Helping One ‘Jane’ at a Time

One day as Rose walked to a meeting with a Priest at the Catholic church she met Jane.

Jane is only 15 and is a mother to a 2 year old son. In order to provide for him she collects metal in a large dumping area in Ngong. Jane expressed to Rose how much she longs for an education, which was cut short due to her early pregnancy.

The Ngong community has decided to start an intiative addressing the education issue. Rose is so excited because now when she attends meetings or hosts forums she can think of all of the ‘Janes’ out there that they are working to help.

Training for Trainers

Over the weekend on Friday and Saturday, May 17-18, 2013. Tatua Kenya hosted their first training for trainers. All five of our organizers and about 8 more young leaders in Kenya attended the event. It was an exciting time to come together and learn and celebrate the way Tatua has grown over the past two years.

One thing Natalie said during the training that really shined light into our work was that, “Tatua is not a formula. It is a belief that the community is the solution and that our work is to expose their power and breathe life into it.”

She went on to say that, “Our role is to create and give people an opportunity to be involved in the work and help them believe and experience that they are capable.”

It was impossible to walk away from the training without feeling inspired and encouraged by what is happening in this country.

The whole group.

If you want to see more photos from the training click here!

The Importance of Team Building

Team building is an essential skill in community organizing.

Each one of our communities is working on creating a leadership team and a team of volunteers to support their work. In order to do this successfully our community organizers will employ their skills in team building.

Jacob realized the importance of this the other day after speaking with some of the Ngong volunteers. They expressed their concern that they did not feel like a cohesive group. Rose and Jacob held a meeting where they set rules, norms, norm corrections, and next steps. After the meeting the group feels much more comfortable with each other and understand what their individual roles are and how they work together.

In the next coming weeks each of our communities will have a leadership team ready to work. Follow our blog to keep updated on the progress.

Encouragement

Sometimes we all just need a little encouragement. After a long day of pouring yourself into your work, those last couple of hours can be really difficult.

When Tony felt that way last week, he knew he needed to send out a text reminder to people about his forum, but his engery level was so low. After his first round of texts he received 3 responses that inspired him to keep going and end the day with a renewed energy.

A man named Isaac called Tony immediately to say, “Thank you so much for minding about our community. Thank you so much.” One mama texted back saying she would be there. FInally, Chief Abdirzak called to say thank you as well. Those three people, without realizing it, are contributing in a big way to the community work.

What keeps you going when you are feeling burnt out?