Improving lives of 1000 girls in Nairobi's slums

A total of 20 girls from Mrembo project gathered together for the first Girl Talk Forum (GTF) that was scheduled at Kiambui grounds. The forum was officially opened by the Mrembo project officer, Nancy Waweru who expressed welcoming remarks to all the attendees. Also to officially open the forum was Christine Adhiambo.”This is a great occasion that I have been looking forward to learn, network and exchange ideas and stories, especially regarding reproductive issues that are very critical towards our lives as girls. It makes me feel complete and ready to protect my future and girlhood life as I grow up, thanks for all the donors and supporters who have turned this into a reality.” Said 13year old Christine Adhiambo, a program beneficiary.

POSITIVE DISCUSSIONS

The forum created some group discussions and questionnaires to all the participants who also included girls from the neighbouring slum areas who converged to this great opportunity of their life. Group were engaged in various topics that allowed them to explore issues relating to reproductive health and gained the skills necessary to lead pro-active lives. These topics included critical thinking, communication, self-esteem, and decision making amongst others. The forum required active participation and created a team-based environment in which participants comfortably shared their feelings, beliefs and ideas about their sexual risks as young girls. One of the major issue talked about which is more prevalent in slum areas is the relationship of older men who lure young girls/school girls to have sex with them. “When I was 12 years old and still in grade 2, I came face to face with the ordeal! I was approached by a 50 year old man who had a pack of candies. He wanted me to follow him to his house and promised to give me the candies once we sleep together, but with my immature brains I had already read his minds and I run so fast to our home.'Said one of the girls..

CONCLUSSION

The one day forum was very much educational and more informative to all the participants. “This has been an eye opener not only to me but to many of us who have gathered here! and even those who couldn’t manage to make, we believe that for us who have attended, we will go out and spread out the information we have learnt to our peers and the entire community that we serve. We would wish to have more of this forum in the future and have the days extended to 2/3 so that we can fully acquire more information and discussions.” Said one of the mrembo girls.

The Mrembo project is highly appreciating its donors for making this forum a big success and is requesting for more donations to arrange more forums of this nature in the future. In the meantime, we welcome any feedback from our extinguished donors because this is the only way to make us move forward. We THANK YOU so much!!

• MREMBO_TALK_FORUM.doc (DOC)

In downtown Nairobi I waited for Eunice Ndeche, the founder of Capitol Area Soccer League (www.globalgiving.org/1885) to show me to his offices. The 4-lane highway was clogged with Matatus and buses. I noticed a few horse carts dodging traffic in the nearest lane, opposite the Kenyan Central Bank. Only there weren’t any horses or donkeys, just burley men dragging supplies on their carts. I reached for a camera to save this strange juxtaposition of modern and archaic. One of them smiled at me as he gave the yolk of his cart a yank. He smiled at me. “Hey wazzap!” he said.

CASL’s offices were on the 6th floor of a 20-floor high rise. As we boarded the elevator, I thought, this doesn’t feel like a typical globalgiving project! I thought our projects are village-based grassroots operations. When I saw CASL’s office I understood. CASL (http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/1900/proj1885b.html) and Best Buddies Kenya (www.globalgiving.com/1741) share one five-foot square cubicle subleted from another company. CASL has a staff of 18 with 2 full time employees. They all cram in here when they need to. This is what “cost-effective change” looks like; two NGOs crammed into one cubicle because there isn’t enough donor money to support the Geneva convention’s minimum human space requirements. Each of these organizations operate on less than $5000 a year and they need your help. They don’t have money for big ad campaigns or media consultants. The staff is a handful of 20-something youths trying to curb the spread of AIDS. Imagine what you could do for them if you just re-tweeted their needs or used GlobalGiving’s new “tell a friend” tool to help them as a “virtual volunteer.” We’re on a listening tour of Kenya because there is so much more we can learn from our client organizations in person. The organizations I’ve seen are not always as I expected, but I have been impressed with what they’ve done with our donors’ support.

CASL is planning a soccer tournament in two weeks (www.globalgiving.org/1885). They wanted to host 16 teams but currently only have funding for half that. They’ve successfully courted ColaCola and SarafiCom (mobile phones) in the past but the economic downturn has put a damper on youth sports AIDS prevention. They expect to host 60 players. All will be tested for HIV and will partake in AIDS awareness education. I got them signed up on twitter and you should be able to follow the tournament live on March 28th, 2009 (@endeche or @globalgiving on twitter). In addition they have a youth network of teacher trainers who go to schools and combine sports education with AIDS prevention messages. The two full time staff look to be in their twenties. These truly are youth teaching youth. Michael Kremer wrote that for what it costs to treat one AIDS patient for one year, you could prevent new infections worth 25 to 110 years of life. If just one of their four projects was fully funded, over 1800 years of combined AIDS-free living would result (using Michael Kremer’s upper estimate and the AIDS treatment cost per person). Nancy Waweru manages a similar project to empower girls and educate them about AIDS (www.globalgiving.org/2221). Her workshops emphasize “reproductive health,” meaning they discuss healthy relationships, sex, abortion, menstruation, STDs, and fighting stimga. “What is one organization you really admire for the work they do?” I asked Nancy. She immediately replied “Step by step!” “Why?” “They are new but have already done much. They hosted a very effective workshop on reproductive health at Kaimbo. They also got CocaCola to sponsor it. And they work with ‘deviant girls.’ They are not so easy to work with.” Great Nancy! Thanks to you and Eunice for meeting with me. It was an honor. And know that if our projects recommend another organization, you can bet we’ll invite them to join GlobalGiving in the future. This is how we uncover great new organizations. Whether big or small, new or old, any legitimate, recommended, social media-savvy organization has the same opportunity to attract funding on our site.

Overall, I would say this organization impressed me. I hope to see more from them in the future. You can help them by supporting them and by using twitter, blogs, facebook, and word of mouth to attract others to this project!

We are very thankful to our friends and Global Giving donors who made a contribution towards the Kellogg Foundation competition. Though we did not emerge winners we were able to raise more than $1000 towards the Mrembo program. Through your generous contribution we were able to organize a girls soccer clinic for ours girls team in Kiambui slums in preparation to an International soccer clinic to be held in April. We also intend to hold a girls workshop targeting more than 50 girls from Kiambui,Kinyago and Majengo slums as we launch our revised curriculum. The curriculum is a series of soccer activities each with a topic and reproductive health messages. Sexual Assault, Early pregnancy and marriages, Sex and Relationships, HIV are some of the topics addressed. On a sad note, we lost our girls captain Judith Auma in a fire tragedy that claimed more than 100 lives. May her soul rest in peace. Your contribution counts and through it we are able to reach and transform lives of many girls in Majengo, Kiambui and Kinyago slums.Tunashukuru!(We are grateful). We appreciate your comments on our progress reports.

Mrembo girls show cased their soccer skills in an on going October grass root soccer league which drew girls’ team from different locations in Nairobi at Kinyago grounds. Striker Mercy Atieno from Mrembo team in white was quite determined to score against their opponent KinyagoUnited despite of the muddy field. Read more from the attatchment.

• Mrembo League.doc (DOC)