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.

New Partner on Board

Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre is glad to introduce you to our new partner named CARD, an organization that basically focuses on the lives of youths and involves them in learning and realization of the importance of behavior change.
We are are working towards officiating the working partnership officially next week and we assure you of more updates...the photo was taken during CARD's Community Facilitator request to meet some of our youths for a brief meeting.

Padi Bora

It is evident that Team Kenya, a partner of Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre (ALIN), is doing this entire community more than just good. When i visited their offices in Ndhiwa, i was surprised! Have the privileged to read this for yourself and you will begin looking at things from a completely different window...

Padi is a Swahili word which means pad while bora means better. 

The project is about reusable cotton sanitary towels. The main objective of this project is to provide an alternative to the expensive disposable sanitary towels that a majority of the girls cannot afford due to the high poverty levels in the region.

The long term goal of the project is keeping the adolescent girls in school throughout the school going days. This is because a majority of girls tend to stay at home when they are having their periods because they lack an effective material to protect themselves during menstruation.

During the month of September, focus was put on creating awareness about the cotton reusable sanitary towels (Padi Bora). The awareness raising was carried out alongside puberty and reproductive health education. Free samples were given to a few girls. 

In addition, other samples were given to the teacher in charge of the girls in the schools to be kept for emergency in case a girl unexpectedly experiences her periods while at school, then she will not have to ask for permission to go home and lose out on education. The puberty and reproductive health education sessions indicated that a majority of the girls don’t have factual information regarding their sexuality. 

Interview with the Beneficiaries 

Arina as one of the partner school was chosen due to concerns over the number of girls who drop out of school before sitting for their first national exams. In fact, this is the only year that Arina Primary School has registered 3 girls for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams. A big number of girls drop out of school before reaching standard eight. Some of the girls are already mothers at tender ages, others have been forced to move in with new families after losing both parents, and some have been tormented by separation of parents and family conflicts. A majority of girls in this school come from poverty stricken families and thus have either resolved to survival sex or work for other people to earn income. These girls find it difficult to survive in school and hence resort to early marriages. In summary, these girls face the following problems:

• Lack of motivation as no girl in that school has ever reached standard eight. Poverty, killing the morale of studying due to predictable lack of secondary school fees
  Mockery by villagers who feel that girls are better off married than educated.
• Forced marriages, considering that many families depend on bridal wealth through dowry.
• Quite a number of girls stay at home during their monthly periods and hence miss out on school. Eventually, they drop out of school because they are embarrassed. 

We are going to have this project captured in video by 17th August 2011 and you will be able to hear from the beneficiaries. 

For details click http://www.teamkenya.org.uk/projects

Reviewing the Team Kenya and Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre (ALIN) partnership

In the NGO world, we work for different organizations at a time, but when it comes to the strategic approach of impacting the lives of the targeted communities, we are called upon swallow our pride and explore the spirit of team work by putting together our resources towards the common goal.
Having worked together for a period of more than two years now, both Team Kenya and Ndhiwa Maarifa saw the need of working as one and involving each other fully into the activities of each organization. After four hours working partnership review, we resolved that we are going to involve the Team Kenya Sponsored students in our forthcoming Adobe Youth Voices training as from mid this month, we are also going to assist them document and publicize 'Padi Bora' a locally made sanitary towel that can be reused for more than six months by washing and how much it has helped keep most girls in schools unlike before of when they had their days they had to remain home, together we are also going to conduct civic education on the demerits of the post election violence for the forth coming elections through sourcing for the violence videos and showing them to the community through projections, our vision kids shall also be privileged to access various learning and sharing platforms at Karibuni ECO cottages and come December 2011, we shall have a unique beauty pageant with various categories.
Not all that we deliberated can be mentioned here, but i would like to encourage each one of us that working with the community is not a competition as other organizations look at it, i remember one person once said that, "what brought you here won't take you there"'.  

Going it the Green way...

Each year, farmers in East Africa struggle from a shortage of tomatoes and other horticultural crops. Devastating rains cause the problem, and the fruit shortage causes tomato prices to shoot drastically higher.
Green house production is one of the technologies that were rarely realized in Nyanza province in the past decades, but as evolution and information hits on hard on technology, green house production has taken root in the region and soon after the first harvest, farmers shall reap what they sow.

Organizations such as Seminis, Amiran Kenya and APHIA II USAID  are answering East African farmers’ call for help by finding a solution to the devastating issue of climate by supporting the growing tomatoes in a greenhouse.  “I strongly believe this is the way forward for enhanced food security and farmer incomes,” says Peter Francombe, Seminis Africa Lead and General Manager in East Africa who has been a major contributor in moving this project forward.