Today, for Kibera Week, I visited Binti Pamoja. Binit Pamoja means Daughters United and works with more than 1600 girls throughout Kibera empowering them through reproductive health advocacy and financial literacy. The program offers services under two categories, a Core program and one called, Safe Spaces. Both programs have essentially the same activities, which include, art, photography, drama, as well as general trainings on reproductive and sexual health issues and aspects of financial literacy.
Safe Spaces has the added element of mentorship in which two graduates of the Core program partner to conduct activities on their own with a group of girls they recruit. It is really quite nice as a method of impact, because it is able to reach so many girls in this way. They conduct activities with the support of Binti Pamoja.
Unfortunately, activities are mostly done on weekends because of school of course. After learning all of this, I honestly just became frustrated once again. I feel that I have gone back to square one, which is searching for a site where my participants can volunteer for one to three weeks learning themselves but also offering something as well. With such programs, I wonder how much my kids can offer especially since the youth are only available on weekends. It made me rethink the program's approach yet again. And that is frustrating. But we will get to the bottom of this very soon. I will continue with my week in Kibera to see what else CFK has to offer. So far so good !
Safe Spaces has the added element of mentorship in which two graduates of the Core program partner to conduct activities on their own with a group of girls they recruit. It is really quite nice as a method of impact, because it is able to reach so many girls in this way. They conduct activities with the support of Binti Pamoja.
Unfortunately, activities are mostly done on weekends because of school of course. After learning all of this, I honestly just became frustrated once again. I feel that I have gone back to square one, which is searching for a site where my participants can volunteer for one to three weeks learning themselves but also offering something as well. With such programs, I wonder how much my kids can offer especially since the youth are only available on weekends. It made me rethink the program's approach yet again. And that is frustrating. But we will get to the bottom of this very soon. I will continue with my week in Kibera to see what else CFK has to offer. So far so good !
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