Change starts with understanding the root causes and by building relationships of trust with vulnerable communities – key learnings from experiences onsite. Because understanding and listening before deciding how to engage makes a big difference! Every village differs. Women development is cool. But not if we forget about men development.

Have you ever thought about it?

Regularly, we invite our colleagues to an insights weeks in Kenya. Why? Simply to make them experience what you can never realize and understand while sitting in the office or while reading articles and presentation slides only.
Experiencing and interacting with vulnerable communities is key! As human beings we tend to simplify and focus on specific topics without seeing the interconnections, we tend to offer solutions on what WE think is important without taking into account how to make it really theirs. We invest in projects and less in relationship building which often leads to a lack in long term sustainability.
Often we don’t see because we simply don’t know. E.g that kindergarten teachers have a huge role as first touch points in health, that certain structures might work in different ways (although they have the same name as ours) and who plays a crucial role as local influencer…
We started this week with visiting our center in Langas slum area in Eldoret, interacted with self help groups, visited a women prison, played soccer with them, learned about challenges of health structures and met people who are not able to pay even the bus to go to a doctor, saw the impact of bumpy roads and the impact of heavy rains… In our center in Webuye now we are interacting with governmental representatives, meet different influencers …

When our people leave after a week, our mindsets have changed a lot. The way on how to think about more impactful activities, how to make more health happen, how to look differently at other countries and cultures has become much broader and leads to different ways of acting.

And the ideas how to engage and how these ideas relate the the real needs and how they complement each other has changed, too.

Interested? Feel free to contact.

It is possible to stay a week in our centers and to interact. For example in Webuye at the Olukulo guesthouse, a very nice, safe and clean place. It is a 5 min walk away from the social center and cross- finances the NGO team and helps to maintain the center and regular activities. You can find more on this guesthouse also on the booking. website.

Read and see more:
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