Volunteer Testimonial

'Jambo', 'Habari', and 'Asante' - few of the Swahili words that I picked up during my two month program in Kenya. I have returned from my trip with maybe a few more words of Swahili, but an experience of a lifetime!

Five of us from The New School University in New York decided to volunteer for the East African Center in Takaungu through the Come Kuona Program. We were given a list of projects to choose from. A friend and I decided to work with the fishing community of Takaungu and help build a cooperative. Prior to our arrival, we did extensive research on the Takaungu coast and learnt about forming cooperatives. Since EAC had not worked with the fishermen previously, they were able to give us very general ideas about the fishermen's lives. To our great surprise we came to Takaungu and found out that a cooperative was already in existence - Takaungu Beach Management Unit (BMU) - that was formed by the Kenyan government as an initiative to self-sustain the fishing community of the coastal villages.

We were very fortunate that the Chairman had attended school, and could read and write in English. Beginning the day after our arrival we started meeting with the executive board to discuss project goals and objectives. It was challenging to schedule meetings with them, since their days were scheduled around the tide. A low tide meant that they were out fishing, and a high tide would mean they were available to meet. Since it was a low season for them, and every shilling earned made a difference, we decided to arrange meetings with them as long as they gave us an hour's notice.

Lesson number one - there is no concept of time in Takaungu. As much as you would like to set a time for a meeting, everything else would be constant, and time would become the only variable! There was always a reason and an explanation as to why things were not done on time.
Transportation was 'feet' or 'piki-piki' (i.e. a ride on the motorbike through dirt roads) or boat if you are coming from Kilifi (the closest town to Takaungu). So, we learnt quickly to adjust to that, especially since most people did not own a watch, and if they had no cell phone, the only way to tell time was based on the sun's location.

Since late afternoons seemed to be ideal for the BMU, I decided to help out with the Vutakaka clinic survey that was being conducted by volunteers from Seattle. We would go out with a palm-held GPS system, and community health workers to shambas that were often located in the middle of nowhere and 500 meters behind a maize field, and the only reason we found it was thanks to the accuracy of the GPS. I enjoyed doing this survey, since it gave me the opportunity to visit local homes and talk to the female household members of the villages. The community health worker would translate the questions in Swahili, and ask them if they knew about family planning, aids, malaria, diarrhea, and other health related concerns. I must admit that this was my basic Swahili 101. The more surveys I conducted, the more familiar I got with the language and local dialects. Although I didn't know how to say, "It's a pleasure to meet you", I knew how to say, "Do you know two ways to prevent HIV?"

The survey lasted about three weeks, and then I had to find a project that would keep me engaged during the mornings, until the fishermen were available to meet. This is when the Program Manager of EAC offered me to take up the position of working with the Takaungu Sewing Club. This is a group of about 20 women who want to earn to help their families, have young children, know how to sew, own sewing machines, but cannot produce quality work, nor are they willing to put in enough hours to get things done on time. Again, the concept of time was foreign to these women, who tell time based on when they have completed work at home to come to their sewing 'office' (which is a classroom offered by EAC to the Sewing Club). This is a very talented group of women who enjoy what they do, and are very eager to please customers, but don't really have the education to understand the difference between 'patches of cloth sewed together to make a product' and a 'high-end quality product'. I worked with another volunteer to train them to understand the importance of 'quality', and teach them marketing skills so that they are able to attract local vendors to purchase their products.

So, while I was trying to work with the sewing women during the morning/mid-afternoon (based on when they all decided to show up), my late afternoons was engaged with the fishermen. We visited fishermen's homes and surveyed them to understand the success of the BMU; we went with them to their landing sites (parts of the coast that they use for fishing); trained them on conflict and solution, monitoring and surveillance, marketing, and finance; met with Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute in Mombasa, and invited them to visit Takaungu; discuss ways of making their livelihood more eco-friendly, etc. We had the advantage of having done ample research at school that we were able to share with them. So, a group of about 100 fishermen - most of who don't know how to read or write Swahili, and spend their evenings drinking palm wine - actually took our project very seriously!


Last but not least, Takaungu offers hospitality like no other! My host family paid extra attention to us, and although we were treated as guests, we became a part of their family. They respected our space and privacy, but made sure to include us in all their activities. Since all my projects involved working with adults, I did not have much interaction with the youngsters of Takaungu. Therefore, the fact that my host family had four children (and their friends) in the house at all times, gave me the chance to spend time with them and see the village through the eyes of the future of Takaungu. We talked about their goals in life, things they wanted to achieve, helped them with their homework, and watched a l-o-t of old Bollywood movies!

I can go on writing about all things I did and things I wish I had done, but there's nothing like living it. The only way to become a part of it, is by contributing a little bit of you for a little bit of your time, to make a huge difference to many.

-Shahreen, New School, New York

Kenya volunteer program re-opens!

It is with so much joy that we annonce the reopening of our program in Kenya after the political violence which rocked the country early this year. Our reopening was a great success as we had 7 volunteers/interns from New school ,NewYork who stayed with us for 8 weeks in the beautiful village of Takaungu. Kenya is now safe for Volunteers and is still vibrant and beautiful despite the post eelection violence which rocked the country in January. Most of the Programs which were suspended including Peace corp program have reopened. In short Kenya is back, "Hakauna Matata"(no problems). We continue to receive many volunteers from Europe, Canada and the USA, who come to experience and enjoy this beautiful country of friendly people, different cultures, abundant wildlife and the savannah, mountainscapes, the rift valley and the white sandy beaches along the Indian Oceanat coast.