Akinyi Obama-Manners

Akinyi Obama-Manners is a British-Kenyan currently residing in Mwsambweni. Born in England, Akinyi has lived in the UK, Germany and Kenya. She currently resides in Kenya.

Akinyi has a background in Creative Arts. Following a Foundation course in Art & Design at the University of Creative Arts Canterbury, she moved to Berlin, Germany, to work for the Berlin based Cameronian designer Arrey Kono for her international fashion brand ARREY Berlin. Parallel to this Akinyi spent the time in Berlin working on her writing and producing art pieces, one of which got her into the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Berlin, to study Communication Design.

In addition to Akinyi’s interest in Art and Design, she is passionate about working with children and young people to positively impact their lives. This she does using art to teach them self-expression and creative thinking.

Concurrently Akinyi is developing a program in which children learn about their heritage and culture through storytelling.

To achieve all of the above Akinyi has been working at the Sauti Kuu Foundation in Kenya since 2019, where she has helped develop the Arts and Creativity Project activities.

Parallel to this Akinyi is volunteering at the Nice View Children’s Village, Mwsambweni, Kenya, where she is part of the team working with toddlers and young children in their Early Childhood Development Program.

In this capacity, Akinyi is helping to develop a new style creative curriculum focusing education for sustainable positive development of children from a young age.

On a personal level, Akinyi is extremely passionate about social justice and the inclusion of children and young people in the conversations and initiatives around the same.

In this capacity, Akinyi was one of the youths who initiated and helped develop the concept to include and involve youth in the work of the World Future Council. She participated in the PyeongChang Peace Forum 2020 on Sports, Economy, Ecology, and UN SDGs in South Korea, representing the World Future Council as the voice of the youth.