Arina Cluster Group holds a Farmers Field day in Central Kanyamwa-Ndhiwa

Tuesday, 22 November 2011 was a day that shall remain to be remembered by many in Central Kanyamwa in Ndhiwa District. Arina Cluster Group, a self help group, in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and CEFA through C-MAD that had previously established a demonstration farm of about an acre, called in for community members around this area to attend and learn better skills on the new production techniques to maximize on their production and furthermore adapt to the unpredictable climatic conditions.
The exhibition plots at the site entailed groundnuts production, sunflower, bee keeping, local poultry, kales and so many farm activities that were actually in there best conditions. Both the group members and experts from various departments were there to answer questions from the eager community members who got enticed with the production techniques that they had acquired.
So far, field days have proved to be of great impact to our target groups and we would like to continue encouraging to develop the culture of furthering  'farmer-to-farmer' exchange visits with an aim of information sharing and exchange.

CARD donates a Condom dispenser to Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre

Promoting safer sexual behaviours has been the most important area of prevention for organizations and departments dealing with Health, the National AIDS Commission and partners.   However, changing sexual behaviour is not easy and Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre being a centre that gets highly visited by a number of community members from diverse environs, it got pin pointed as one of the best located 'safer sex gadgets' (condoms) dissemination point.  

There is evidence that many Kenyan of reproductive age engage in unsafe sexual behaviours including having multiple sexual partners, cross generational sex, polygamy and cultural practices involving sexual intercourse.  

Such practices put men and women of all ages at risk of contracting STIs including HIV/AIDS, as well as unwanted pregnancy . Despite high knowledge amongst Kenyans that unprotected sex can transmit HIV, most men and women do not perceive themselves at risk of HIV nor do many know their HIV status.   

All these factors have contributed to high HIV prevalence rates, increased rates of STIs and high maternal mortality rates, and thus prompting many health programs to focus on both behaviour change and condom distribution, dispensing and promotion as the key strategy to manage these health problems.  

The Healthy Choices Training Session at the Maarifa Centre

The Healthy Choices training sessions is a programme that is being carried out at the courtesy of ‘Community Action for Rural Development Organization (CARD) that is providing factual and in depth information on Reproductive Health with specific focus on safe sex as the most effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Infections including HIV/AIDS.  

We realized from research and close consultations with our youths that such forums are what community members here are missing yet it marks the major spine as to why most youths fall prey to unsafe sex or contract diseases. Most of them shun from confining such issues into their guardians since there is no room for discussions for such in their family set up. As Maarifa Center, we are convinced this knowledge is of vital importance to the youths we are serving.

CARD is one of our new close affiliates and having had a moment of ideal sharing with the organization on their activities,we agreed over a working programme from which they begun this programme on ‘Healthy Choices for a Better Future’. It is targeting youths from the age of 18yrs – 24yrs. The seminar was hosted by Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre from 14^th – 18^th November 2011. This is a programme that will continue for the next six months or more. The training has so far involved more than 122 youths from this area in the past four sessions.

Finally we sent you out to serve

We are finally glad to send out 30 outstanding youths who have been undergoing an intensified training on the the use of the 21st century media tools to communicate their ideas, exhibit their potentials and finally take action in their communities in these marginalized areas of the globe and all these happened under the capacity of ALIN, hosting of Team Kenya organization and at large, the sponsorship of Adobe Youth Voices programme;
The graduates team, under the oath of support towards development have given us their word to be the watch dogs and the voices of the weak in our society from which they will fully utilize their acquired 21^st century media mediums skills to ensure that whatever happens in their communities will remain globally exposed and documented for future reference.

Looking at the teams efficiency now, it  cuts across media ethics, copyright laws, ICT skills and finally both photography and video editing skills.During the ‘pass out' event, we recognized the presence of supportive partners, Team Kenya Organization (both members from Kenya and the UK) who had hosted this training from our first session to the final.
Finally five video projects, under the theme 'voice of the weak', were produced the trainees and it highly reflected on how both women, children, girls and the aged have been ran over by the powerful and influential members of our society by taking their little resources through illegal ways but still walk Scots free with it in broad day light. The videos also major on the good practices that have been undertaken by the 'weak' and has so far changed the lives of the wider society.

These youths have further formed group that ensured that they had a legal structure that was going to look into the daily coordination of the teams activities and ensure that there was no disintegration after the training for them to have a better platform from which they can access the available resources.
The two partner organizations, both ALIN and Team Kenya, assured the team, after consultations, to count on their support always once they retain their unity and remained focused. Otherwise, so much was reached to that is going to take these youths to better heights. The group agreed to be meeting twice a month on the 9th and 23rd of every month to deliberate on their own agendas from where they shall decide on the IGAs too. Long live ADOBE, ALIN and Team Kenya organization.