On Tuesday morning we visited a volunteer run mobile HIV testing service on the fringes of one of Kisumu's slum's.
Tuesday 7th July - Morning
On Tuesday morning we went off to meet my host, Shamsia Nuru, who volunteers for a HIV testing organisation. The Tungari Youth Project is a mobile HIV testing service. Each day 6 stations are set up on the fringes of Kisumu’s slum areas and people voluntarily arrive to be tested. Shamsia told us how it was often difficult to encourage people to come to be testing, a combination of fear, shame and lack of awareness means that the testers (there are around 5 at each station) usually fail to meet their target of 10 tests a day. Shamsia and her colleagues are all volunteers, they are trained on how to use basic testing kits and how to counsel those who test positive and give information to those who test negative on how to stay infection free. The results are almost instantaneous and those who test positive are referred to a doctor immediately so that they can begin treatment as soon as possible. The testing kits are very expensive, it costs over 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £10) to test each person. The money is raised by a charity in Atlanta in the USA.
At present around 300 people are tested each day across the 6 stations, so far they have tested around 35% of the population, they aim to increase this to 80% by the end of 2010, they need more money. HIV is a huge problem here, it spreads rapidly because of prostitution, the tendency for men and women to have polygamous marriages, the lack of awareness about whether one is infected or not, the reluctance of men to use condoms and the generally low levels of personal hygiene. There is a campaign at the moment for males to be circumscribed as this reduces the chance that they can contract and pass on the infection, it is a difficult campaign because men do not like to do it. The traditional methods of circumcision sound brutal, they involve a machete, a big stone and a lot of blood. These methods are still in practice in some rural areas around Kisumu but men are now given the opportunity to have the operation using modern hygienic methods.
Last week Shamsia and her colleagues has been on a course to train them in how to go door to door in the slums to try to encourage people to take tests in the privacy of their own homes. I'm sure this will make a big difference to the amount of tests they can get done. It is sure, however, to be much harder work for the volunteers, but they seem to be a determined and committed team so I am hopeful they will succeed and make a big impact on the lives of the people of Kisumu.
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Monday in Kisumu
We spent the whole of Monday in Kisumu meeting various people, below is a report
Monday 6th July
The first appointment on Monday was a meeting with the Mayor of Kisumu at the town hall. Howard had collected letters from the Mayor of Cheltenham, Lord Surgener and Lord Nigel Jones and we passed them to the Mayor. He very graciously received them and presented us with a Kisumu plaque for us to pass onto his counterpart in Cheltenham. He was encouraged by the letters we had delivered and told us how happy he was to see people connecting at a grass roots level. He did, however, tell us that he was disappointed that Cheltenham seems to have fallen behind its other linked cities in Germany, Sweden and the USA. He hoped that the links between Kisumu and Cheltenham will be revitalised at a Civic level in the future and will write to the Mayor of Cheltenham to express this optimism.
After our meeting with the Mayor we headed in an old seven- seater Peugot matatu to Kisumu airport. We had an appointment with the Meteorological department. We were hoping to get some insider opinion on the impacts that climate change is having in this region. We spoke with the Deputy Provincial Director for Meteorology – Berike Arera. He was very cagey not allowing us to record the conversation, he explained that he was only willing (or allowed) to discuss the data collected in Kisumu. He could not talk about climate change or long term trends and even though we pushed him quite hard he would not speculate on what the weather might do in the next few years. They are not involved in prediction.
He did explain to us however the traditional pattern in the weather here. Kisumu is almost on the equator, but this does not mean the weather is the same all year round. The weather here is affected by weather patterns in other parts of the world as these effect the winds converging or not at the equator, winds that bring in moisture from the Indian Ocean. Kisumu usually has a Long Rains season during April, May and June during which it can expect to receive around 50-70mm / day of rainfall. It then has a Short rains season in October and November. The temperature drops a little during these periods, at all other times it is hot and dry. Arera told us that in recent years there has a dramatic reduction in rainfall during both of the rainy seasons, he said that last year was below average and this year was lower again. This is a big concern as this is not a part of the world that copes well with drought conditions. When there is little rainfall crops fail and people get hungry, it is as simple as that. All around Kisumu we have seen evidence of this, there are fields full of failed Maize crops and the news is full of stories about predicted shortfalls in other crops.
Our day on Monday ended with a dramatic thunderstorm which lasted for around 2 hours bringing much needed rain. The wise residents here collect rainfall from their roofs when it falls. They use this ‘grey’ water to flush toilets and water any plants they may have in their compounds. Aby’s host, Michael, uses this water for his paper making business. This was the first serious rainfall we have experienced since we have been in Kenya, it was certainly very refreshing.
Monday 6th July
The first appointment on Monday was a meeting with the Mayor of Kisumu at the town hall. Howard had collected letters from the Mayor of Cheltenham, Lord Surgener and Lord Nigel Jones and we passed them to the Mayor. He very graciously received them and presented us with a Kisumu plaque for us to pass onto his counterpart in Cheltenham. He was encouraged by the letters we had delivered and told us how happy he was to see people connecting at a grass roots level. He did, however, tell us that he was disappointed that Cheltenham seems to have fallen behind its other linked cities in Germany, Sweden and the USA. He hoped that the links between Kisumu and Cheltenham will be revitalised at a Civic level in the future and will write to the Mayor of Cheltenham to express this optimism.
After our meeting with the Mayor we headed in an old seven- seater Peugot matatu to Kisumu airport. We had an appointment with the Meteorological department. We were hoping to get some insider opinion on the impacts that climate change is having in this region. We spoke with the Deputy Provincial Director for Meteorology – Berike Arera. He was very cagey not allowing us to record the conversation, he explained that he was only willing (or allowed) to discuss the data collected in Kisumu. He could not talk about climate change or long term trends and even though we pushed him quite hard he would not speculate on what the weather might do in the next few years. They are not involved in prediction.
He did explain to us however the traditional pattern in the weather here. Kisumu is almost on the equator, but this does not mean the weather is the same all year round. The weather here is affected by weather patterns in other parts of the world as these effect the winds converging or not at the equator, winds that bring in moisture from the Indian Ocean. Kisumu usually has a Long Rains season during April, May and June during which it can expect to receive around 50-70mm / day of rainfall. It then has a Short rains season in October and November. The temperature drops a little during these periods, at all other times it is hot and dry. Arera told us that in recent years there has a dramatic reduction in rainfall during both of the rainy seasons, he said that last year was below average and this year was lower again. This is a big concern as this is not a part of the world that copes well with drought conditions. When there is little rainfall crops fail and people get hungry, it is as simple as that. All around Kisumu we have seen evidence of this, there are fields full of failed Maize crops and the news is full of stories about predicted shortfalls in other crops.
Our day on Monday ended with a dramatic thunderstorm which lasted for around 2 hours bringing much needed rain. The wise residents here collect rainfall from their roofs when it falls. They use this ‘grey’ water to flush toilets and water any plants they may have in their compounds. Aby’s host, Michael, uses this water for his paper making business. This was the first serious rainfall we have experienced since we have been in Kenya, it was certainly very refreshing.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Churches
Yesterday Howard and I experienced Christian Church services here in Kisumu. Howard attended St.Lukes (which is twinned with his own St. Lukes church back in Cheltenham) and I accompanied Edwin Ochieng (Chairman of Kisumu Links and sister cities) at St. Stephens Cathedral in Kisumu town centre. Both churches were very well attended, there were around 400 people at St Stephens, several sat or stood outside listening to the service via loud speaker!The services here are much longer than back home, both of them lasting over 3 hours! As guests of the church we were both invited to say a few words to the congregation. I was only made aware of this the night before (just before going out for a few social drinks) but I had a feeling it might happen so had been giving it some thought. I have been reading Barack Obama's first book: 'Dreams from my father' (his father is from this region of Kenya) and there is a part in it (pages 292-293) which I thought would be worth drawing on. I thought I'd type up what I said here as it definitely captures how I feel about Kisumu and Kenya.
Hope
I want to talk about an inspiring man and a passage from his inspiring book: "Dreams from my father" by Barack Obama. In this passage he talks about hope. He is reflecting on a sermon he heard when he was working as a community organiser in one of Chicago's most deprived neighbourhoods. He writes this:
The title of Reverend Wright's sermon that morning was "The Audacity of Hope." He began with a passage from the book of Samuel - the story of Hannah, who, barren and taunted by her rivals, had wept and shaken in prayer before her God. The story reminded him, he said, of a sermon a fellow pastor had preached at a conference some years before, in which the pastor described going to a museum and being confronted by a painting titled 'Hope'.
"The painting depicts a harpist," Reverend Wright explained, "a woman who at first glanceappears to be sitting atop a great mountain. Until you take a closer look and see that the woman is bruised and bloodied, dressed in tattered rags, the harp reduced to a single frayed string. Your eye is then drawn down to the scene below, down to the valley below, where everywhere are the ravages of famine, the drumbeat of war, a world groaning under strife and deprivation.
Obama continues to quote the Reverend as he relates the story to the troubled Chicago neighbourhood Port-Au-Prince:
"It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-Au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere... That's the world! On which hope sits!"
What Obama is saying is that despite the problems we might face: hunger, deprivation, depression, pain, poverty, hardship and the greed of others; despite all these things we can always hope. The Reverend Wright ended by talking again about the painting:
"And yet consider once again the painting before us. Hope! Like Hannah, that harpist is looking upwards, a few faint notes floating upwards towards the heavens. She dares to hope... She has the audacity... to make music... and praise God... on the one string... she has left!"
Kenya is so very different to the UK. Kisumu is so very different to Cheltenham. Kenyans need to find that audacity Obama is talking about, the audacity of hope. They need to stand above all of the difficulties they face, big and small and hope and believe that they can overcome them. I've been here for two weeks and seen many, ma ny problems, from accidents that happen to cyclists because they have no reflective clothing, lights or helmets to major problems caused by the changing climate and global warming. If I was a leader, at any level, here in Kenya I think I would be overwhelmed by this and not know which problems to address first.
What I do know is that I, like President Obama, would be optimistic, I would hope. There are enough people in this wonderful country who are committed to postive change, enough people who look outward rather than in, enough people to have the audacity to hope.
I am only the leader of a small charity, Global Footsteps. We are based in Cheltenham in the UK, but we have members all across the world, some of them are here today. We exist to link communities and people together to promote intercultural understanding and environmental education. We do this through holding international youth conferences every other year and by linking schools, charities, community organisations and churches. I hope that we can link this church with one of a similar size in Cheltenham. And I hope that by doing this both Churches will benefit as they learn from and help each other.
Hope
I want to talk about an inspiring man and a passage from his inspiring book: "Dreams from my father" by Barack Obama. In this passage he talks about hope. He is reflecting on a sermon he heard when he was working as a community organiser in one of Chicago's most deprived neighbourhoods. He writes this:
The title of Reverend Wright's sermon that morning was "The Audacity of Hope." He began with a passage from the book of Samuel - the story of Hannah, who, barren and taunted by her rivals, had wept and shaken in prayer before her God. The story reminded him, he said, of a sermon a fellow pastor had preached at a conference some years before, in which the pastor described going to a museum and being confronted by a painting titled 'Hope'.
"The painting depicts a harpist," Reverend Wright explained, "a woman who at first glanceappears to be sitting atop a great mountain. Until you take a closer look and see that the woman is bruised and bloodied, dressed in tattered rags, the harp reduced to a single frayed string. Your eye is then drawn down to the scene below, down to the valley below, where everywhere are the ravages of famine, the drumbeat of war, a world groaning under strife and deprivation.
Obama continues to quote the Reverend as he relates the story to the troubled Chicago neighbourhood Port-Au-Prince:
"It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-Au-Prince see in a year, where white folks' greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere... That's the world! On which hope sits!"
What Obama is saying is that despite the problems we might face: hunger, deprivation, depression, pain, poverty, hardship and the greed of others; despite all these things we can always hope. The Reverend Wright ended by talking again about the painting:
"And yet consider once again the painting before us. Hope! Like Hannah, that harpist is looking upwards, a few faint notes floating upwards towards the heavens. She dares to hope... She has the audacity... to make music... and praise God... on the one string... she has left!"
Kenya is so very different to the UK. Kisumu is so very different to Cheltenham. Kenyans need to find that audacity Obama is talking about, the audacity of hope. They need to stand above all of the difficulties they face, big and small and hope and believe that they can overcome them. I've been here for two weeks and seen many, ma ny problems, from accidents that happen to cyclists because they have no reflective clothing, lights or helmets to major problems caused by the changing climate and global warming. If I was a leader, at any level, here in Kenya I think I would be overwhelmed by this and not know which problems to address first.
What I do know is that I, like President Obama, would be optimistic, I would hope. There are enough people in this wonderful country who are committed to postive change, enough people who look outward rather than in, enough people to have the audacity to hope.
I am only the leader of a small charity, Global Footsteps. We are based in Cheltenham in the UK, but we have members all across the world, some of them are here today. We exist to link communities and people together to promote intercultural understanding and environmental education. We do this through holding international youth conferences every other year and by linking schools, charities, community organisations and churches. I hope that we can link this church with one of a similar size in Cheltenham. And I hope that by doing this both Churches will benefit as they learn from and help each other.
Friday, 3 July 2009
The equator
Below is an update by Aby Morley on a varied and enjoyable day that we spent in the company of Kisumu Rural CDF....
Thursday 2nd July
A surprising visit to the equator on our travels today! A novelty that we all enjoyed, taking snapshots crossing the north/south divide. The sun seemed to move quickly above our heads and the temperature seemed to rise as we stood there. Edwin then took us back to a school that we visited on Monday so that we culd meet the other classes, the younger years. They seemed apprehensive at first as we intoduced ourselves; but we donated a footbll to the school as well as Cheltenham Town pencils, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy as they ran out of class to the field to play. They were kind enough to give us their hand-made ball, constructed out of string and plastic bags!
Our convoy then moved out to a more rural area where we visited a group of women who hand make traditional pots in which they carry on their heads carrying water. They have adapted them to include taps! They formed the group to help raise money for those in their community that need it, they have been able to provide uniforms for some students. After this Margaret took us to the rural area in which she lives, it is the home of her Father in law; but also the home of the Kosimbo project that she co-ordinates. The group was formed after Margarets husband died and she realised that more had to be done for the widows and orphans in her community. They have set up a medical centre that operates twice a week, treating 500 people, many of them children. For 20 Kenyan shillings they can access this vital treatment. They also helped to provide clean water for the community, charging 1shilling for 20 litres of water; before this the people were drinking from the local river which caused problems with cholera. The Kosimbo also help with education and providing unifroms, as well as caring for the elderly widows. Altough as they greet us they seem full of energy, everywhere we walk they join us singing and dancing, and getting us to join in of course!
Edwin, Morgan and Howard help to plant trees in the garden at the medical centre, whilst Alice and I entertain the children.
A short walk from the centre and we arive at Kirindo Primary School where we are recieved outside by the teachers and children. A group of young girls perform a traditional dance for us, telling the story of a girl growing up; it is beautiful although we do not understand the language. We all joined in at certain points which the children whought was hilarious. Poetry and drama is also performed. It is wonderful to see the work that Kosimbo do in progress as some of the children wear uniforms provided by the tailoring Morgan plays football with some of them, whilst the others are interested in touching our white skin! We have to escape the throung of pupils to head back to our seperate houses! All of us really enjoyed the day and were able to learn a lot from the way in which they have been developing their communities.
Thursday 2nd July
A surprising visit to the equator on our travels today! A novelty that we all enjoyed, taking snapshots crossing the north/south divide. The sun seemed to move quickly above our heads and the temperature seemed to rise as we stood there. Edwin then took us back to a school that we visited on Monday so that we culd meet the other classes, the younger years. They seemed apprehensive at first as we intoduced ourselves; but we donated a footbll to the school as well as Cheltenham Town pencils, which they seemed to thoroughly enjoy as they ran out of class to the field to play. They were kind enough to give us their hand-made ball, constructed out of string and plastic bags!
Our convoy then moved out to a more rural area where we visited a group of women who hand make traditional pots in which they carry on their heads carrying water. They have adapted them to include taps! They formed the group to help raise money for those in their community that need it, they have been able to provide uniforms for some students. After this Margaret took us to the rural area in which she lives, it is the home of her Father in law; but also the home of the Kosimbo project that she co-ordinates. The group was formed after Margarets husband died and she realised that more had to be done for the widows and orphans in her community. They have set up a medical centre that operates twice a week, treating 500 people, many of them children. For 20 Kenyan shillings they can access this vital treatment. They also helped to provide clean water for the community, charging 1shilling for 20 litres of water; before this the people were drinking from the local river which caused problems with cholera. The Kosimbo also help with education and providing unifroms, as well as caring for the elderly widows. Altough as they greet us they seem full of energy, everywhere we walk they join us singing and dancing, and getting us to join in of course!
Edwin, Morgan and Howard help to plant trees in the garden at the medical centre, whilst Alice and I entertain the children.
A short walk from the centre and we arive at Kirindo Primary School where we are recieved outside by the teachers and children. A group of young girls perform a traditional dance for us, telling the story of a girl growing up; it is beautiful although we do not understand the language. We all joined in at certain points which the children whought was hilarious. Poetry and drama is also performed. It is wonderful to see the work that Kosimbo do in progress as some of the children wear uniforms provided by the tailoring Morgan plays football with some of them, whilst the others are interested in touching our white skin! We have to escape the throung of pupils to head back to our seperate houses! All of us really enjoyed the day and were able to learn a lot from the way in which they have been developing their communities.
CADIF Kenya
This update is only two days old, so not bad by our standards! CADIF is a fantastic project and I hope we will be able to form strong links with them. Please read on:
Wednesday 1st July
Before heading to Kenya I connected with CADIF Kenya a community capacity building project based here in Kisumu. We spent today with them and although the situation within which they operate is desperately difficult, what CADIF (Community Aid Development Fund International) are doing is truly inspirational. I’ve been sat here for 1 hour trying to write about what we saw, learned and heard today. It is incredibly difficult to do it justice. Instead I will hold back until I have worked through the audio and video footage, written materials and photos we gathered today. We will make a short film about it and strengthen our links online and hopefully in person. For those of you aware of the project we are involved in in Bangladesh (Curry With Love/ HRA Foundation) I can tell you that we now have a link with a similar project here. CADIF are helping to rebuild a community on the margins of Kisumu and people who are truly on the margins of life. The community they work with is a slum on the very edge of Lake Victoria, in fact when floods come it is in the lake. Nylenda They are not doing it solely by raising money to provide short term aid; they are working WITH the community to create long lasting change by training people. They close the gap between education and the knowledge and practical skills needed to run businesses and this helps people to work their way out of one of the worst slums, Nylenda, in Africa. They train people in urban agriculture and agri-business. We were shown a training centre they had built with mud, straw and timber in which they train people how to recycle rice straw to grow mushrooms. They spread awareness of safe sex to help bring down the prevalence of HIV in Nylenda (24% of people there have HIV, much of it as a result of prostitution). They go far beyond simply promoting abstinence and the use of condoms, one of their volunteers, John, is trained in psychotherapy, he helps women who have contracted the HIV virus to deal with it psychologically. At their centre a few hundred metres from Nylenda they provide ICT training and simple business planning advice to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs while crucially helping them to gain the practical skills and knowledge needed to start and run their own business.
The last two hours of our time with CADIF were spent at The Oasis of Hope Secondary School. The Oasis was set up by a friend of Steven Otieno (Founder of CADIF) who wanted to help orphaned children to get an education, CADIF was instrumental in making it happen. The school is situated on a flood plain right next to the main sewerage pipe serving Kisumu. When the rains eventually come the school is under 2 or 3 metres of dirty water, the land there was very cheap to buy. The Oasis has 250 pupils some of whom walk 15km a day to attend. Because there is so much to learn pupils are expected to arrive at 7am and do not return home until 5.30pm. The school has no electricity, no running water and no sewerage system. Classes of over 50 pupils are housed in corrugated iron buildings with no glass windows, a mud floor and a teacher armed with only a piece of chalk and a blackboard. For the children who can afford it lunch is cooked on site and cost 10 Kenyan Shillings. 10 Kenyan shillings is equal to about 9 British pence. Many of the children cannot afford this, they therefore go the whole day without eating hoping that whoever they go home to (remember they have no parents) will have something for them to eat in the evening. Steven told me that many do not even have breakfast. The situation becomes even worse when Kisumu suffers a dry period. When it is dry the supply of food drops meaning the price of it rises, this is when hunger becomes a huge problem. Kenya as a whole is suffering longer and more intense dry periods as a result of global changes to the climate.
I’ve now been sat here for one and a half hours and I need to get some sleep. There is so much more to tell about CADIF and I promise to expand on this as our link grows. Lastly I want to make the point that CADIF has only been running for 3 years, it has achieved an incredible amount on funds that have been raised by its volunteer staff through their own hard work. It has struggled to raise money from government and large corporate sources due to its small scale, we plan to help it to raise money and hopefully to raise money for it. I left 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £8) of my own money with the director of the school, it will buy 100 lunches, it is not enough and I wish I could give more. The more money CADIF can raise the better it will do, we are aiming to provide opportunities for volunteers from across our network to volunteer their skills to CADIF to help it grow. Global Footsteps can make this happen and volunteers will be able to donate not only their time and skills, but hopefully also some money.
Wednesday 1st July
Before heading to Kenya I connected with CADIF Kenya a community capacity building project based here in Kisumu. We spent today with them and although the situation within which they operate is desperately difficult, what CADIF (Community Aid Development Fund International) are doing is truly inspirational. I’ve been sat here for 1 hour trying to write about what we saw, learned and heard today. It is incredibly difficult to do it justice. Instead I will hold back until I have worked through the audio and video footage, written materials and photos we gathered today. We will make a short film about it and strengthen our links online and hopefully in person. For those of you aware of the project we are involved in in Bangladesh (Curry With Love/ HRA Foundation) I can tell you that we now have a link with a similar project here. CADIF are helping to rebuild a community on the margins of Kisumu and people who are truly on the margins of life. The community they work with is a slum on the very edge of Lake Victoria, in fact when floods come it is in the lake. Nylenda They are not doing it solely by raising money to provide short term aid; they are working WITH the community to create long lasting change by training people. They close the gap between education and the knowledge and practical skills needed to run businesses and this helps people to work their way out of one of the worst slums, Nylenda, in Africa. They train people in urban agriculture and agri-business. We were shown a training centre they had built with mud, straw and timber in which they train people how to recycle rice straw to grow mushrooms. They spread awareness of safe sex to help bring down the prevalence of HIV in Nylenda (24% of people there have HIV, much of it as a result of prostitution). They go far beyond simply promoting abstinence and the use of condoms, one of their volunteers, John, is trained in psychotherapy, he helps women who have contracted the HIV virus to deal with it psychologically. At their centre a few hundred metres from Nylenda they provide ICT training and simple business planning advice to encourage young people to be entrepreneurs while crucially helping them to gain the practical skills and knowledge needed to start and run their own business.
The last two hours of our time with CADIF were spent at The Oasis of Hope Secondary School. The Oasis was set up by a friend of Steven Otieno (Founder of CADIF) who wanted to help orphaned children to get an education, CADIF was instrumental in making it happen. The school is situated on a flood plain right next to the main sewerage pipe serving Kisumu. When the rains eventually come the school is under 2 or 3 metres of dirty water, the land there was very cheap to buy. The Oasis has 250 pupils some of whom walk 15km a day to attend. Because there is so much to learn pupils are expected to arrive at 7am and do not return home until 5.30pm. The school has no electricity, no running water and no sewerage system. Classes of over 50 pupils are housed in corrugated iron buildings with no glass windows, a mud floor and a teacher armed with only a piece of chalk and a blackboard. For the children who can afford it lunch is cooked on site and cost 10 Kenyan Shillings. 10 Kenyan shillings is equal to about 9 British pence. Many of the children cannot afford this, they therefore go the whole day without eating hoping that whoever they go home to (remember they have no parents) will have something for them to eat in the evening. Steven told me that many do not even have breakfast. The situation becomes even worse when Kisumu suffers a dry period. When it is dry the supply of food drops meaning the price of it rises, this is when hunger becomes a huge problem. Kenya as a whole is suffering longer and more intense dry periods as a result of global changes to the climate.
I’ve now been sat here for one and a half hours and I need to get some sleep. There is so much more to tell about CADIF and I promise to expand on this as our link grows. Lastly I want to make the point that CADIF has only been running for 3 years, it has achieved an incredible amount on funds that have been raised by its volunteer staff through their own hard work. It has struggled to raise money from government and large corporate sources due to its small scale, we plan to help it to raise money and hopefully to raise money for it. I left 1000 Kenyan Shillings (about £8) of my own money with the director of the school, it will buy 100 lunches, it is not enough and I wish I could give more. The more money CADIF can raise the better it will do, we are aiming to provide opportunities for volunteers from across our network to volunteer their skills to CADIF to help it grow. Global Footsteps can make this happen and volunteers will be able to donate not only their time and skills, but hopefully also some money.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Greeting from Kisumu
Greetings from a hot Kisumu. We have been here since late on Sunday night and have packed so much in already, I will hopefully be able to get some of it up on here when I get another chance to get online. Today we are with CADIF a volunteer run community capacity building program that we hope to form some useful links with. They are doing a fantastic job in some of the most deprived parts of Kisumu. Everyone here is well, we have had a great welcome and are safely in the hands of our various host families. Below is a report from an eventful day spent at Lake Naivasha and on the road to Kisumu!
Sunday 28th June
What should have been a fairly incident free day turned out to be anything but. We woke up at Elsamere for the last time this morning and decided it would be worthwhile visiting the neighbouring township ‘Kamere’. Howard and I had visited the night before in search of a beer but Aby and
HIV Aids is also a threat here, awareness raising into the dangers of having sex is evident. Given that it is unrealistic that condoms are either accessible or affordable the advice is abstinence. We saw many wearing awareness raising t-shirts.
After our last lunch, prepared and served to perfection as ever by Kennedy and his team, we packed and awaited the arrival of Edwin Ochieng from Kisumu. Edwin is our main host in Kisumu and a long time member of Global Footsteps. We were expecting him at 2pm, he arrived at 5.30pm, we’d had regular updates from him explaining that he had been delayed drastically due to the condition of the road between Kisumu and Nakuru. We were soon to experience this road, but shortly before departing we were lucky (if that is the right word) to witness nature as red tooth and claw on our doorstep. Cliff received a message to say that a python had killed a goat in the grounds of Elsamere. We rushed over to find two local rangers carrying a thoroughly cheesed off twelve foot python who had missed out on a very big meal. That very big meal, a pregnant goat was being carried by its legs by two young locals, who in all likelihood would now eat the goat themselves!
We left Elsamere at around 5.45pm, and made good progress to Nakuru where we dropped Cliff off who was going home to his wife and children after a busy week with us. I am so happy to have met Cliff, we share many interests in the world of Environmental Education. I told him before I left how impressed I’d been with what he is doing as the Education Officer at Elsamere. He is clearly passionate about the subject and passionate about developing his own skills and knowledge of it. He is way ahead of many of the environmental educators I come across in the
True to prediction the road between Nakuru and Kisumu was in a terrible condition, for well over 100km it runs adjacent to the developing new road, this temporary road resembles a farm track. Edwin had to slow to a crawl over and over again to negotiate the oncoming traffic, the potholes and the police checks. We eventually reached the
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Environmental Education, Elsamere style!
Our last full day at Elsamere. Today St. Clare’s Secondary Girls School visited Elsamere. 55 girls in total arrived in two shifts (their 2 minibus did shuttle runs). It was great to watch Cliff Barkatch, our host, in action. Following on from a screening of ‘Born Free’ Cliff told the story of Joy Adamson, she was an inspirational woman. After that it was up to me to give a lecture on ‘Environmental Education’. I’d spent the previous evening frantically hashing together something relevant to say. In the end I talked about the need for us to explore the drivers of our behaviours, explaining how in the UK, our consumer obsessed society is driving climate change because of the over emphasis we place on the sign value of commodities. Climate change is observably having an effect here, now. We are on the shore of Lake Naivasha and there is clear evidence that the water level is falling. This is due to the extraction of water for agriculture, particularly to feed the 40 or so flower farms that flank the lake. While it is true that the flower farms are removing water too quickly in a classic case of ‘the tragedy of the commons’, the lake is also not replenishing itself because the rain is not coming. It is very possible that the droughts suffered in this region over the last two years are the result of climate change. This climate change is the result of the activities of Western cultures.
After a break for lunch and a boat trip, the girls gathered again in the main hall to be taught by Cliff about Natural resources. There is clearly awareness among the pupils of St Clare’s about environmental issues. They have developed a campaign of giving out green ribbons (similar to the ones used to raise awareness of aids and breast cancer) to encourage people to think about conservation and adaption to the changing climate. There is a large emphasis here on tree planting, to commemorate the visit of St Clare’s Cliff instructed a few of the girls to plant a tree in the grounds of Elsamere.
During the evening I headed out on a short bike ride, a mile or so down to the gates of Oserian (one of the biggest flower farms) and back. On reaching the gates of Elsamere I met Howard and walked with him up to the nearby township, in search of beer. Townships such as this have sprung up, completely unplanned, all around Lake Naivasha. Everyone was very friendly, the children, parrott fashion, all asked ‘how are you?’ as we walked passed them, not all of them were smiling and you can see why. The paths were rutted, sewerage spilled out onto the street, there is no running water and will probably never be any electricity. As soon as we left the main road we were met by Salom who enquired what we were after. ‘Beer’. He led us up through the very tight knit community until we eventually reached a small bar. We bought 6 bottles of Tuska and thanked him for his help before he led us safely back down to the road. When he’d met us he’d left his bike leant up against a shop front, advising me to bring mine with me. On returning he pointed at his bike saying ‘nobody will take it, I am a big man round here!’
After a break for lunch and a boat trip, the girls gathered again in the main hall to be taught by Cliff about Natural resources. There is clearly awareness among the pupils of St Clare’s about environmental issues. They have developed a campaign of giving out green ribbons (similar to the ones used to raise awareness of aids and breast cancer) to encourage people to think about conservation and adaption to the changing climate. There is a large emphasis here on tree planting, to commemorate the visit of St Clare’s Cliff instructed a few of the girls to plant a tree in the grounds of Elsamere.
During the evening I headed out on a short bike ride, a mile or so down to the gates of Oserian (one of the biggest flower farms) and back. On reaching the gates of Elsamere I met Howard and walked with him up to the nearby township, in search of beer. Townships such as this have sprung up, completely unplanned, all around Lake Naivasha. Everyone was very friendly, the children, parrott fashion, all asked ‘how are you?’ as we walked passed them, not all of them were smiling and you can see why. The paths were rutted, sewerage spilled out onto the street, there is no running water and will probably never be any electricity. As soon as we left the main road we were met by Salom who enquired what we were after. ‘Beer’. He led us up through the very tight knit community until we eventually reached a small bar. We bought 6 bottles of Tuska and thanked him for his help before he led us safely back down to the road. When he’d met us he’d left his bike leant up against a shop front, advising me to bring mine with me. On returning he pointed at his bike saying ‘nobody will take it, I am a big man round here!’
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