The Lola Kenya Screen audiovisual media initiative for children and youth in eastern Africa traces its history to pre-school and Sunday school where its founder used to teach.
Ogova Ondego, who founded Lola Kenya Screen in 2005, sought to train and influence children and youth through hands-on-experience in things of interest to the generation of today and tomorrow through practical, hands-on experience in drama, music, writing and publishing.
A teacher of English, Kiswahili and History, Ondego was in charge of drama and music co-curricular activities besides running debate and journalism clubs through which he helped develop the talent of students beyond the classroom.
The Press Club he created not only published a magazine every school term but also created the motto and the banner that Enoomatasiani Girls Secondary School of Lower Matasia in Ngong Hills on the outskirts of Nairobi, currently uses.
Ondego incorporated new media, especially motion pictures, in 2005 and founded Lola Kenya Screen to continue serving the needs of the generation of today and tomorrow.
Based in Nairobi in Kenya but reaching out to the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa region, Lola Kenya Screen was established as an audiovisual media festival, skill-development programme and marketing platform with a focus on children, youth, and family.
Lola Kenya Screen works with festivals, schools, and governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental agencies around the world to cater to children, youth, family and professionals through weekly school outreach, fortnightly mobile cinema, monthly film forum, quarterly internship and annual festival programmes. Stress is now being put on Media and Information Literacy and Information Communications Technology (ICT) in all of these programmes.
