Karibu dear reader! My name is Hanna Helena and I arrived in Western Kenya to a village called Shianda a little more than three weeks ago. I am a nurse by profession and my role is to work on community health awareness as well as support local health centres and dispensaries for the next three months I am spending here.
You hear a lot that time flies here. And that is does (partly probably because it gets dark as early as 7 PM 😆)... Part of me can’t even process that I have been here for that amount of time already. I have only received the warmest of welcomes and since day one I have felt comfortable- like home.
During the weeks here I have had the opportunity to meet many great people from the communities, work at Shianda health centre and learn more about this place and the people. Approximately the first month here I have spent and continue to spend on what we call the needs assessment. This is a way for me to learn and find out how my expertise can be most valuable here. Thus far I have already found important causes and topics that I want to work on. More on that in the next posts! Though not all the work might go the way I am used to or the way I would like- but there is always a learning curve in all we do in life. And my lesson here is to let it flow- all good things take time and come in their due course.
Though I put great emphasis on my work here, it is still very important to take time for myself and offload some of the stress that for sure has and will accumulate. For example, this weekend I had the chance to visit Kakamega rainforest. An amazing place near to us that offered so many amazing experiences from grandiose views onto the rift wally to many monkey sightings and amazing flora.
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| A campaign sign in Nairobi |
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| Making vertical bags with Wichelu (3rd August) |
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| Break with bread and margarine after work in the field with Olungabes (4th August) |
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| Checking on Khunyiri Orphans' sukuma (19th August) |
Meanwhile
2,5 months have passed since my arrival in Shianda. As I mentioned in my first
post, I feel at home here… and it becomes even more my home as time passes.
My work was
also progressing during the last months…
I was able
to conduct the first counselling training. WEFOCO’s gender-based violence
ambassadors (gbva) and other group members participated in the training.
The gbva
were trained as such as part of the project of previous EUAVs. Since their
training on gbv last year they have been doing valuable work in Shianda to
raise awareness on this topic and support community members affected by gbv.
They also expressed interest in a counselling training as it is important for
their gbv-related work. However, they voiced demand to learn more about
counselling in general and counselling of youth as well. Together we decided on
the topics that should be covered in their training.
The 3-day
counselling training was conducted in the first week of August. Of course, a
3-day training can only give limited insights to the world of counselling, but
it is a beginning. In the coming months there will be follow-up meetings in
order to exchange on experiences and to give the opportunity to ask questions.
The counselling training covered basic knowledge on the following
topics:
·
mental
health awareness
·
aims and
process of counselling,
·
role of a
counsellor,
· basic
counselling skills (active listening, holding out silence, asking open
questions, paraphrasing, summarizing, etc.),
·
peer
support,
·
talking
about emotions,
·
creative
methods (e. g. working with pictures and drawing),
·
counselling
of couples/ families,
·
conflict
management,
·
talking
with teenagers/ children,
·
empowering
As pracitice is
important for counselling, the training included a lot of space for exchange,
questions and opportunities to exercise in groups.
Besides that, we
had a lot of fun with our morning workouts while waiting for all participants
to arrive. To stay energized and concentrated during the training, we enjoyed
singing and dancing activities. The group grew together day by day, what was
also a useful side-effect of the training as it is important that the gbva work
together and support each other.
Even though the
feedback from the participants on the counselling training was very positive,
I’m very aware of the fact, that the 3 days were not sufficient to change the
attitute of the participants towards communication.
As a person who
believes in the importance of exchanging with other people and who is
interested in getting to know other people, I have been talking to a lot of
locals during my stay so far. During those talks and also the counselling
sessions that I had with some individuals and families from the communities I
observed that communication in Kenya is different from what I’m used to. People
are not likely to share, not likely to
ask questions and if asked just to answer what they were asked, but not to tell
more. I was told by locals that people in Kenya often don’t like to share with
others because they fear that they might be judged and that people might
disclose what they shared.
Also information
is not always passed to others, e. g. regarding available services. Other
examples, when a person is late and you ask him/ her on the phone when she/ he
is coming, the person is likely to say „I’m coming“, which can mean everything
from 5 minutes to 3 hours. Or when leaving, people don’t say anything or just,
that they’re going without giving information on how long they will be gone or
if they come back or not.
However, every
time individuals open up and share with me, I enjoy the talks because that way
I learn a lot about the Kenyan culture and about the people. And I feel they
enjoy those talks, too.
If it comes to
counselling, the challenges regarding communication are also challenges for the
counselling process, as talking, explaining, sharing, understanding, not
judging and being confidential are all important aspects of the counselling
process. However, as some people opened up to me and it felt as if they were
enjoying the sharing, hopefully the trained counsellors will give some more
people the opportunity to exchange and share if they like to.
I decided to publish a post different from the others.
I thought so and then I thought how hard it was to write..to describe!
So, I decided to leave it to the photographs
May this post make you fall in love with Kenya! Or at least, entice you to visit it!
Me, I feel so lucky to have seen all this with my own eyes:
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| Kakamega Rain Forest |
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| Baobab |
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| Diani - Kongo River |
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| Lamu - tuna market |
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| Karen Blixen Museum |
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| Mombasa - market |
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| Street market |
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| Lake Victoria |
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| Lake Victoria |
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| Lake Victoria |
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| Hell's Kitchen |
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| Coast |
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| Maasai Mara |
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| Maasai Mara |
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| Maasai Mara |
Through this program we are given the opportunity to develop
and implement small sustainable projects.
Like the many bricks that are used to build a house.
We live in the community, with the community. Constantly,
through communication and active listening, we try to understand what the needs
are.
It is a job that requires attention, patience and time. A
lot of time.
It is a job that pays off with much, much satisfaction.
A practical example of this is the "Assessment Day" for children with disabilities held in Shianda, during which 67 children with disabilities have been assessed, many institutions have been involved, an entire community has been informed and trained.
After the visits to the groups, the participation in the
Group meetings, the questions and the processing of all the information, a day
dedicated entirely to children with disabilities was realized.
The beginning of a training for the community came to life.
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| Mixing soil and manure with Esukura, Emusirasire and Bumini groups |
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| Collecting stones for the vertical bag |
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| Vertical bag in the making |
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| Jackfruit: the biggest existing fruit |
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| Monthly meeting with some of the chairladies and secretaries |
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| Separating maize seeds from the husk |
"NICE TO MEET YOU"
Ready, set, go. Let's get to know the Shianda
community.
I waited a long time to start telling again precisely
because I didn't want to take time away from this process. I have dedicated
myself to it with body and mind.
So many emotions have crossed me in recent months that
it is not easy to summarize.
It was months of phone calls and appointments.it was
miles of walking and boda boda.it was landscapes that changed before my
eyes..it was cornfields, expanses of bright green grass, banana trees, palm
trees..It was dirt roads, holes, puddles, sun and rain..it was animals, flowers, colors, scents..but above all, it was PEOPLE.
I began in my role as a volunteer by moving far and wide in the extensive territory of Shianda. I went to meet the beneficiaries of the projects and introduced myself to them. In fact, due to the pandemic, many of the activities have been suspended, including those of the project I am dealing with, concerning the issue of disability. This means: no volunteers in the field for a long time. As often happens, As I told in my previous post, in this time people "have waited".
What I found in common in all the groups was the enthusiasm. The joy with which they welcomed me was overwhelming. I believe that this enthusiasm is a recognition of the work that MONDO and WEFOCO have been doing for years in Shianda. A beautiful message from the local community.
Introduce myself, see people's faces, listen to
stories, discuss difficulties, challenges, desires ... in a mix of languages,
given by English, Swahili and Luhia, and in a mix of sounds, given by cows
grazing in the gardens or the chickens that flutter inside the houses .. it was
very exciting.
The knowledge was a great window into life here. Community is life.
