Powerpoint Slide Show

Hi Everyone.  As promised, I’ve posted the digital slides I prepared for our group debriefing to this blog.  You can find a hotlink to the PowerPoint slide show at the end of the list on the “Resources” page.  I’ll post more information as plans for the cultural exchanges I mentioned progress.

Nairobi and Womankind Pages

I’ve added some photos with captions to the Womankind-Kenya and Nairobi pages of this blog.

Ijara and Eastleigh Photos

In response to several requests, I have posted additional images from the Ijara District of Kenya and from the Eastleigh Neighborhood of Nairobi to the “Photos” page of this blog. 

I’ve also added a “Womankind-Kenya” page where I will post more information after I complete the report for my fellowship program. 

I am awaiting permission to publish photos from four sites I visited while in Nairobi.  In the meantime I’ll post an image I took of a Nakumatt store as a placeholder for this new page.  Thank you for your email messages, phone calls, and blog comments.

Photographing History as It Was Made

“Promulgation” isn’t a word I run across very often. 

Whenever I read it or hear it in the future, however, I will recall the opportunity I had to photograph Members of Parliament on “Promulgation Day” as they took their oaths of office under Kenya’s New Constitution, which was approved via a nationwide referendum on August 4, 2010.

I left Garissa shortly after 4 a.m. on the morning of August 27, 2010 after learning the night before that David Mugonyi, media officer for the Kenyan Parliament, had granted my request for a press pass to attend the official swearing-in ceremony in the Parliament House’s historic main chamber. 

The public festivities that preceded this were well underway in Uruhu Park by the time we reached the outskirts of Nairobi.  (See hotlink to media coverage for those on the Resources page of this blog).

Since that section of the City had been secured, we watched and listened to the speeches by President Kibaki, Prime Minister Odinga, Vice President Musyoka and others on television before heading toward the main block of federal government buildings downtown.  The roads were filled with people smiling, laughing, dancing, and celebrating.  I learned later that there were similar celebrations in the towns and cities across Kenya.  The optimism and joy were palpable.

I hadn’t realized the Kenyan President, Prime Minister, and Vice President will continue to be Members of Parliament through the elections of 2012 until they arrived at the door of the Parliamentary Chamber and were admitted to be formally sworn in, too, so that was a pleasant surprise.

After interviewing people in the Ijara District and documenting the positive progress community-based organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and public officials have made there, the most exciting moment for me came when The Honorable Sophia Abdi Noor, M.P.  took the new oath of office.

Sophia co-founded Womankind-Kenya, has been a human rights activist and advocate since the early 1990s, and has represented the Ijara District in the Kenyan Parliament since 2008. 

She worked tirelessly with many others to achieve constitutional reform, serving as a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Review and traveling to all but one of Kenya’s provinces to speak and answer questions in the months leading up to the National Referendum.

Youth Agenda Northern Kenya

While at Womankind-Kenya’s complex in the town of Garissa, I met with the founders of this community-based organization, Jumali Abdirahim Yussuf and Abdirizak Ismail Shetkh.   

A few years ago, they decided to do something positive to address “the blanket of hopelessness covering youth” in their home town.  Already marginalized for ethnic and religious reasons, the youth felt further pushed to the periphery by customs that give the authority for making decisions to the elders of a family or community.

As the number of kids and young adults hanging around “Jobless Corner” in Garissa increased, Jumali and Abdirizak knew they had to first get the kids off the street and help them to feel better about themselves and their future.  Then they could help connect them with the information, training, and resources they’d need to find jobs.

Once YANK officially became registered as a community-based organization in Kenya, its leaders formed a sports league that was accepted as a member of Football Kenya Limited (FKL – http://www.footballkenya.net). Based on YANK’s accomplishments, which include organizing and registering over 20 sports clubs, FKL invited to Abdirizak to join its governance board.  He currently serves as Secretary General of FKL’s Garissa Branch and coordinates sports activities and tournaments throughout this area.

YANK’s leaders didn’t let the fact that funding organizations were wary of lending money to youth stand in their way.  They used what they called a “merry-go-round” approach (a.k.a. “passing-the-hat”) to raise funds and purchase Playstation software and equipment that would help them generate steady income.

When local youth visit YANK’s location and pay to play computer games, they can learn about the guest lecturers YANK invites to speak about issues such as drug addiction.  YANK also hosts presentations by experts, such as a representative from the Ministry of Youth who provided advice on how youth could form groups around an income-generating project, write a work plan, and submit a proposal to win start-up funding from the Kenyan government.

YANK also played a pivotal role in getting out the vote for Kenya’s New Constitution.  Its leaders received assistance from Womankind-Kenya and Kenya’s Ministry of Youth Affairs so they could obtain civic education training. Then, equipped with information and copies of the proposed Constitution, they returned home and camped in markets, in front of mosques, and other community gathering hubs where they could distribute the materials citizens needed to make informed decisions.  They also gave speeches and answered questions. Garissa County had the highest approval rate for the New Constituion in Kenya – 95%. 

YANK continues to try new strategies for quickly and broadly disseminating useful information.  For example, every Monday, Jumali appears on KTN Television’s “Be the Judge” program.  I’ve included a hotlink to a web site that describes this series on the Resources page of this blog.

New Reference Sites

I just added information about on-line reference sites to the Resources page of this blog.  The “KTN TV” and “Promulgation” sites relate to stories I hope to post today before I have to prepare for my departure from Kenya early Thursday morning.

Community Farm – Near Garissa

On our return trip from Masalani, we took a brief tour of a farm owned by the community of Garissa and tilled, tended, and occupied by former pastoralists. 

Instead of following their herds and focusing exclusively on raising livestock, they are staying put and learning to grow bananas, tomatoes, beans, corn, onions, and other produce.  The goals of this project are to help the new farmers better feed their families and raise themselves out of poverty.

Womankind-Kenya (WOKIKE) paid for an engineered irrigation system to be built, bought seedlings and equipment, and took the farmers to other areas of Kenya to learn from agricultural experts. 

WOKIKE continues to bring researchers and instructors from all over the world to the farm. The taller man shown in this photo traveled from Australia to collaborate with the young farmer standing beside him. 

They are applying the agricultural expert’s knowledge and continue to experiment with different approaches to improving the quality and yield of produce raised here.

While the brush-and-barbed-wire fences that surround the fields gave me pause, they didn’t keep  one agile and cunning animal out   As we drove away, we saw an ape eating the vegetables he’d stolen when the farmer and researcher were speaking with me.  We literally caught the ape red-handed.  Tomato juice was dripping from his mouth and hands. 

I laughed and explained that I’m glad I don’t have to wrestle an animal that large to the ground to protect the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and other vegetables in my garden back in Minnesota.

Traveling Through the Ijara District

A guidebook I brought with me from the U.S. describes the Northern Region of Kenya as: “remote, thinly inhabited, and practically unknown to outsiders…with an uncompromising desert landscape of scrubland and rocky plains.”  

Based on what I’ve observed while traveling through portions of Garissa County (specifically the Ijara District) this is an accurate statement.

Garissa is the third largest county in Kenya – 44,000 square kilometers.  It is also among the poorest.  Recurrent droughts have impoverished the pastoral people who live here because their livelihoods depend on having enough vegetation and water to sustain their herds (and themselves).

One of the reasons this area is “practically unknown to outsiders” is that it is difficult to reach. 

Driving is the best option, but the only roads connecting major towns such as Masalani and Garissa are so full of bumps and potholes that our very skilled driver occasionally drove on the side of the road to avoid breaking an axle or blowing out a tire.

Yet the “remote” and “thinly inhabited” qualities would likely appeal to eco-tourists and others in search of what my guidebook’s concluding sentence touts:  “…one of Africa’s last great wilderness areas.”

When the desert stretched before us in all directions as far as the eye could see I recalled views from the train window when I traveled from California to Arizona recently – or of scrubland I’d seen along the coast of Florida near Seaside in the 1990s.  Those states are tourist destinations for people from all over the world.

Public and community leaders who have been addressing the challenges and planning for the future of the Ijara District for over a decade have accomplished a lot – and have ambitious goals for the future.  For example, while interviewing Mohammed Dahir, drought monitoring officer for the Arid Land Resource Management Project (ALRMP), I learned that drought prediction, planning, and preparation activities have improved substantially in recent years. 

This area is already home to the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy, which provides protection for the Hirola antelope, an endangered species that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.  There is a Giraffe Refuge near the town of Garissa (found in the County by the same name).  An Eco-Conservation Center is currently under construction outside of Masalani. 

We didn’t need to visit any conservancies or refuges to see wild animals and birds, though.  Giraffes, apes, ostriches, and various other creatures either crossed the road in front of us or traveled alongside it as we passed.

I’ll post hotlinks to more information about the Arid Land Resource Management Project and points of interest to the “Resources” page of this blog as I continue to find them.  As a major NGO in the Ijara District, Womankind-Kenya has partnered with ALRMP staff to improve the plight of pastoralists, gather data to improve drought prediction and preparation capabilities, and, serve as a relief agency when needed.

Photo Work Shops – Garissa

I didn’t take the photos posted with this entry.

Girls living in the orphanage and attending school at Womankind-Kenya’s complex in Garissa did.  The dozens of girls who participated in the storytelling and photography work shops I orchestrated took to these activities like fish to water!

 We began with introductions and brief overview.  The girls practiced their English by asking me questions, such as: “what is the weather like where you live?” I told them about our four seasons, then joked that it had been so hot and humid in Minnesota before I left that I traveled to Kenya to cool off. (It was hot, but dry in Garissa. It has been pleasantly cool in Nairobi).

After the introductory session, I left a collection of photos that varied widely in style and subject matter etc. with the girls.  I asked them to select photos that would inspire them to tell me stories at the beginning of our first full work shop. 

 Their stories and a fun object-association game provided the warm-up for the day when the girls took their own photos.  The younger girls kept close to me as we moved “into the field.” The older ones worked in groups and assisted the others.

 On the final day, we reviewed and discussed the photos they’d taken.  I was impressed, but won’t give specific comments here.  I’d like to hear yours.

Womankind-Kenya’s staff has promised to post additional photos taken by the girls to its web site in the next week or two. (See Resources page of this blog for a hotlink)

I’d like to thank friends, family members, and neighbors who made donations to support these work shops and who also provided art, educational, and other supplies and equipment the girls will continue to use throughout the year.

Press Pass for Historic Event

On August 27, 2010 I was granted a pass that allowed me to join other journalists in the press box in the Kenyan Parliamentary Building.  I’ll post photos of President Kibaki, Prime Minister Odinga, and The Honorable Sophia Abdi Noor, M.P. being sworn in under Kenya’s new constitution once I’ve caught up with posting stories from the road.  For now, I added one photo from Promulgation Day to the photo section of this blog.  The billboard photo included with this post illustrates how excited the Kenyan people I’ve met have been about having a new constitution.