JOY IN NAIROBI:

Conflict Resolution through Music and Dance

By Mark Young

President,

Rational Games Foundation

1 January 2026

Please allow me to start the New Year by introducing our newest grantee. Project Elimu, a community-driven organization working in the slums of Kibera, just outside Nairobi, Kenya, is dedicated to harnessing the power of music, sport and dance to resolve conflict, particularly for at-risk children and youths aged 3 to 25.

Their work focuses on playful learning, encompassing programs in ballet and contemporary dance, music, skateboarding, and much more, all offered after school. Through an inclusive, playful and collaborative approach, as well as the shared language of these young people learning to overcome the divisions of ethnicity.

The Elimu kids are visibly unlocking the joy of play along the way.

Currently working with 270 children, supported by a vibrant local team of trainers, Elimu makes use of all the things that we value: experiential learning, collaboration, the joy of community and a way out of ethnic division even in its most virulent forms.

Following an on-site visit to the project by our colleague Johannes Hofmann, the Rational Games Foundation is currently exploring the various ways we can contribute to the curriculum and the facilitator toolkit to enrich local songs and dances with conflict resolution techniques.

Through this cooperation, we hope to learn about local non-Western approaches to play. And, in exchange, we seek to tie this to an organic approach to games and play to the growing worldwide discipline of connecting it to conflict resolution principles.

Elimu’s very impressive website at https://www.projectelimu.org/about-us tells the story better than I can.

The joy in Nairobi and connectedness of these kids at play is truly heart-warming, ubuntu applied to children’s play and a spirit of unity amid diversity.

Comments welcome!