Dennis Were, CES Alumnus, progresses in his career

CES Canada president Michael Frederiksen says:

I received this report recently from Dennis Were, one of our graduates. Such an upbeat report is worth celebrating.

Dennis is a graduate of Sidikho HS who was supported through his secondary school studies by CES. He received a scholarship to study at Meru University and during that time was part of the CESCED Leadership program. Dennis has served on the Executive of the CES Kenya Alumni for the past five years.

During his first year at university he was voted as a member of the student council. It has been a pleasure to see him grow and mature.

He’s now working in Turkana for the Kenyan Red Cross. Turkana is not an easy assignment. It is located in a remote area in north-west Kenya near the border of South Sudan. It is now the largest refugee settlement camp in Africa, surpassing Dadaab in north-east Kenya. The area is very dry and half the nearly 200,000 persons at this UNHCR camp are nomadic, in search of shelter and food. The rest are from South Sudan, most of them fleeing from civil war. Dennis will see human suffering on a daily basis.

We wish Dennis well in his new assignment.

By the way, to see another side of Dennis, about an intriguing way he “gives back” to the community as described in his own words, click here.

Please enjoy his recent news:

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Dear Michael,

I hope you are doing well, it has been quite long since we last interacted. I'm doing well over here. Am well aware that the last time we had a conversation was when I was working with the Community initiative for Rural Development (CIFORD Kenya) as a field officer and head of the department of community health with the organisation based in Tigania west sub county in Meru-Kenya.

I worked there from August 2019 to April 2021 (one year and eight Months). Immediately after, I moved to Kenya Red Cross in the position of the County Coordinator, Kenya Red Cross based in Meru county. I was coordinating the provision of humanitarian services by the Kenya Red Cross within the county by working closely with both National and County governments as well as other partners.

My commitment and dedication to serving humanity with strict adherence to the organisation's code of conduct and ethics have contributed much in terms of shaping my career. Through coordination of health related projects in line with my profession, I managed to earn the trust of my line manager as well as the entire senior management of the National society. It is through this that I decided to apply for a new opportunity that was advertised on the website. Being an internal candidate, I was interviewed and lucky enough, I emerged one of the top candidates to be considered for the new opportunity in five reporting sites being Turkana, Wajir, Mandera, Dadaab and Garissa.

On 20th September 2022, I received a communication for confirmation of my new position as a project manager within the department of health and social services in the Kenya Red Cross society.

This then required me to resign on 23rd September and report in the new position on 26th September 2022 based in Kalobeyei/Kakuma refugee settlements in Turkana west Sub County in Turkana County. I'm therefore coordinating the implementation of a project titled: Resilience, Health and Rights, and the duration of implementation is 3 years. This means I will be here up to 2025.

Once again, thanks to CES for the support and taking time to invest in me. I'm paying back to CES through this continued service to the community.

Asante Sana

Kind regards

Dennis Were