Train 120 Health & Human Rights promoters in Kenya

Dear Friend and Partner

Happy New Year

It is wonderful to speak to you again. The new year brings hope and renewed energy to advocate for what is right and safe, and strengthen efforts in amplifying the voice of the vulnerable and people who need our help. As we reflect on what that means to us and how that guides our project of training community health and human rights promoters to help in fighting FGM.

When we started this project, we were ordinary people who saw the power of training in ending cultural vices ailing our society and threatening to subject vulnerable girls and women to the vicious cycle. 

The number of community health promoters trained and continuing to effectively and collaboratively conduct end-FGM, end-teenage pregnancy, and teaching life skills education has increased to more than 80. Furthermore, we are happy to have created links and networks at the local level leaders and healthcare providers. This milestone has impeccably transformed our operations at an organizational level and positive impact in creating needed conversations surrounding the safety and health of girls and women in Kenya.

Moreover, before going into the end-year break, we had a wonderful session documenting our story with support from the GlobalGiving team. Words cannot express how happy and humbled we were when we received news of this opportunity. This necessitated HFAW to bring on board the community health and human rights promoters who have been key in making a positive impact on the lives of girls and women who are at risk of FGM. The video follows  the journey of our founder, Dr. Grace Mose Okong'o. We look forward to sharing with you the final video. Our hope is that by taking part in this, you get to see the amazing work your support has done in our community.

Looking into 2022, we are more hopeful that this is the year to make our voices in ending FGM, teenage pregnancy, and gender-based violence louder and bolder. We welcome you to continue joining hands with Hope Foundation for African Women.

Dear Friend and partner

We are is excited to speak to you again about the amazing and impactful work that you are doing in our community through your generous contributions.

Positively speaking, as we approach the end of the year, we cannot help but be amazed by how far we have come. The outbreak of Covid-19 created a lot of anxiety and uncertainties. With a lot of questions on how to implement the training for health and human rights promoters given the common priority to protect of keeping the community safe from Covid-19, we continue to brave through the period through reinventing and innovating safer ways of engaging the members of the community on how to end female genital mutilation and other forms of domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, child abuse, and improving access to life skills education.

Over the past few months, we have severally engaged on radio and social media for creating awareness on the health effects of Female Genital Mutilation and other forms of Gender-Based Violence, and child abuse. Although we have used this form of media in the past, what we love about it especially now as that it has enabled us to engage more actively on the issues we are advocating on at a mainstream level. Through this, we have gotten feedback on the effectiveness of the approach. Also, the platform has allowed us to gauge the change in perception among the community on FGM, other forms of GBV, child abuse, teenage pregnancy, and the need for life skills education. We believe that this is important because  the feedback will guide our next steps. Furthernore, it has supported us in creating relationships and networks with the media sector.

As we chart the way forward and learning to cope with the new normal of implementing our activities, we remain grateful that you choose to accompany us in this journey. Remember to share our work with your friends and family for them to see the smiles that you put on our faces. 

Lovingly, Hope Foundation for African Women team

Dear Friend and Partner

How happy we are to be able to connect with you again. We have an exciting update on what we have been up to since we last connected. So much is happening in our community and we are very grateful to share with you how we have been able to train on life skills to community members through conducting 2 talk shows on Radio Minto , a local station attached to the National Broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Cooperation (KBC).

The talk show covered: Anti-FGM Campaign and How to end Gender-Based Violence in our community. The main speaker for the two shows was HFAW Founder and Director, Dr. Grace Mose, and moderated by nancy, Minto FM presenter.
Each show lasted for at least an hour and they were quite engaging because of the great feedback we received from the listeners. Some of the things that stood out from the talk show :

• Gender-Based is on the rise and some of the reasons forwarded by participants include stress, poverty, Covid-19, and the Abagusii culture that a woman is inferior to a man. 
• Anti-FGM campaings have been greatly limited by restrictions of movement following the outbreak of Covid-19. However, radio is becoming very influential in engaging the community and eliciting reactions that eventually lead to people being aware of the health effects of FGM , staying vigilant, and reporting possible cases. 
• Lifeskills issues like early teenage pregancies are on the rise hence the need for guardians to be open to speak on sexual reproductive health. 
• There is still more need for factual information on FGM to stop the myths surrounding the spread of the practice. 

Cumulatively, the show reached at least 80,000 listeners. Additionally, posts on the show were shared on social media platforms and podcasts were created. You can access the podcast by clicking here and here. We hope you enjoy the show just as much as we did.

We remain grateful that you choose to walk this journey with us. It is rewarding and eliminating violence from the community.

Links:

• Link to a podcast on the show Anti-FGM campaign by HFAW
• A link to a podcast of the show how to curb GBV

Dear Friend and Partner

Happy New Year!!!

As we begin the year, there is so much hope for the various projects HFAW has lined up to be implemented this year. We are excited and cannot wait for you to see the positive change you are making in our community, courtesy of your support.

The Community Health and Human Rights promoters have been the backbone of HFAW's campaigns to promote the end of Female Genital Mutilation, end Gender-Based Violence, protect children, especially the vulnerable and poor, and promote civic and life skills education.

In 2020, through the engagement of Community Health and Human Rights Promoters, we reached at least 100 men living with FGM survivors who learned how to be part of the campaign to end FGM thereby assuring the current and future generations of girls and women safety from FGM. Through this, we got male allies who have been instrumental in not only presenting the male perspective of FGM but also holding interpersonal forums in a bid to bring to strongly advocate for the end of FGM.

Also, we reached 100 youths through collaborations with other youth-led organizations in Nyamira and Kisii. To achieve sustainable development, we need to invest in the knowledge and skills of the youths at the grass-root level. HFAW believes that the end of FGM and other forms of GBV, protection of children's rights, and having an empowered community largely depends on how well the youths have been prepared. As a result, more youths have expressed interest in being trained and helping in implementing HFAW youth advocacy.

Furthermore, with the commitment of CHHRP trained courtesy of your support, we reached other members of the society whose influence can end FGM, GBV, promote children's rights, and empower the community like law enforcers, children, and teachers. As a result, we have more teachers engaged in following and reporting to HFAW on the violation of rights at home or school. This was not possible before.

Looking into the present and future, we are focused on strengthening our monitoring and evaluation approaches to follow-track of the impact of our activities of training CHHRP in real-time. Also, we plan to adopt alternative and innovative ways of reaching out to more community members to become CHHRP.

As I have stated in the introduction, we have so much in store and we are humbled that you are part of it all.

Dear Partner and Friend

 What a wonderful feeling to speak to you about the progress being made in training health and human rights promoters in Kenya. Your support has enabled us to make tremendous steps in fighting for the rights of women and girls in our community. Today, we wish to tell you about Girango Dispensary community outreach where we training 40 adults on how to be the champions of positive change in their community.

When we came to you with appeals to support this project, we did not anticipate the impact it would have in fighting for the health and human rights of the community. Following the restrictions of movement due to the outbreak of Covid-19, we now realize how important it easy to have a health and human right promoter in at least every household. Our visit to Girango dispensary revealed that there are rising cases of domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, FGM, and child abuse. This may be because of the increased socio-economic pressure created by Covid-19. But we would be lying if we said that such problems are new; they have just become rampant.

The community members in Girango were taught on the reproductive health and rights of women and girls, the effects of child abuse, the health effects of FGM, and the need to be an empowered community in all spheres of life. Nyamira is among the counties in Kenya leading in cases of GBV, teenage pregnancy, and FGM. Therefore, it was so critical that Girango residents know how the problems are limiting their development as a community. We ended the session by creating action plans where each person trained explained what they planned to do, when, and how they will implement the actions so that the challenges explained can end.

Dear partner and friend, empowering the community is a journey that we are focussed on covering. We are humbled by your support. We urge you to continue supporting us through sharing information on this project with your friends and loved ones. We are hopeful that they will see the change you are making in the world. Thank you.