Last week I had a wonderful day at the ONE office in Washington, DC. We spent the day debriefing about our trip to Kenya. We talked about how to turn our experience in Kenya into activism. The day was full of staff briefings from ONE’s event planning, policy, and government relations teams. We then did interviews with the crew that is making a film about our trip.
I first started sharing my experience from Kenya on August 1, 2009, with the ONE Twin Cities group. This was a great way to communicate with people that have a good understanding of global poverty. Our members in Minnesota were concerned about how aid is being delivered and used on the ground. Many of them wanted to know where I will go from here with the information and my aspirations for the future. This experience has truly changed my life forever, and I will take this experience to truly make poverty history!
I cannot our time in Kenya is almost over! I am sort of getting sad, but the connections I have made here in Kenya are incredible. I cannot wait to come back someday!
Tonight was great. I was able to pick the brains of a few Kenyans over dinner. Rumbo, who works for a newspaper and is a committed blogger, was able to go into detail about the 2007 elections and violence. She told me that corruption still very much exists in Kenya. Tribal and ethnic favoritism is at the very heart of the Kenyan political system, which was of large concern to me because most of the people I had talked to before said corruption had decreased since 2007. So it was very interesting to hear the other side of the story.
She also had a few opinions about foreign aid and how we must set a time frame for its delivery. Otherwise, people will have so much invested interest in delivering that assistance that extreme poverty will just continue to spread, rather than be addressed. This is a hot issue in the United States and I think it was great to here from a Kenyan about their thoughts about foreign aid.
Rumbo was a great person to meet and I will definitely stay in touch with him so I can continue to learn more about Kenyan politics and the current revolution to end corruption!
Another amazing day in Kenya! Today I was able to meet with many people in my age group! Most of the people we were able to meet today were HIV-positive. This was an uplifting experience because most of these people have so much hope and a positive outlook on life.
Where I would like to focus my blog post on today is MSM (men who have sex with men) and the political impact of the 2007 election. We met with a group that is participating in outreach and support group services from Tuungane Youth Center in Kisumu.
First off, a little background on the situation of these men. Most of them live in the shadows of Kenya because it is illegal for men to have sexual contact with other men. But at the forefront of their concern is the large stigma that is attached to being a man who has sex with men. Some of these men would not identify themselves as homosexual, but rather heterosexual. This is because some have become commercial sex workers in order to make a living. Others would classify themselves as homosexuals, but they may never be able to openly be who they are. All of these men knew their HIV status.
During the 2007 post election violence, many of them lost friends, family members, and partners. Some also had to flee to outlying cities of Kisumu because of what the violence does to their tribal/ethnic heritage. For commercial sex workers, it was also a very difficult time because financial means of purchasing sex were very limited to their clients.
Some of the members of this group talked about starting their own revolution so that they can receive the basic right to be themselves. They also talked about not being able to speak to their members of Parliament because they would be jailed or ousted for being MSM.
This was also a time for them to ask us questions. Many of them thought that LGBT people in the United States were treated fairly just like other citizens. We informed them that much of the United States has a large stigma against homosexuality. They were very surprised by this.
What many of these men felt that they needed was much more access to MSM health care. But most importantly, water-based lubricant, which increases the likelihood of condom usage. Condoms are readily available in Kenya but lubricant is very expensive and many cannot afford it. This was something that the MSM community feels that funding for sexual health for all must be increased.
That’s all I have today! If you have any questions, please leave a comment!
Today we had a great day, starting with an early morning because we had to leave for Kisumu at 5:00 AM. We were welcomed to Kisumu by staff members from USAID who were able to tell us a lot about what they are doing on the ground with PEPFAR (The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) funding.
I am going to focus on one person today, Judy Odondi. She is an RN (registered nurse) who is a staff member of USAID. She is a health service coordinator, who makes sure the rural community of Kisumu is receiving appropriate health care.
Judy was very willing to answer questions focused on my research topic of government and leadership. She was able to explain the large differences that have occurred since the post-election violence in 2007. Gender equality throughout the region has increased dramatically, and equal education funding has also come through. On the other hand, healthcare funding is still distributed by regions dealing with tribal disputes.
Our conversation with Judy was very informative and we were able to see another side of post election violence, from a female perspective. We have very limited access to the internet right now, but I will be able to post a video of my interview with her soon!
Well, today was another amazing day in Kenya! We went to Kitie Secondary School, where we were met by representatives from the Ministry of Education, USAID, and a local school official. We were hosted by the principal, who gave us a wonderful tour of the school.
It was heart-breaking to find out that most of the children at this school live in poverty and rely on the school to feed them their only meal. Most of the schooling is paid for by USAID, which makes it possible for the majority of these students to go to school.
Two of the students stuck out to me the most. One of them is the peer educator (pictured), who talks to students about abstinence. She hopes to be a peer educator coordinator for USAID after she finishes her schooling. The other was the captain of the school. He is a person that helps lead the other students, and wishes to become a lawyer. He hopes to do this because he wants to stand up for the rights of all humanity.
This experience has opened my eyes even wider about how lucky we are to have access to a K-12 education. The possibilities for these students are endless, their hard work and dedication will help them succeed in whatever they do.
After Kitie, we went to Machakos Training College. We learned from students (future teachers) about the corruption and favoritism that exists in Kenyan politics, resulting in some areas having very few teachers. The students were very brave for speaking up when representatives from the Ministry of Education and the local official were present. It was truly inspiring the amount of courage and good will they had towards others.
Today reassured me that what we are doing on the ground is truly working, and we must not give up on these people. They are depending on us to help them succeed. As many of them said, “Yes we can!” This is another example of their determination.
You may already know Steven Thai, a rising junior at Luther College in Iowa, an outstanding Campus Outreach Ambassador (COA), and one of five winners of our first-ever ONE Campus Challenge trip to Africa this summer.
If you go to school in Iowa or Minnesota, then you probably know Steven as your COA. He has successfully recruited dozens of campuses to the ONE Campus Challenge in the last year. On his own campus, he has established an OCC membership of 255 — nearly 10% of the Luther’s population. And you might have run into Steven at campaign rallies and town hall meetings during the 2008 election, where he and ONE-Luther reached out to candidates including then-Senator Obama, Senators McCain and Harkin, and Congressman Latham.
Originally from Coon Rapids, Minnesota — a northern suburb of the Twin Cities — Steven is now about halfway through his B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Communication Studies at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He has been a ONE Member since 2005, when his mother’s godparents “banded” him with a white ONE wristband. Steven checked out the ONE website and got hooked on the organization and its causes. Eventually, he hopes to pursue a career first on Capitol Hill, and later in advocacy for ONE or a ONE partner organization.
Steven also established his congregation as a ONE Congregation, and works closely with ONE’s partner organization, Bread for the World.
To win one of five spots on the OCC Africa trip, Steven submitted a project in the form of a video. Learn more about Steven and his ideals and aspirations, in his own words:
The OCC Blog is a daily log of the ONE Campus Challenge, a friendly competition to determine which university's student body has the most effective global poverty-fighting campaign. The site is operated by ONE staff, Campus Outreach Ambassadors (COAs), and Campus Leaders.
The content of each post represents the views of that post's author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
TAGS: 2009 OCC Africa Trip, Africa Trip Steven Thai