The beginning of the end

So last month through the help of an organization called Kids to Kids, I put on a life skills camp for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). 21% of the children in Nyanza are orphans, usually because of HIV/AIDS. Orphans are often cared for by relatives and place an extra economic burden on the guardians; this usually leads to orphans being neglected and not having the money to pay for school fees, books, or uniforms. Sometimes the guardians are elderly or sick and do not have the ability to work in the shamba (garden) and therefore, cannot support themselves or the children they take care of. These children go to school and can be sent back home for school fees or for not having a uniform. A few years ago my organization did a training for OVCs on how to build kitchen gardens. We decided to do a life skills camp to help them be more assertive, and to prepare them for difficult situations they might face since they are more likely to engage in risky behaviors.

We worked with another local organization and invited 30 OVCs from all across our community groups we work with from ages 12-18 years old. My friend, Denae came to help me and we did sessions on communication, team-building, being assertive, decision-making, HIV prevention, condom demonstrations, puberty, gender, and healthy relationships. My coworkers also did sessions on HIV transmission, early marriage, alcohol/drug abuse, rape, and domestic violence.

We incorporated games into our lessons and at first the kids were really shy, but by the end everyone was participating. It was different than the other camps I’ve done since this one had both boys and girls and at the beginning they didn’t want to even be near each other. Whenever we did group work, though, we made sure to have them work together and by the end, they were more comfortable. During the puberty session we played “pin the puberty change on the person,” where they pinned hair, body odor, breast growth, etc to the part of the body with a blindfold. We also taught the girls how to make re-usable sanitary pads. Across the country, lots of girls miss school when they get their periods because they don’t have enough money to buy pads and they are embarrassed to be in school. Because of their absence from school, their performances in school can be affected.

The kids really liked the camp and many didn’t want to leave by the end. In their evaluations of the camp, most of them said their favorite part was “the teachers and how they cared for us.”

human knot in team-building activity

girls making sanitary pads

decision-making activity

I’ve been working with the group that makes the bags and I even designed a new purse and they’ve named it the “nyachula” (my Luo name). So keep an eye out for those. I’ve also been overseeing the building of a honey processing unit that Lynn and Jane donated money towards, I’ll post pictures when it’s done.

Last week we had our Close of Service (COS) conference in Naivasha. It was just the people in my group and some staff members of Peace Corps. It was definitely sad and happy at the same time. It was the first time we have all been together as a group since November 2009, except we’ve lost 10 people from our group since the beginning. We are only 14 now, but I made 8 ½ by 11 cutouts of all the people that have gone home so they could be with us at the conference in spirit. At the conference we talked about resume-writing, how to readjust in the US, and we also shared our experiences from the last two years. We also did medical stuff and luckily I don’t have any diseases, parasites, etc (knock on wood).

Now I’m back and working on a video with my organization to show the projects I’ve worked on while here. I’m also just gonna start to wrap things up and get stuff ready to pass over to the next volunteer that comes to my organization. I can’t believe my time is almost up. I’ve got my plane ticket back home now. It’s official, I’ll be back on August 8th.