THE NAME OF THE PROJECT: The Kenyan translation for
WAKE UP, YOUR LIFE IS WAITING
AMKA MAISHA YANAKUNGOJA
This project is directed primarily to Kenyan women.
Women are divided into different categories:
a)The mothers,
b) young women who are pregnant or already have children but are younger than 21,
c) the daughters.
d) and…to create harmony: the men
The main objective is to teach the women their possibilities, which means to show them their strength, intelligence, independence and the fact they themselves have to take responsibility to bring change.
Ø a) The mothers. We want to show them that happiness causes a better life, and that this starts in educating and actively taking care of their children. To show their children love and affection and to make them feel wanted. This also means to show them that birth control is important, as getting accidentally pregnant causes distress and unwanted children. We need to show them that taking care of and bringing up children, means talking to them, explaining them and lovingly showing them how life works, and not punishing them, especially not physically. It is important that they educate their children according to their possibilities, not gender; which means that boys get taught cleaning, tidying, cooking and sawing or doing jobs of midwives as well as girls how to work wood, mechanical things like repairing bicycles etc.
We need to explain to them the importance of school education, and show them the examples of women who through this were able to make a better life, so they can see that they can get there too. For those who don’t like this, we can show them the possibilities of a business, which can be not just the things that stay in the village, but to saw clothes of the beautiful colourful African material for mzungus and sell them for accessible prices so they will really be bought, and the same for African cooking as a kind of “fast food”. Here they can ask prices a bit higher than in their village yet not so high as restaurants do (to squeeze money out of the mzungus’ pockets), which causes more sale. In Europe it is very loved to buy food of so called “fast food” kiosks, and if this is real African food, and not junk food, we have found a gap in the market.
Øb) the young women who are pregnant or already have children but are younger than 21 It would be wonderful to create a place where young women/girls can live and sit out their pregnancy, still receive school education and where the new born child finds a surrounding to grow up safely without the stress of feeling unwanted and being a burden. They will be shown how to bring up children with love and, again, will be taught PREGNANCY PREVENTION. Here I talk about a women’s home. In this home their should be a business that these young women carry out, so as to support the finances of their stay there, which can be creating a little shop with a combination of home made foods, clothes and art works in widest sense (open to creativity and ideas of the persons involved.
Ø C) We can motivate the daughters, the young girls wanting to go to school, to show them different possibilities. We will give them clear sexual education from young age on (at least since 8) so they know what sex means and involves. We will also educate boys and girls about the love making, so they will learn to see sex as a physical expression of love, and will try to be gentle and loving with each other. We will show the girls to not let anything be done with them they don’t want. We show them clear ways of pregnancy prevention. We will do this in the village, with mothers and small children present, so they all get to hear that it is good, even important, and possible to talk about these things openly.
Ø d) And…to create harmony: the men. It is important to show the men that if their women get freedom and education, the village will prosper and it will benefit all. We will have to show them that making their wives happy and sharing responsibilities causes harmony that they will benefit of, as a happy person will want to make others happy too. This sounds simple and logical, yet it is crucial and unfortunately not done often. We will have to talk with them about birth control, about not trying to force upon a woman the pregnancies until a son is born and show them the value of females. This will need to be done by a man.
How to start:
The best would be to have 4 people starting,“teachers of life”(we will call them tol), 3 women and 1 man who will be paid for this teaching, and choose 4 villages where to start. Obviously they would have to ask the chiefs for permission. (If there are people who want to do this as volunteers, that would, obviously, be great. But I don’t count on that too much as I have not seen Kenyan people who would be interested and have a stable financial situation at the same time so they could afford that.) The idea is that these four tols talk to the women of the village about 2 hours, one day a week.
Ask the women how they are, tell stories about things related to the goal and make it interesting and with a lot of humour.
Make a fuss about the children without giving them sweets or other food, yet talk to them lovingly, play with them and show the mothers that their children are important.
Make it clear to them that they all together ARE the future, and they can and must create this future the way they like it.
Show them that each person can make a change; they must take their life actively in their hands.
Listen to them carefully as there we will learn how to go about in this project. They will show us what we need to say and where to put the emphasis.
The 4 tols will rotate, which means that they will go to a different village each week. After four weeks they will be back in the same village. The importance of this is that the women in the villages see that not just one women has become “something”, that there are more and the fact there is going to be a man in t
his too is to not make any man think it is against them, as it is not! And also for the men it is good to hear they have to take responsibility, care for the children, learn about birth control, and work.
It is very important to show them that through doing nothing, nothing can happen. They will have to see that each person who “has” something has worked for it, often very hard. The harder one works, the more gets possible.
And make it clear that one single person cannot take the (financial) responsibility for the whole family clan. That each adult must take her/his own responsibilities serious, and that only if women need to take care of their children or the adults take care of their old parents, they don’t work to earn money and get the support of husband or (in case of old parents) children.
The idea is that at the same time these four tols are going to help in the village, they will have one woman or man who is young, jobless and comes from further away, going with them so to learn how to become a tol. These young people can then do the same in their villages, maybe even 500 or more km away.
It is important that we are going to make this project a self help and self sufficient project: this means eventually it has to carry itself without foreign money coming into it. Ideas how to do this are very welcome!!
Erinda, my daughter, can start to go with an interpreter to the village and talk about how she grew up. As also she was brought up only by her mother (me). So the Kenyan women see how things in Europe are not as different as they often think. Erinda (24) really believes in this project so she has staid in the job for 2 days a week as to finance the work for the project. She can do this a maximum of 1 month without financial support from outside (which was last month).
Where things are being sold it is important to make BIG SIGNS saying in very few sentences what this is for, so people know that by buying they support something important.
Every idea you have, let me know. I don’t want to be the authoritarian “knows it all”, yet I really want to start at the roots, which means create an awareness of what is needed and possible, so that people stay independent and become responsible for their own lives. That is why I do not like the idea of always giving food to the people in the villages, particularly no sweets to kids as this is really bad for their teeth!!
WHAT MORE WE WILL NEED AFTER THE FIRST START:
We will need a plot on which to build a base that should have:
1) a building for the women’s house with 6 rooms for each 2 women and their child(ren) with communal sanitary facilities, communal kitchen and dayroom as well as a room to give birth.
2) a building with washing machine, ironing possibilities, generator, maintenance tools etc.
3)) We will need another building housing a small office, together with a small, independent apartment, for who comes to stay and help in the project (me, my daughter, volunteers from Europe etc.) We will need an office in Diani Beach that is going to be the base of the project, with all the files, and big enough to hold meetings, with telephones, internet etc. that is easily accessible. this will be the legal address for the project and from here all action will be coordinated, with the open possibility for the future to create such base with women’s homes also elsewhere in the country.
WAKE UP, YOUR LIFE IS WAITING
AMKA MAISHA YANAKUNGOJA
This project is directed primarily to Kenyan women.
Women are divided into different categories:
a)The mothers,
b) young women who are pregnant or already have children but are younger than 21,
c) the daughters.
d) and…to create harmony: the men
The main objective is to teach the women their possibilities, which means to show them their strength, intelligence, independence and the fact they themselves have to take responsibility to bring change.
Ø a) The mothers. We want to show them that happiness causes a better life, and that this starts in educating and actively taking care of their children. To show their children love and affection and to make them feel wanted. This also means to show them that birth control is important, as getting accidentally pregnant causes distress and unwanted children. We need to show them that taking care of and bringing up children, means talking to them, explaining them and lovingly showing them how life works, and not punishing them, especially not physically. It is important that they educate their children according to their possibilities, not gender; which means that boys get taught cleaning, tidying, cooking and sawing or doing jobs of midwives as well as girls how to work wood, mechanical things like repairing bicycles etc.
We need to explain to them the importance of school education, and show them the examples of women who through this were able to make a better life, so they can see that they can get there too. For those who don’t like this, we can show them the possibilities of a business, which can be not just the things that stay in the village, but to saw clothes of the beautiful colourful African material for mzungus and sell them for accessible prices so they will really be bought, and the same for African cooking as a kind of “fast food”. Here they can ask prices a bit higher than in their village yet not so high as restaurants do (to squeeze money out of the mzungus’ pockets), which causes more sale. In Europe it is very loved to buy food of so called “fast food” kiosks, and if this is real African food, and not junk food, we have found a gap in the market.
Øb) the young women who are pregnant or already have children but are younger than 21 It would be wonderful to create a place where young women/girls can live and sit out their pregnancy, still receive school education and where the new born child finds a surrounding to grow up safely without the stress of feeling unwanted and being a burden. They will be shown how to bring up children with love and, again, will be taught PREGNANCY PREVENTION. Here I talk about a women’s home. In this home their should be a business that these young women carry out, so as to support the finances of their stay there, which can be creating a little shop with a combination of home made foods, clothes and art works in widest sense (open to creativity and ideas of the persons involved.
Ø C) We can motivate the daughters, the young girls wanting to go to school, to show them different possibilities. We will give them clear sexual education from young age on (at least since 8) so they know what sex means and involves. We will also educate boys and girls about the love making, so they will learn to see sex as a physical expression of love, and will try to be gentle and loving with each other. We will show the girls to not let anything be done with them they don’t want. We show them clear ways of pregnancy prevention. We will do this in the village, with mothers and small children present, so they all get to hear that it is good, even important, and possible to talk about these things openly.
Ø d) And…to create harmony: the men. It is important to show the men that if their women get freedom and education, the village will prosper and it will benefit all. We will have to show them that making their wives happy and sharing responsibilities causes harmony that they will benefit of, as a happy person will want to make others happy too. This sounds simple and logical, yet it is crucial and unfortunately not done often. We will have to talk with them about birth control, about not trying to force upon a woman the pregnancies until a son is born and show them the value of females. This will need to be done by a man.
How to start:
The best would be to have 4 people starting,“teachers of life”(we will call them tol), 3 women and 1 man who will be paid for this teaching, and choose 4 villages where to start. Obviously they would have to ask the chiefs for permission. (If there are people who want to do this as volunteers, that would, obviously, be great. But I don’t count on that too much as I have not seen Kenyan people who would be interested and have a stable financial situation at the same time so they could afford that.) The idea is that these four tols talk to the women of the village about 2 hours, one day a week.
Ask the women how they are, tell stories about things related to the goal and make it interesting and with a lot of humour.
Make a fuss about the children without giving them sweets or other food, yet talk to them lovingly, play with them and show the mothers that their children are important.
Make it clear to them that they all together ARE the future, and they can and must create this future the way they like it.
Show them that each person can make a change; they must take their life actively in their hands.
Listen to them carefully as there we will learn how to go about in this project. They will show us what we need to say and where to put the emphasis.
The 4 tols will rotate, which means that they will go to a different village each week. After four weeks they will be back in the same village. The importance of this is that the women in the villages see that not just one women has become “something”, that there are more and the fact there is going to be a man in t
his too is to not make any man think it is against them, as it is not! And also for the men it is good to hear they have to take responsibility, care for the children, learn about birth control, and work.It is very important to show them that through doing nothing, nothing can happen. They will have to see that each person who “has” something has worked for it, often very hard. The harder one works, the more gets possible.
And make it clear that one single person cannot take the (financial) responsibility for the whole family clan. That each adult must take her/his own responsibilities serious, and that only if women need to take care of their children or the adults take care of their old parents, they don’t work to earn money and get the support of husband or (in case of old parents) children.
The idea is that at the same time these four tols are going to help in the village, they will have one woman or man who is young, jobless and comes from further away, going with them so to learn how to become a tol. These young people can then do the same in their villages, maybe even 500 or more km away.
It is important that we are going to make this project a self help and self sufficient project: this means eventually it has to carry itself without foreign money coming into it. Ideas how to do this are very welcome!!
Erinda, my daughter, can start to go with an interpreter to the village and talk about how she grew up. As also she was brought up only by her mother (me). So the Kenyan women see how things in Europe are not as different as they often think. Erinda (24) really believes in this project so she has staid in the job for 2 days a week as to finance the work for the project. She can do this a maximum of 1 month without financial support from outside (which was last month).
Where things are being sold it is important to make BIG SIGNS saying in very few sentences what this is for, so people know that by buying they support something important.
Every idea you have, let me know. I don’t want to be the authoritarian “knows it all”, yet I really want to start at the roots, which means create an awareness of what is needed and possible, so that people stay independent and become responsible for their own lives. That is why I do not like the idea of always giving food to the people in the villages, particularly no sweets to kids as this is really bad for their teeth!!
WHAT MORE WE WILL NEED AFTER THE FIRST START:
We will need a plot on which to build a base that should have:
1) a building for the women’s house with 6 rooms for each 2 women and their child(ren) with communal sanitary facilities, communal kitchen and dayroom as well as a room to give birth.
2) a building with washing machine, ironing possibilities, generator, maintenance tools etc.
3)) We will need another building housing a small office, together with a small, independent apartment, for who comes to stay and help in the project (me, my daughter, volunteers from Europe etc.) We will need an office in Diani Beach that is going to be the base of the project, with all the files, and big enough to hold meetings, with telephones, internet etc. that is easily accessible. this will be the legal address for the project and from here all action will be coordinated, with the open possibility for the future to create such base with women’s homes also elsewhere in the country.
We will ask Michael to make an estimate of the costs for plot and building. It is important to realise, that with €10.000 one can build a house, so that we don’t think in our price dimensions.
To me it is important that you know that I work totally as a volunteer; I only need financial support for my journeys in the future and… for that was is needed there. The main work I do. Also I will teach in the villages, I coordinate and inquier about all that we need and how it needs doing. At the moment I work about 16 hours a day on the project; all beginnings are difficult…
All help, for instance with translations (I need all texts in English, German and Spanish), Internet work, finding out about the legal conditions, organising conferences with photo shows, etc. is more than welcome. Each form of financial support, which is vital to be able to start with the tols in situ, no matter how small is a help, as there they don’t earn like here, and with €10 a month we might be able to pay one tol already.
To me it is important that you know that I work totally as a volunteer; I only need financial support for my journeys in the future and… for that was is needed there. The main work I do. Also I will teach in the villages, I coordinate and inquier about all that we need and how it needs doing. At the moment I work about 16 hours a day on the project; all beginnings are difficult…
All help, for instance with translations (I need all texts in English, German and Spanish), Internet work, finding out about the legal conditions, organising conferences with photo shows, etc. is more than welcome. Each form of financial support, which is vital to be able to start with the tols in situ, no matter how small is a help, as there they don’t earn like here, and with €10 a month we might be able to pay one tol already.
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