Canon Central and North Africa and the Text Book Centre (TBC) recently hosted the Canon Academy Juniors Funday at the TBC Sarit Centre branch in Nairobi. Canon partnered with TVC to offer practical and impactful skills to junior learners in Kenya.
Through a joint initiative dubbed Canon Academy Junior, children at the Funday were treated to photography lessons through a short course and workshops aimed at encouraging and empowering them with practical knowledge.
The course is intended to spark artistic interests amongst young learners between 8-16 years of age. The programme which commenced in July of this year is being run in two consecutive cycles with two age groups partaking in each. The first round consisted of fourteen children between the ages of eight and twelve and eleven children between the ages of 13 and 16. The second round is a mix of eleven children between the ages of 8 and 12 in addition to 10 children between the age group of 13 and 16.
Enrolled students had an opportunity to attend four sessions that are held every Saturday where they were able explore their imagination through learning visual arts and photography.
The children also had an opportunity to try their hands-on professional cameras and equipment from Canon further allowing them to hone their photography skills. Some of the skills offered in the course are how to use a camera with ease and efficiency as well as the basics of photography skills such as light, composition and background
Speaking at the Funday at Sarit, Joy Okumu, TBC’s Head of Retail said, “Our partnership with Canon has made photography skills easier to access for the younger generation. This is in line with our commitment to play a key role in supporting the accessibility of education and cultural material for all. Through these classes, we look forward to seeing more children build and harness their photography skills as well as empower them to take up opportunities that that their skills may provide in the future.”
Going forward, Canon Academy Juniors anticipates kids to not only pick up new hobbies but to also build confidence in taking their own photographs and using the camera by themselves. As a final point, students had an exciting opportunity to showcase their art at the Canon Academy Juniors Fun-day.
“Our endeavor through these photography courses and workshops is to spark that creative imagination in children which is often not put to frequent use these days owing to the heavily digitized world we live in. Canon Academy Juniors is a platform through which we want to cultivate, foster, and nurture the culture of photography and visual arts in young children,” stated Amine Djouahra, Director of Sales and Marketing – Canon Central and North Africa.