With Cheza Cheza in Nairobi, Kenya, Francis Odhiambo is enhancing the mental well-being of children in the city's slums. He teaches them to dance and pass it on.
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00:00how can dancing boost your mental health? Francis Odhiambo knows best. Since
00:06defeating his own demons with dance he wants to teach slam kids how to improve
00:11their health and lives with cool moves. For me if it were not for dance right
00:17now I don't know where I'll be. Maybe I'll be in jail or even died at a
00:21younger age. I'm here today because of dance. I can express myself as a leader
00:26today and that's thanks to dance. Born and raised in Kibra, one of Kenya's
00:32largest slums, Francis faced crime, drug abuse and violence from young age. Before
00:39we get to know why he decided to support the kids of Kibra, let's have a deeper
00:43look at how he managed to escape his own fate. So many people know Kibera as one of
00:49the largest slums and all that and so many things go on but growing up when I
00:53was a little child it was very fun. At that time until I reached my adolescent
00:59age because at this point is when I was realizing the things that I love, things
01:03that I want to do in life and one of those things that really stood strong to
01:07me was dance. At that time I was really struggling with sense of belonging. I
01:11didn't find a place where I could say this is where I belong and with the gang
01:15it felt like oh actually these people love me. At some point again lost two
01:20close friends of ours because of theft. So every day I was waking up with fear
01:24of will I die today, will everything go well today and all that and when that
01:30happened actually was the moment of obligation for me to think on what I
01:35want to do with my life. The only thing I had at that time was dance. But how
01:40exactly did dance become his anchor of hope for better in trauma-free future?
01:45Through dance I found confidence. Through dance I could be myself. We found like
01:51scholarship to go back to school, went back to school, finished and we are now
01:55back here in the community what do you want to do and that's how we started
01:58dancing with kids. And my dad he wasn't okay with that. My dad to him dance was
02:04about prostitution. My dad to him dance was about drug abuse and getting into
02:10crime and all that. To prove his parents wrong, Francis founded Chiza Chiza which
02:15means playful in 2018. Today the group enjoys an international reputation but
02:23it was a long road to get there. What were his biggest challenges? From start
02:29as my dad was, most of the parents were not believing in dance. Some of them
02:34still are not believing in dance up to now because most of the parents were
02:37like no dance doesn't make sense. So we have different programs in Chiza Chiza.
02:41We have community program which basically focuses on the community part
02:47and building safe communities. Then we have building happy schools and this is
02:52mainly focusing on schools and making schools a safe place where children look
02:57forward to go to. Then we have counselling as a program. Then we have
03:02Dress2Educate where this now takes children back to school. The ones that
03:05cannot go to school because of school fees issues and other challenges. Then we
03:10have our other side of community awareness that we called Endless Energy
03:16Dance Festival. So these are festivals that we do every year to create awareness
03:20in the community on how dance could help mental well-being and all that. Dance is
03:27more than just simple movements. Music and movements also encourages us to
03:32express our emotions and thus process them better. Dancing releases and
03:39offends our happiness hormones. How has Francis managed to make his very
03:43personal form of dance therapy accessible to children throughout Kenya?
03:47Now we are 3,000 children and how we've been able to do that is we go into
03:52community, find people, train them. Then they open like hubs. So we have like
03:57different hubs across Nairobi. But also we have Kakuma Refugee Camp where we
04:03just opened and it's going on amazing. If you go out here, you play music, children
04:10will dance. Then dance unlocks that part of me connecting with myself and just
04:15enjoying life and just expressing myself and just being safe on being me. I joined
04:21Cheza Cheza at December 2018 and since I joined Cheza Cheza, it has helped me to
04:28find my true self, to know the person I am and to know what I want to be in
04:36future. As the community of dancing kids expand, Francis and his team recognize
04:41and train talented dancers to become community-based dance coaches. They go
04:46beyond just teaching dance. Let's check how they help transform emotional
04:50suffering. I'm seeing kids having high self-esteem. Kids are able to talk out
04:55things. Kids are able to solve conflict. Kids are able to have empathy in them.
05:02And also what I've seen is our kids are now becoming professional dancers.
05:06As you've seen in the videos, our kids are now able to make decisions. For me, I'll say
05:10that a success story. From a humble beginning in his own home, Francis has
05:15grown his initiative considerably. Today, they impact 2,300 children each week and
05:21have 17 centers offering a total of 3,165 classes. Cheza Cheza
05:28works with various schools to offer a dance curriculum to children who are
05:32unable to attend one of the centers. Does this mean that Francis has reached his
05:37goal? By 2027, if we can be able to impact more than 10,000 children across Kenya,
05:43that will be a dream come true. In Kenya, Francis Odhiambo will be remembered as
05:48the hero who employs dance to make a difference.