It’s often said that the seeds of values are best sown early, and Kan Yama was born from this belief. Kan Yama is an initiative that targets children from 2 to 15 years old as participants in its programs, and young people from 18 to 30 years old as the initiative’s workforce and program implementers.
Launched in 2009, the initiative was established in response to the scarcity of Arabic content suited for children featuring culturally relevant values. A group of interested young adults agreed to collaborate and fulfill that gap. With time and practice, the skills of the group members matured, and the content they created evolved.
Kan Yama started with a simple idea that could be easily spread and implemented; a weekly reading hour. From there, the idea grew and developed into content creation - content that was made for children specifically in line with Saudi society’s cultural values. The children's response was positive and their happiness was noticeable through their continuous return to the initiative’s events and activities. After starting in the Eastern Province, the Kan Yama team decided to expand to most regions of the Kingdom in order to fulfill its goal.
The initiative was established with the aim of presenting cultural values to children in a creative, simple, and fun way in hopes of bridging the gap left between school and home learning. The initiative provides a variety of programs for children, and relies on the talents of young adults for the implementation of these programs as well as content production, whether through story writing, storytelling, or organizing. Kan Yama aspires to be the primary point of reference for Arabic content for children in the Arab world, and hopes to continue reaching Arab children whether virtually through their social media presences or through in-person events.
The programs offered by Kan Yama fall under five main tracks. The first of these tracks is Awan, which is the original seed out of which Kan Yama grew and continues to grow. Awan consists of weekly reading hours, held in 16 cities around the Kingdom. The second track is Ghars, which consists of workshops and intensive training courses for children conducted throughout the year with the aim of supporting the development of life skills. The third track is Rabit, which is a digital platform full of meaningful content for children. The fourth track is Entema, which is a line of children’s products, aimed to increase a child’s sense of belonging to the initiative and its community. The fifth track is Masrah, which is the most important tracks and consists of public collaborative performances in cooperation with third parties. When it comes to challenges, Faisal added that Kan Yama struggles with maintaining the workforce needed for implementing its programs, in addition to keeping up with the pace of change in children's behaviors and interests so that the initiative can continue to effectively reach its target group.
The most important advice that the Kan Yama team has to offer to anyone who wants to start a non-profit initiative is to not underestimate their idea, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Those interested in Kan Yama, whether in the content it creates or the volunteering opportunities it provides, can find it on all social media platforms.
Social media accounts:
