Path 1: Teach Principles
Standing with Boys (SwB) is a yearlong, principle based program, which may be taught once a month to boys attending primary school. We also have an abbreviated program that may be used for boys conferences, or for boys who are not in school. Our teachers mentor boys who rarely have a positive male role-model in their lives.
While the program is geared to boys ages 8 – 17, it may be used wherever boys or young men of any age gather together. Our creative, Standing with Boys teachers deliver the program in schools, churches, community out-reach, after football (soccer) games, and in a prison.
Boys Conference
SWB Manual
New soccer ball
Path 2: Promote Self-Reliance
In October, 2017 we opened our Standing with Boys Center and store in Nairobi, Kenya. Managed by our in-country Director James Ouma, the store is a self-reliance teaching center for young men. Here, boys gain hands-on experience in owning, running and sustaining a business. Education is critical to sustainable self-reliance; therefore the center also provides a safe haven for boys and girls who come after school to be tutored by James and his wife Cynthia, in reading, writing and art.
Standing with Boys Center in Nairobi
Learning art at the SWB Center
SWB Center in Nairobi
Path 3: Delivering Marketable Job Skills
kENYA
Besides the Standing with Boys center in Nairobi, Kenya, James Ouma has established a computer learning program at a juvenile prison. We believe that no boy is beyond the reach of hope or humanity.
LEARNING A SKILL. GIVING HOPE. NO BOY LEFT BEHIND.
uganda
After initiating the Standing with Boys program in several schools in Uganda, Joseph Kalyango understood that many boys have no financial means to attend a secondary or trade school. Consequently, he gathered together a team of 25 boys who decided that the business of raising and selling pigs would enable them to earn money, stay in school, and help their siblings to do the same. Joseph, and other Standing with Boys mentors, will work with the team to build the pig pen(s), and teach business management skills. The boys will then be given 2 piglets to raise. As more pigs are born, more boys will be invited into the program.
LEARNING A SKILL. STAYING IN SCHOOL. HELPING THE FAMILY.
ghana
There are hundreds of young men with the ambition and intellect to become successful. However, affordable skills training schools are rare, and if available, are often run by those who lack integrity. To help alleviate this problem, and in keeping with the Standing with Boys goal of teaching Job Skills, Patty and Roger Liston moved to Ghana in 2019. Here, they opened the first Prosperity Academy, teaching motorcycle electrical repair, along with self reliance skills. Their first class graduated December, 2019. This year they will be adding masonry and automotive electrical repair to their skills training.
LEARNING A SKILL. BUILDING A BUSINESS. MAKING A DIFFERENCE.
Studying at Prosperity Academy
Computer lab where boys learn programming
Joseph Kalyango, Uganda / SwB Mentor / James Ouma, Kenya
