Waza (Swahili for “Active Thinking”) Experience is an iHub community initiative that aims to foster active thinking and creativity in Kenyan youth. The idea for Waza was born out of an identified lack of emphasis on creative thinking and problem solving in the traditional Kenyan education system. Waza effectively grooms the next generation into thoughtful technologists, entrepreneurs, and innovators, equipped with the “soft skills” needed to create better solutions for Kenya and Africa. By instilling creativity, problem-solving/creative thinking, and communication skills in these children, we want to help make Kenya’s next generation of technologists even better equipped to adapt and innovate! Our team believes that children are endowed with natural curiosity. As we get older, our environment and surrounding culture often teach us to become close-minded and to accept things the way they are. We don’t think it needs to be like that. Waza Experience uses music, art, history, technology, and cultural lessons to open up minds and spur creative solutions to everyday problems faced by underprivileged youth. Our Waza Experience community initiative is two-fold: 1) building a new curriculum—grounded in design thinking principles and Kenyan culture/context—to inspire Class 7 children to be more creative, facilitate problem-solving, and improve communication skills; 2) bringing iHub community members to engage with the youth in a mentorship and training capacity. By interacting with the Waza students, iHub members will also gain new insights (from the point of view of a child); experience new environments; and further empathize with other Kenyans in walks of life. If you are interested in learning more about Waza, please join us for our information session on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 5:30 pm at the iHub.