REPACTED has been awarded 25 computers from computer AID Internation in UK and all the computers are Pentium Fours fully installed and with Cables, we are planning to use this computers to start a digital center in Nakuru and enhance the use of online tools by young people we ae fundraising around 2080 Sterling Pounds for shipping them to Kenya we will appreciate any help given.
Kind Regards
The organization carried out activities as planned by the organization staff and volunteers. The activities included carrying out magnet theatre outreaches with mobile VCT in the community and the prisons, Mobile educative video shows at the community video dens, Training of more change agents and educators both in the prisons and at the community level, Production of the Jukwaa la Vijana news letter, organizing skills demonstration forums, Organizing youth symposium and condom distribution, open mic festivals. Apart from the above planned activities individual organization volunteers did outreaches at their backyard to reach out to the target audience effectively and efficiently.
The activities have not changed despite some adjustment like to increase the number of community theatre outreaches with VCT and reduce production of the copies of the news letter. To ensure quality in the trainings the organization adopted local and international training manuals for skills and capacity building trainings.
The project gets technical assistance from a group of young professionals referred as research and innovation committee. Their work is to come up with innovative participatory and result oriented strategies to reach out the youth effectively and consistently with behavior change communication with an aim of influencing positive behavior among the youth.
One of the innovative ideas is the open mic competition. It is a simple concept, rappers compete against each other by drawing topics from a hat and composing a one minute rap on the spot (free style) on the topic they pick. The victor is determined by how many correct facts about the topic he/she can deliver within the time allocated to him/her. There were four main topics, STIs, HIV/AIDS, Stigma and Correct consistent use of condoms. There were seven preliminary rounds, each at different housing estates in the area. The level of competition was high and it improved significantly after the two day training on message development the participants underwent before the final event. The crowd at the venue was impressive and the community response, overwhelming. Consistency will ensure the event continues to grow both in reach, popularity and achievement.
Numbers reached:
Male: 3314
Female: 3377
Total: 6691
The inaugural Miss High school beauty pageant was held at Langa Langa High school Hall. It targeted youth in school with messages aiming to increase risk awareness in relation to HIV/AIDS. It provided a platform for up and coming artistes, most in the Open mic competition, to showcase their talent and pre test their positive message songs.
The contestants were enthusiastic and the audience that turned up was indiscriminately supportive of their efforts.
Weekly workshops on Blogging are on going as people tackle issues on the society, HIV and comical fiction. Most of our peer educators are on face book. We are also thinking of starting a discussion forum on the REPACTED’s group page on Face book aimed at sparking debates on a range of issues facing the youth in Kenya. Due to increase number of young people interested in the idea of Blogging, we go the cyber café for the workshops. You read the individual bloggs;
More activities are under way including the annual POA Youth Music Arts Awards, we are planning to reach to reach more than 10,000 young people in Nakuru and test 1000 young people. The aim of the festival is to appreciate the power of youth driven HIV and AIDS behavior change communication through creative arts.
Outreaches: REPACTED Magnet Theatre Troupe has been involved in the normal theatre outreaches in the community and the prisons. With the introduction of new magnet theatre sites in the community the number of the outreaches is increasing. Condom distribution and uptake of services is the increase. REPACTED organized one youth symposium and ten skills demonstration forums in the community and at the Nakuru Players Theatre. Weekend Six aside football tournament have been a great source of information sharing among the youth in the low income community.
Tae kwon do tournament: On the 7th of February 2009, Repacted Kenya hosted a Tae kwon do tournament at the Menengai social hall. Youth from various clubs and estates in and around Nakuru and invitees from as far as Nairobi took part in the event. The judges and referees were sourced from local clubs and the Kenya Tae kwon do Association. It followed a basic knock out format to speed up proceedings.
The event attracted a remarkable number of young people, (Male 212 female 117) mostly fans and friends of the competing clubs, and also registered a sizeable turnout of actual competitors who sought to showcase their talent. This provided a great platform to talk about the abuse of drugs among the youth, abstinence and correct, consistent, condom use when it comes to STIs and HIV/AIDS prevention. Two skits, one on the risks of having multiple sexual partners and another on the effects of illicit drugs on people in sport were presented. Although both were hilarious comedies, there was great response from those gathered to the message being put across. There was also a condom demonstration away from the main arena which proved quite popular.
The only disappointment was the lack of VCT facilities because some among the crowd requested the service. It is a notable development that CT has been embraced by the youth as a tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
World Community ARTS Day: 17th Feb 09 the world celebrated the International Arts Day, Theatre or performing arts has been one of our core main tools of communication with the community, with an aim of addressing community concerns in a more interactive and participatory manner. We use different forms of art to reach out to the target audience.
Arts like theatre, murals and puppetry have been very instrumental in bringing about positive behavior change hence reduction of stigma associated with HIV, increased access to condoms reproductive health services and prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. Earlier this year during the Madaraka day celebrations several media personalities, performing artists in their own right were arrested for staging a unique form of peaceful protest which involved T-shirts branded with a special message. Therefore art as proven to be the best tool of addressing the issues of democracy, constitutionalism, transparency and accountability among the political elites. The use of peace tiles in children’s homes is proving to be one of the most effective tools of educating the children on HIV and AIDS related issues. Repacted did a special outreach to commemorate the day by doing community theatre outreaches.
Valentines Day: While lovers and those purportedly in love everywhere were celebrating the day set aside for cupid and his arrows Repacted and other youth serving organizations held and event dubbed Valentines and the red ribbon. The main purpose was to show love to those infected and affected and even those in the fight against the AIDS scourge.
At the Nyayo garden Repacted comedians and Repacted’s MC Jex joined members of the community during the CCK chukua hatua community outreach road show. Repacted comedians rocked the house with their comedy styling. MC Jex impressed with his solo rap on peace and unity.
The open MIC. Preparation for the open MIC 2009 first round are on and the MCs and the DJs are being mobilized for the great event. Read more about the Open soon.
Magnet Theater Team Members out for an outreach.
This year has begun with much promise. In the first week of business REPACTED Kenya held five day capacity building training of all the 30 members who attended. The capacity assessment meetings evaluated the organization ability to move to NGO status by mid 2009. The members and office holders reviewed the past years trials and achievements before setting goals for the coming months. It also provided an opportunity for the members to bond and exchange ideas on the different project planned or already underway.
REPACTED bloggers at work
A significant step has been made this month, moving into a bigger office at the Nakuru Player’s Theatre has improved REPACTED Kenya’s profile and capacity to operate more professionally and attract more donor to fund the organization youth activities. Spacious and secure, it houses a reception area, operations centre, accounting office and, a new initiative, a youth information centre where youth from the community can come to access IEC material on reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, Drug abuse etc…
Wendy Cross and Mshale during the workshop.
Wendy Cross from NextAid paid REPACTED Kenya a visit. She came to learn more about the organization and to assess its capacity. Wendy held a full day media based M & E training for REPACTED. Narrative reports tend to be two dimensional but through the use of media a more detailed and personal input can be infused in a report sent to a donor. Equipment such as flip cameras are cheap to acquire and easy to use. Making brief, well shot and accurately edited videos can tell a story and make a significant impact on the recipient. With proper lighting and good composition digital photos can also be used in reporting and keeping records to great effect. Both of these options can be sent over the internet making delivery easier compared to tapes, CDs and hard copy printouts. To avoid taking too much time uploading videos and pictures should be compressed or placed in a zipped folder. Wendy was surprised by the enthusiasm of the members and their interest in the various forms of media available to them.
Break time.
After a long break REPACTED Kenya finally resumed outreach activities. There were a few magnet theatre practitioners taking to the field for the first time and their performance was commendable and beyond all expectations. The communities visited responded well and participated fully in the discussion, a few of the stepping forth to take up roles in the skit. Information on Reproductive health is fast seeping into their minds judging from the responses members of the audience gave to the slew of questions posed. At a new site in Free area, the numbers mobilized were impressive and the reception good if not great.
REPACTED members enjoying foot ball (Odu, James, Chris and Samy)
This year it was resolved that members’ blogs will be updated on a weekly basis. Topics discussed are to be drawn from key questions posed by community members during past outreaches along with personal issues they are itching to articulate.
We never thought we will make it to 2008 it was clear we were headed for a mass genocide, greater than Rwanda. Those were the REPACTED member’s words during the end year meeting at the Nakuru Players Theatre.
After the 27th December 2007 disputed presidential elections results in Kenya, just before the violence in Nakuru REPACTED team members were assembled at the Nakuru Players Theatre discussing how to reach out to the victims of the post elections skirmishes in Njoro, Kuresoi, and Molo through the Holistic Helping key person in Rift Valley Province Dennis Kimambo. Dennis had already mobilized some support from well wishers. Collins travelled to Kuresoi one of the most volatile area to find out how the situation was on the ground. In Kuresoi Collins met a friend of REPACTED in peace building and transformation Laurence Achami.
We left home in peace for the office at the theatre little did we know that going back home was going to be hell, and indeed it was, while we were busy combing the grassroots in other volatile regions hell broke loose in Nakuru. It took each one of us hours to reach home instead of the usual few minutes. We spent weeks talking through phones since the local administration declared a night curfew for Nakuru residence.
We still possessed the spirit to solder on with our normal community theatre activities but this time in IDP camps what a challenge after some normalcy returned in the town. We could not do the normal community outreaches in the community because there were no audiences in the community and any noise was treated as a disturbance. We changed strategy and employed other forms of community outreach like video shows in the video dens, focused group discussions, and included peace messages in the normal health talks. Thanks to Sara Piot and Georgia Arnold of MTV Staying Alive for understanding the situation. The organization concentrated on one on one peer education sessions, educative video shows, and focused group discussions in the community. The work was very expensive and wanting especially the IDP outreaches, it was an emergency that needed an extra budget thanks to the APHIA II project rift valley for supporting the extra outreaches in the IDP camps.
Everything calmed down after signing of the peace deal by the two principals Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga led by Kofi Anan. During the conflict we realized one thing, the power of the internet social forums like the personal blogs which took over from the main stream media, the internet is a powerful tool of communication. We actively made a good use of the internet after the mainstream media was blacked out by the government. Most of us with internet enable phone could still communicate effectively and post news to the web for the world to read and get the real story. Thanks to David Sasaki Oso of the Raising Global Voices for the phone you left behind when you visited REPACTED the phone (Sony Ericsson W8 10i) played a serious role after Dennis was robed a phone in the skirmishes while on a night mission to saving two REPACTED members who were trapped in the war zone, we used the phone to take pictures.
We resumed our normal magnet theatre outreaches with mobile VCT. The organization through team work managed to mobilize a good number of community members to access the free counseling and testing. It is not normal to test more than 120 people in a day for four VCT counselors. with the grant from the Staying Alive Foundation and the Raising Global Voices, we did up to 16 magnet theatre outreaches in a month, weekly skills demonstration forums, two youth symposiums and two youth events, Along the year 2008 REPACTED managed to train 30 change agents and five youth leaders on leadership, peer education and the use of digital media-photography, video shooting, blogging and most current encouraging positive bloggers from the community. The organization through collaborative efforts managed to effectively and consistently reach out to 10,000 young people, distributed 30,000 male condoms.
We still have challenges in blogging since it is a new phenomenon to the community though it is picking up. Thanks to Eduardo Avila of Voices Bolivia for the workshop when you visited REPACTED. The bloggers still talk about some of the skills you shared during the workshop. The members agreed to do something about the content by introducing interactive blogging within the REPACTED community theatrical outreaches. Interactive blogging will be more of community magnet theatre style or “interactive theatre of blogging” ok great thinking lets wait for 2009 for more information. More positive bloggers will be introduced next year…ok.
Ok the year was a great year to the organization has Kimambo Dennis attended the international AIDS conference in Mexico meat one of my great friends of REPACTED Lova. Thanks again to the MTV Staying Alive Foundation for the great support. Dennis Kimambo and Esther Ogema also attended training in Zambia and James Karongo attended training in Tunisia thanks to Family Health International and National Organization of Peer Educators. Collins Dennis Oduor also attended the Citizen Media Summit in Hungary. All the trainings and the conferences boosted greatly the capacity of the organization from management, information communication technology, monitoring and evaluation, and leadership creation.
Although we got a lot of difficult in accessing the prisons…. shame to the bureaucracy … this year we managed to do 15 community theatre outreaches in the prisons. Sammy and Ongaro both prisons waders and Voluntary Counseling Testing-service providers made sure that through the welfare office we access the prisons. This time it was the other way round a good number of the prison waders accessed the VCT services. Youth open mic festivals, Miss and Mr. Red Ribbon and poa festivals were a great event for the youth, the youth love music and performing arts hence the festivals were a great success.
Way forward- The members agreed that next year will be a year of holistic service to the community. It will be the year of social change and transformation in all the programs. Through the spirit of teamwork REPACTED members are more than willing to bring about change we believe in and save the community from the social injustices by creating a healthy nation through creative arts and digital media. To cut the short story long wait for the year 2009…..
Thanks
REPACTED believes in the spirit of networking, collaboration and partnership we therefore would like to appreciate, the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, the Raising Global Voices Online, the Nakuru Players Theatre, APHIA II Rift Valley, Partners for Progress, Act Alive, Vices of Roses, National Organization of Peer Educators, ADRA Kenya and the National AIDS Control Council.
A lot has been said about Positive blogging, my feeling is that blogging is voluntarily and people do it for diffrent reasons since REPACTED started working with Rising Voices on blogging we have seen tremendous change in the way people are taking up blogging but al in all they take the initiative of doing so, we provide free computers (we only have two of them) and internet for them to blog but they are not enough for all the young people who want to use this service and move forwad i always feel happy when i sit down at the end of the day to se who has update there blog today i want to share with you what Maureen Akinyi who has gone public about here status and she is only 23/24 years old. i encourage you to visit her blog and encourage her. Maureenakinyi.blogspot.com
Kind Regards
Dennis
The event started off with a word of prayer from of the participants, then followed by a brief introduction history of the event by Collins Dennis Oduor of REPACTED before the introduction of the event MCs James Karongo and Moses Mwangi. The entrance of the day’s MCs James Karongo and Moses Mwangi and a brief speech about the history of Miss Red Ribbon, it’s challenges, aims and objectives. Voice of roses, one of the hosts kicked off the occasion with a tantalizing dance. This was followed by a choral verse prepared and presented by B.I.G aka Big Africa arts group. As the judges were preparing themselves for the task ahead, Pamoja Band played some requests and Sauti Afrique serenaded all the mothers in the house with a harmonious song appreciating women’s contribution to life. The judges for the day were Joab Omondi Otieno from Rift valley Institute of Hair Dressing, Rose Ndanu Morris Programme Co-ordinator I-Cross, Steve Waweru, Head of Marketing Tracom college, Jane Wamaitha Kigotho Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and technology JKUAT.
After a brief interlude the final song from Sauti Afrique and voice of roses the long wait ended and the models were finally called up on stage and formally introduced to the audience.
Lawrence Mwai, Abdalla Abdullahi, Daniel Mwangi, Uhuru Cleopas, Peter Ayiera, Nassir Omar, Peter Onyango, Jane Adero, Sylvia Wanjiru, Nancy Njoroge, Elizabeth Maina, Naomi Maina, Asha Kipng’etich, Alice Njoki, Jane Wahu Chege, Mary Njoki, Maureen Akinyi, Diana Abwayo and scholastica Juma were to fight for top honors of the miss red ribbon 2008. Uprising comedians staged an act before the first category Casual wear was launched. The crowd was quickly on their feet as they cheered their favorites enthusiastically as the models walked through the run way show casing their collection and designs.
MC JEX entertained the guests with a rap song on the importance of healthy living and Makry Group presented their award winning Choral verse on drug abuse as the contestants prepared for the next category, of official were a few surprises in this category as the models emerged looking crisp and clean in suits. It was clear that at the moment stigma was completely missing in the hall has both the positive and negative models shared the stage in the colorful category.
During the intermission Voice of roses took the stage followed by SAWWA dancers from REPACTED who showed a little of what they are made of. Friends of Lake Nakuru made a cameo to spice things up. The Models then rolled out in Traditional wear as the pageant progressed without incident or accident. The traditional wear well brewed and finished to the African cultural test was a show of courage in fight against stigma.
Genesis Arts Creations did their trademark Salsa dance before the crowd was left shell shocked when Recording artiste, Mejja, of Calif Records popped in through the main door. He dropped his hit single Kwani jana kuliendaje among others. The single on the danger of alcohol has a predisposing factor was thematic. SAWWA dancers returned one last time closing the world of entertainment for the day before the Pageant continued.
In the Creative category the crowd saw how far the minds could go when imagination runs wild. Peter Ayiera dressed in big leaf, what thrilled people ware cloths made out condoms it was a design worth watching. Everything was slowed to a crawl when the evening wear category as the contestants took their time on the runway. Beauty is what you see and feel, the audience felt beauty in the air, evening wear both classic, creative and modern.
When the judges made the cut Abdalla Abdullahi, Scholastica Juma, Peter Ayiera, Naomi Maina, Jane Wahu, Peter Onyango and Alice Njoki were declared to be in the final seven. They then proceeded to question time where the final seven were required to dig deep into their knowledge of HIV/AIDS issues.
There were speeches from Ian Wanyoike of National Organization of Peer Educators, Hannington Onyango of National Aids Control Council and Dr. Haile Girmay of UNAIDS. Dr. Haile talked about the history of aids in the last twenty years, he also said that we should test before Monday during the world aids day, he also reminded the audience present that it will be the twentieth world aids day celebrations. He started with a dance which he used to pass his message across. He also insisted that we should all know our status. Sarah Kamau of Christian Children’s Fund gave the vote of thanks. Peter Ayiera was declared second runner overal and Alice Njoki was crowned the miss red ribbon 2008 Peter Ayiera was crowned Mr. Red Ribbon 2008. 
The role of the two winners will be to organize outreaches in the community with the main goal of eradicating stigma in the community.
Key question: If you have TB are you HIV positive?
The synopsis
The performance was about a young man who coughs continuously and suspects he is HIV positive. The young man is encouraged by his girlfriend to go to hospital but the guy refuses. They have an argument that last for a few minutes until his friend calls the young man. His friend tells him not go to hospital because he will be tested for HIV, the friend tells him that people with TB are always tested for HIV, and if he does not go he will take him to a local medicine man for medication traditional medicine. The girlfriend insists that if does not go to hospital she will never talk to him and she will leave him for another man, and the friend says that if he does not go the medicine man he will get very sick and die. What should the young man do?
Magnet Theatre session
During the actual session the facilitator asks the women what should the young man do? Should he follow the friend or the girl friend? One woman called Akinyi said that he should listen to his girlfriend and seeks medical attention, may be he has T.B. But one of the women Mama Njeri said that the young man should go by the friend’s idea of seeing the medicine man and avoid the girl friend he can always get another one. But Susan one of the inmates said that it is possible to have TB and HIV so maybe he as HIV and the girl is also infected, but Akinyi said that TB and HIV are different and suffering from TB does not mean that you are HIV positive. When asked how she can advice the young girl and the man she stepped forward and demonstrated what the man should do. The session ended with the inmates suggesting the she goes to hospital before its to late, and TB is curable.
After the main session the inmates also did a performance on tribal clashes that rocked the country this year.
The group suggested we should take next time milk, sanitary, soaps and tissues for those women with kids.
After the prison outreach we gave magazines with thematic concern ARV, TB, and VCT.
Issue arising from the Magnet Theatre session today
.How many months it takes TB to be found in your body?
.Types of TB transmission
.Relation between TB&AIDS The above issues will be handled in the normal peer education session in prisons with the trained change agents in the prisons.
The synopsis
The performance was about a young woman who needs money to take a sick child to the hospital. In the neighborhood there are two young ladies who do commercial sex to earn a living. She approaches the two ladies for assistance; they tell her that the best way to get money and take the child to the hospital is to accompany them to a night, a place where she will get money, more money. At night they go the night club and the girl with the sick child is introduced to a man who offers to pay her 5000 Ksh for a whole night unprotected sexual intercourse or 500 shillings for sex with a condom. The other ladies are pushing her to accept or else they do away with her. Should she take the big offer and serve the child or the small offer and loose the friends and the child?
The magnet theatre session
After mobilizing the community to the magnet theatre site the facilitator introduced the charters profile while the audiences give them names. During the presentation the following issues come out from the audiences/spectators, some the audience members argued that the young girl should go for the big money because the life of the child is more important than her life, one of the audience members said that better loose the child because she can give birth to another child, John a member of the audience said that the young to use a Condon and tell the man her problem, when asked how to tell the man John stepped forward and demonstrated how he will do it, but the people said that it was difficult to convince a man with such mind set, Mama Merry said that the best thing for the young girl to do is to fund raise for the child treatment from well wishers and friends, one member of the community who goes by the name Musa said that he will lead the fund raising for the child because the young girls may end up with an STI from the man and may be HIV so before it happens he is willing to lead a fundraising. The sessions ended with one member of the audience taking the young girl out of the stage just to make sure that the girl does not change her mind.
After the outreach the members gave out 400 male condoms and held one on one talk with the community members at the site. IEC materials distributed posters, and magazines with the following thematic concern ARV and VCT.
Issue arising from the Magnet Theatre session today
Key questions from the site include:
Why do people use condoms? Is it applicable to married people?
Does window period vary from one person to another?The above issues will be addressed in our next magnet theatre.
OK hello good people hope all is well and i am well too as this blog is read with a variety of young people across Africa i wanted to Give you guys a good update on what is going on down in Mexico, its has been a great 5 days at Mexico city with lots of good things and surprises here and there, Away from that the youth conference was a success though some of the participants could not see the relevance of some of the sessions that were there i have to say Kenya was well represented, the speakers were conversant with there topics. Among the session that i attended the most interesting to me was talking about young leadership I think everyone here at the Youth Pre-Conference can agree that the first two days were hectic - a lot going on, a lot to take in, and all of it taking place in one of the busiest cities in the world. Day 1 included visits from the president of the IAS, and director of UNICEF for Latin America - both of which drew attention to the advocacy messages for this year’s Youth Force - Rights, Responsibility, Respect and Resources, and at the end of Day Two a short talk by the Executive Director of UNFPA.
What’s more noticeable to me then the official visitors - is how many youth delegates here have cellphones, cameras, computers, etc, and are constantly creating media. Each session flashes are going off and people are capturing video on their cellphones. Judging by the amount of media being produced by the youth delegates just in the last two days it seems that throughout the conference the Youth AIDS site will be a huge resource and platform for youth experiences at this conference.
