, hairdressing, computers or farming. Once students turn 17 years old, they can take on an internship in a local business to further their skills. Students also take part in business training, computer classes and Bible studies to better prepare them for going out into the world to build a new life once they exit our program."
Much of the staff are made up of former street children whose lives had been transformed by the work of MITS. Their funding is provided by the generosity of people from throughout the world. The Otter Creek Church in Brentwood, Tennessee serves as the sponsoring U.S. congregation. A board of directors serves as the governing body. The founders, Charles and Darlene Coulston, continue to direct the work of the ministry and heads up the fundraising efforts. The staff in Kenya, led by Francis Mbuvi, a former street kid, runs the organization there.