Kenyan girls build motorcycles from Lego donated by Estonians

Kenyan girls quickly used Lego bricks donated by people in Estonia to build models of motorcycles, ERR reported. The project was organised by the Estonian non-governmental organisation Mondo, whose representative Emily Mirelle Vutt said the girls showed great interest in the bricks.

Mondo had asked people to donate used Lego for a robotics education project involving teachers in rural Kisumu, Kenya. The teachers pass on what they learn by running robotics clubs for children in schools.

The donated bricks were given to Kenyan children for free play. Vutt said the girls had never seen such bricks before, but immediately began working out how to build a motorcycle, which she described as Kenya’s main means of transport.

Practical educational materials and games are expensive in Kenya, where the low standard of living means many people cannot afford them. Estonian donors contributed up to 50 kilograms of Lego bricks.

Vutt said Mondo had specifically targeted girls because gender inequality is greater in Kenya. The programme aims to give them more opportunities and confidence to see themselves working in science and technology, fields where programmers and software developers are more often men.

She also said many children in Kenya are excluded from the school system because they have to help support their families or cannot afford to attend school. One teacher told Vutt that robots had previously only been seen in films, and that he was happy to be able to build them with his own hands.