Stirring the Stew: How ROCK won the Nairobi Stew Competition
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to represent ROCK Kenya at Mettā.
Nairobi Stew is a community dinner funding micro-grants for diversified community projects. The event is inspired by the soup movement which began with Detroit Soup in 2010. So far the event has taken place five times and has supported initiatives such as employment creation and problem-solving through creative means. The entrance fee to the event is 500 KES (~5 USD), which is always used to support the winners. Four teams are allowed to pitch to the audience. Lastly, the audience is given a chance to vote for their favorite teams.
Earlier this week, Winnie Akara and I had the pleasure of representing ROCK at the event.
Why did we apply?
Here at ROCK, we applied with the aim of securing funds and laptops to facilitate the expansion of our computer laboratory. We currently have over 60 students in our program but only 4 working laptops. We were looking forward to winning the amount to buy new computers. Also, we applied to connect with well-wishers who would like to volunteer at our place and provide extra support such as computer training, knowledge sharing, and administrative work.
How did I conquer my fear and present?
The event marked my first pitch in front of such an official and formal audience. I was very nervous. Being an introvert, I’ve never liked to talk in front of people, especially an unfamiliar audience. It usually takes me time to find the confidence to stand before a group of people to air my opinions or speak my mind. This trait has cost me a lot in life — I’ve missed very important opportunities in life because of fear of confronting people and sharing my thoughts. With the Nairobi Stew event approaching, it was time for me to change and start facing challenges with bravery and courage.
We (Winnie and I) took the days leading up to the actual pitch to practice and refine our speeches. The practice became intense on the day before the actual pitch to an extent where I was “forced” to present in front of our students. I often don’t like to share the story of how I became an orphan at a tender age and the challenges I had to face as an orphan. Unfortunately, a section of my speech demanded me to just do that.
At that moment, I didn’t have a way to dodge the presentation in front our students, and as a result, I took on the challenge. Because of stage fright and nervousness resulting from exposing myself to the students, I didn’t present well. This even gave some of the students the feeling that we couldn’t win the competition. On my side, I felt like I had already let down ROCK.
I didn’t have any option but to represent ROCK the next day, and therefore I had to bring out the best in me for us to win the competition. The night before the pitch I revised and practiced my speech. I also spent almost the entire morning on the day of the pitch practicing my speech. I came to ROCK at lunch time, only a few hours before the pitch began and this really frustrated Winnie (sorry, Winnie). I quickly took lunch and prepared myself a little bit for the pitch.
Not long after, Swathi Ayyagari approached me to pitch to her. I was hesitant at first but finally gained the courage to pitch to her. She somehow liked the pitch. She gave me useful feedback that really helped me when I was doing the actual pitch at Nairobi Stew.
Did our hard work pay off?
When we arrived at Metta, we went to the stage to practice how we’ll pitch in front of the audience. This specific kind of practice helped me gain courage and have a concept of how to balance the stage.
The first team pitched, and then it was us. I courageously followed Winnie to the stage to start our pitch. Looking at the crowd, I lost almost every line of my speech which took me more than 6 hours to memorize. Fortunately, when I started to speak, some lines just started to flow. Our hard work paid off because we won the contest!
What did I learn from the win?
From this experience, I learned not to cram a speech when you’re presenting in front of a huge audience. You should own the content you’re going to talk about; let the content live in you. If you’re going to talk about your previous experience or interaction with someone or something, bring the utmost passion when doing the presentation.
One element that helped us win the competition is the passion and fortitude I showed when presenting — I talked about how the computer skills I gained at ROCK are now helping me earn my income and how I feel pain seeing my younger peers struggle to access computers to gain the skills I was lucky to learn at ROCK.
We won! But how are we planning to use the funds?
We won 21,000 KES (~210 USD). Currently, we have over 60 students in our program but only 4 working laptops; this means that 1 single computer is shared by approximately 15 students. This slows down the learning process and even kills the morale of these students who are eager and passionate to learn more about computers. We would therefore like to use the 21,000 KES to buy a new computer to provide opportunities for more of our students to learn computers.
We are currently running a crowdfunding campaign for the expansion of our computer lab. You can contribute or support us by following this link.
You can also find more detailed information about the expansion of our computer lab by reading our story here.
Thanks to everyone who voted for us!
