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.

Second Adobe Youth Voices Team on Board

The previous team of the AYV finished their training last Friday, 21st October 2011, with a final release of 3 videos and a bank of photos as their final projects. In realization of their lack of proper knowledge on computers skills, Mr. Modestus Owuor has decided to move them to better heights by training them on the major computer basics at the Maarifa.

Clicking at the same moment, today marked the 1st session of introduction of the second class of 15. Today's team begun in high spirit and has shown great will to be as good their previous colleagues in terms of performance and cooperation. This program is going to run for the next two weeks from when we shall come together again (the 30 plus the 2 Educators) and brainstorm on the future plan for this programme and the skills acquired.

Did you Know that Kenya relies 68 percent on wood for energy?

The undersigned information is of grave importance to anyone who is environmentally concern. In honor of the Noble Prize Winner Hon. Wangari Maathai, of whom i am sorry i am not going to refer to as the late since her legacy lives on, both me and you can support the good work that was begun by the Green Belt Movement.

An environmental conservation organization reveals Kenya’s heavy reliance on wood-fuel and warns that the country faces disastrous effects if conservation efforts are not taken a notch higher.

The chief executive officer of Green Africa, Dr Isaac Kalua warned that climate change effects would get worse if people continued engaging in harmful environmental practices.

"We rely 9 percent on electricity, 22 percent on petrol, 1 percent on renewable energy sources and 68 percent on wood fuel as sources of energy and it has been documented that charcoal is the second most popular form of energy," he said.

Kalua revealed that the continued reliance on wood fuel as a source of energy was posing a threat to the already diminished forest cover in the country.

"Efforts of conservation need to be taken up by all stakeholders and given a multidimensional view if we are to take Kenya back to what it was a decade ago," he said.

Kalua noted that documented figures of destruction of the environment needed to be broken down and interpreted easily for people to understand environment issues better.

"We cannot keep on talking about conservation until that old lady in the village is able to understand what 68 percent reliance on wood fuel means in regards to the harm done to the environment," Kalua said.

Kalua explained that the conservation efforts of tree planting were being watered down by the continuous cutting down of trees.

He decried that the 9,500 secondary schools in the country relied heavily on charcoal and firewood for their energy needs leading to massive loss of forest cover.

"Every school uses wood fuel equivalent to 53 trees on a daily basis, which translates to a loss of 183 million trees through secondary schools alone," he said.

He reiterated that with the country’s forest cover standing at 1.7 percent against the global requirement of about 10 percent, there was need to plant more than 6.4 billion trees.

Kalua remained optimistic that ethical issues on the environment would be contained with the establishment of the court on environment similar to one in South Africa.

"The minister of justice and constitutional affairs has assured us that the court will be in place by end of August," said Kalua.

Adobe Youth Voices Training Progress in the Rurals

Adobe Youth Voices aims to empower youths in underserved communities around the globe with real-world experiences and 21st century tools to communicate their ideas, exhibit their potential, and take action in their communities.
Ndhiwa Maarifa Centre has taken a unique angle in this training by providing for youth out of school an opportunity to learn of this skills just like the rest who are lucky to have been or are still in school. Most of our youths in this programme dropped out of school at different levels due to diverse reasons ranging from lack of school fees, unwanted pregnancies, poverty and a majority of them are orphans.

It may be unfortunate that we never considered the school going team in this program. We have a strong belief that being out of school, for those who aren't in school, should not deny them an equal chance to learn a few skills just like their fellow youths. Watch out for their testimonies at the end of the training  in November 2011 for more info about their lives and the new changes.


Overview of Adobe Youth Voices Programme

Launched in June 2006, Adobe Youth Voices is the Adobe Foundation's global signature philanthropy program designed to provide youth in undeserved communities with the critical skills they need to become active and engaged members of their communities and the world at large. The Adobe Foundation invests nearly US$7 million per year in the Adobe Youth Voices program, primarily through training, educational resources, and grants. The program also leverages software donations and employee volunteers from Adobe Systems Incorporated.
With a focus on empowering youth, Adobe Youth Voices supports young people in and out of school and encourages the use of cutting-edge multimedia tools to communicate and share their ideas, demonstrate their potential, and take action where they live.
The Adobe Youth Voices global network currently includes more than 500 sites and a large, expanding number of grantees and organizations in 32 countries. Since its inception, Adobe Youth Voices has engaged over 27,000 youth and 1,500 educators in schools and out-of-school programs.