“A STITCH IN TIME…”

By Ahmed A. Hanan Deeshini

Just as the title says, a stitch time saves nine. This is also the story of Kigamboni Community Center (KCC), which was started by four young people, who wanted to give something back to their community after they were helped by some organizations in Dar-es-Salaam. They started up KCC with no other resources but themselves. They started in 2004 based on the skills they already had – acrobatics, teaching English, dancing and painting. Later they expanded to sewing, modern dance, computer learning, peer education, drama and so on and so forth.

With a lot of work, sacrifice and determination, they started teaching what they could to local children in the nearest available shelter. As their pupils began to learn more and dedicate themselves to their education and community, the concept of a viable and sustainable community centre became more and more a reality and a dream.

KCC is trying to help young people to do something productive with their lives instead of using drugs, involving themselves in crimes and giving up on life in general. Though many young people were afraid to join due to the fact that KCC is right next to the police station. After taking care of the youth’s problems and educating them, the KCC send some to be schooled on globalization and community development. On of such people is Yusuph Mperalla, who happens to be a participant on the Global Citizen Course 2013 fall. Talking to him, he had this to say; “This is not the first time a beneficiary from the KCC is at the GCC, every year someone is nominated to participate in the four months course. This has helped us so much, because we share all that we have learnt with other youth in the Kingamboni Community. The KCC has changed the lives of many youth who would have gone wayward and become street children. What we do at kigamboni keep us away from bad behavior and provide us the platform to think about our future and what we want to do in future. The biggest lesson I have learnt from the KCC is selflessness and the spirit of Voluntarism. Youth activists who provide free services just to protect and secure the lives of several other youth run the center. I intend to also give back to the community in the same way and more, whenever I get the opportunity”.

The interesting thing about KCC is how the youth of this community have realized what problems they are into and how they have begun championing their own course. The KCC believes also that to succeed, you have to be sure to put your feet in the right place and then stand firm. It is important to remember that the youth can lead in implementation. They are quick learners and can rapidly become change makers in their communities. The youth of Kigamboni have started their own change process and from the look of things are living by the Athenian oath, which says that; “ We will never bring disgrace to this city, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks. We will fight for the ideal and sacred things of the city, both alone and with many, we will strive unceasingly to quicken the public’s sense of civic duty. Thus in all these ways, we will transmit this city not only, not less, but greater and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us”.

These Youth are willing to change their lives, but more often, such efforts are being thwarted by the lack of funds. In the meantime, everything is based purely on voluntarism. This questions the sustainability of what otherwise has started as a social enterprise. Without funds to run the place, the center is likely to suffer in its operations. This is therefore a clarion call to philanthropists, NGOs and government to salvage and project the good intentions of the youth for the youth. A stitch in time, they say saves nine.

LIFE AFTER "DEATH" IN WEYOMIRERE

By: Ahmed Abdul-Hanan

Organizations, institutions and development agents always advocate for peace just before, during and after elections everywhere mainly because of the repercussions. In such situations there are usually no winners because everyone loses a thing or two. Even people who do not have anything to do with the issues get affected.  When this happen a lot of people get displaced and have to start life almost all over again. These people sometimes have to struggle for many years before any help if any comes to them.

This was the situation in Weyomiririe Makutano, a community in Nyeri, about five hours drive from the Kenyan capital. About forty –one families (41) have been displaced due to the election violation in 2007. A visit to the camp showed how bad the condition of the families was even though they were staying right under the nose of the District Officer (DO). These were people who lived very normal lives but had to walk for days to find solace elsewhere because their houses were burnt down and they were beaten mercilessly and asked to go back to their roots.

 These people now live in structures that could easily pass for a hen coop.  despite the hard times they have had to go through, they still struggle to live normal lives.

A hut had a minimum of six (6) people and a maximum of 12 people, including babies with the youngest being about three months old. Each family has to find a way of feeding itself and providing its own needs, eventhough there was mostly nothing to do to earn any income.

The team that visited the camp instead of meeting sad faces were greeted with cheers and songs from little children , women and youth. This was so touching that the team decided to look at the positives they try to bring out in spite of their difficulties. Parents in the camp place a lot of value on children’s rights which is seen in their commitment to send their children to school which is 1km away from the camp. These children have to walk all the way to school with the very little food that parents provide for them.  This for the team was a huge sacrifice on behalf of the parents, as they have had to mostly deny themselves food, just so the children will not go hungry.

An interview with a representative of the camp, Edward Kamau revealed the following

  “ We are very happy that you people found time to visit us. We consider you as angels sent by God to come and listen to us and see what is happening here. We were driven away from our homes in different communities and we have had to walk long distances to this place. We were living in the valleys far from the community in the forest for four years and have had to move to this place four months ago, because lions, elephants and hyenas tormented us. Another reason why we moved was because government was not saying anything to us, we thought it will be a good idea to settle in front of the office of the District Officer. Its been four months since we came to settle here and no one has told us anything. We have been managing to survive while hoping that help comes someday. We meet as a group to discuss our problems, especially on Sundays when we meet to talk about the word of God. We have chosen someone to represent us in all discussions with government and anyone who is ready to listen to us. We help each other in fetching water and feeding ourselves. We have to work as casual laborers to earn not more than One Hundred Shillings (1dollar and some cents) every day. Sometimes we do not even get the work to do and have to go to bed hungry. There is no health facility here, so we have to go to a hospital more than 1km away to a private hospital, where we pay a lot of money. We keep chicken for their eggs to provide for the protein needs of our children and we encourage each other”.

It is clear that these people are going through a lot of struggles and still try to keep their heads above waters. What is however amazing is the fact that these people have had to do all these alone, with no support coming from anywhere. The only thing they do receive is the unending promises of government departments and officials. Four years is enough time  for these people to be reintegrated into their normal communities, but what is government and civil society doing about it? Are we just going to sit on the fence and pretend that all is well? Is this a case of “ oh its normal to have internally displaced people around”? what does this say about us as a people? Has anyone wondered the whereabouts of the same politicians for whom the people fought and got displaced as a result? And what is the international community doing to whip the enthusiasm of government and civil society to the aid of these people? When will our duty bearers start to walk their talk? Until then, it is our duty as Global Citizens, Civil Society actors citizen journalist and all who want an end to this to talk and make noise. As interest groups, we cannot do everything, but we can do something. And because we cannot do everything, lets not refuse to do the something that we can do.

NAIROBI HALF LIFE

I am Ghanaian and a participant at the 2013 Global Citizens’ Course in Kenya and Tanzania. My interest in the Global Citizens’ Course started from my passion in young people’s action and in community development. As an upcoming change agent, I have since my school days been an advocate for young people through clubs and student associations and my interest in young peoples’ development grew from there. As a development worker, my main schedule is working with community groups such as Girls’ and Boys’ Clubs, Community Based Associations/Organizations, Youth and women groups.

When I heard about the course, I thought that this was one way I could echo the voices of the mostly poor and vulnerable groups that I was working with, aside developing my skill and expertise in International Community Development. I believe that every available resource that can be given to these groups should not pass them by. And with what the course will provide, I could help empower the Youth and vulnerable groups to speak up and advocate for better live. My other motivation was to learn more about the people, culture and the world outside my country.

It’s been three weeks since I arrived in chilly Nairobi. I was told about the weather so I came into Nairobi prepared to fight the weather boot for boot. I soon learnt here, that there was a big difference between Ghana and Kenya or East Africa. Never mind that I have not been to any other East African Country.  Both countries (Ghana and Kenya) are supposed to be part of Africa, as a country (Some of my white friends refer to the whole of Africa as a country). Here, the assumption is that our way of life, food and everything are the same. I noticed the difference when dinner was served in the plane from Accra to Nairobi. I had told the person sitting next to me, who was also Ghanaian that the main dish was going to be served, as what was served as dinner seemed like a starter to me. Little did I know however that this “Starter” and its kind is what I will be having every time, for breakfast, lunch and supper and that’s the food people in Kenya eat, very balanced and nutritious though, as against Ghana’s mostly carbohydrate laden foods.

24 young activists from 5 different countries driven by their interest to change the world are participating in the 2013 Global Citizens Course for four months. In these four months, we are supposed to, as a team undertake activities and lessons that will expose us to the realities of the world outside our various countries. In the three weeks that I have been in the course, I have seen and experienced the diverse thoughts we each have on various issues like Prostitution, Abortion, Culture, Democracy, Politics and Development. But as Global Citizens, we don’t really have to agree on anything, we just have to accept each other’s differences. 

The participants are a lovely bunch and the level of interests in international development is really amazing, even though it is not pretty clear to me how we can collectively create the Global change we all see in our minds’ eyes. We have interacted and understood and appreciated the lives of people from all walks of lives. We met with people living in slums, advocates, graffiti artists and musicians all of whose activities evolve around advocating for the rights of the common people. We got to express our ideas using street/graffiti arts in the Kibera slum, recorded a song to preach oneness to the world. Citizen Journalism was a session that awoke my spirits on the different ways of publicizing community issues. This is done through evidence gathering pictorial, audio or videos of happenings and making it public. This can be used both for advocacy and educating people on issues and events in a community, city or country. 

In the next three or so months, we continue learning new ways of projecting global citizenship values through article writing, team building, citizen rights and advocacy. I also look for to the celebration of the world food day with the locals and youth activists in Nanyuki town. I am looking forward also to the trip to Tanzania where we will look at geopolitics and international institutions, globalization, urbanization and how it affects the cultural fabrics of the average citizen of the world. The training is not strictly based on the normal classroom procedure as its mixed with some fun and I expect to have as much fun as I can for the rest of the three months while learning to impact positively both in my country and the world at large.