REPACTED

It is emerging in our Magnet Theatre outreaches in the community that reduction of stigma and discrimination in the community is mirage. Stigma and discrimination needs a creative approach because it is affecting the fight against HIV from all angles. Giving out condoms in public is still a problem. During the outreaches young people take condoms in secrecy they don’t want to be seen by the community because the community will associate them with sexual intercourse.

Walking into a VCT centre for most young difficult because in one way or other they have had unprotected intercourse with a person of unknown STI status because of the stigma associated with free condoms given in public and buying a condom in the home shops. Most young people ask very many subspecies questions and concerns on VCT, HIV and AIDS. Why should I go for VCT while my partner is negative? There is no need for VCT while I know that am dying; in one way or another all of us will die so why waste my time going for VCT, why use a condom when we know that we are infected? 

And when we carry out mobile VCT all of them who attend the sessions come out smiling and saying that they are ok. If condoms and VCT services are facing such tough stereotype at the community level what about access to reproductive health services by the youth. A good number of young people can not point out stigma and discrimination as community problem, but they acknowledge that there are some behaviors and attitudes that discriminate against people infected and infected.

In one of the magnet theatre session in Manyani the audience helped to condemn a behavior by one of the cast members acting as an HIV positive person. But with timeline a game used to elastrator the theatre process they agreed that they action against character could lead to many things including self stigma because of the enacted stigma from the community members.

In this picture some of the young people who were displaced after the violence in the camp waiting to here about the project and how it will help in the resettlement efforts.

After months of anticipation finally 3 weeks ago we received our 1^st deposit of the grant from Global Rising voices and immediately the team went to work already we had potential young people from the community who were ready to take part in the project, we called them together and discussed on how we want to go ahead with the training as a kick start to the project, we have been deliberating and have agreed that we want to make the project as community-owned as possible. In the same breath we went to the community with the team and sought out views of different people in the community, including the government representatives on the ground.

As seen above, members of REPACTED are mobilizing community members for discussions while at the same time giving the community an important forum to discuss health issues that they would otherwise not discuss in there homes because of taboo.

We agreed that it is important to focus in the beginning with individual stories of community members who have been instrumental in ensuring that we have peace in our country at the community level and people don’t know about this will help in showing other that they too can help in ensuring that we have everlasting peace and we don’t go back to fighting. The methodology that we will use is by taking video and stories to the community and show them in the villages and the community places for people to see and we will focus on the worst hit areas of Nakuru hoping that the same can be replicated elsewhere in the country.

In this regard we are hoping to work with various institutions to make the project a success and have an impact not only to us but the whole community at large we will be focusing on the issue also of helping young people achieve there dreams in life. Especially in the enhancement of there use in digital equipment. This is the beginning of weekly updates of the project stay on. And kudos to Joan for updates every now and then.

In this photo is Laban, a member of REPACTED, talking to some of the young people in the community on issues affecting them and how they can address them or bring them out to the general public to be able to be assisted.

If you are a 21-year-old male in Kenya, statistically, you are nearly halfway through your life. Extreme poverty, poor health care and an AIDS epidemic all contribute to a life expectancy of 46 years. In addition, recent political tensions in the country have led to the deaths of more than 1,200 people — destroying homes and displacing tens of thousands. The future doesn’t appear bright. Jim Scuitto interviews Mwai Ngugi, a 21-year-old Kenyan who dreams of stardom.
More PhotosIt makes Mwai Ngugi, as a 21-year-old from Nakuru, “sad and bitter,” but he isn’t letting it get him down. Instead, he uses his time and talents to fight back. WATCH “World News with Charles Gibson” TONIGHT at 6:30 p.m. ET for the full report. His dreams of fame and fortune on the stage or on television are like those of many other young people around the world. But while he waits for his big break, he puts his acting talents to use. Mwai performs in improvisational street theater productions in some of Nakuru’s poorest neighborhoods. The acting troupe is called Repacted, and is part of the Nakuru Theater Players Group. It is funded by grants and private donations, with some of the money coming from the United States. Its annual $25,000 budget goes almost entirely to production costs, the publishing of materials and transportation. So some months Mwai makes less than a dollar, but he doesn’t do what he does for money. He does it, he says, “because I care about what is happening to the young people of Kenya.” We saw Mwai and the rest of Repacted put on a presentation in the hilltop slum of Hilton on the outskirts of Nakuru. It was the group’s fourth visit to the area, part of its strategy of reinforcing the message. It started by trying to rev up the crowd with singing, dancing and whistling. A small crowd, mostly children, began to form, following Mwai and his troupe through the garbage-strewn streets. The promise of prizes brings a few more onlookers. The small children are separated from the teenagers and adults for other activities before the more serious topics are introduced. Today’s skits teach about the dangers of drug addiction and alcohol abuses. Glue sniffers as young as 7 or 8 are a common sight on the streets of Nakuru. Mwai says they are rounded up and put in homes but regularly escape and go back to the streets. Hilton’s residents seem uninterested, and the crowd thins as the production continues, but Mwai’s enthusiasm is undimmed. If he can reach just one person, “I am making an impact,” he says, and “nothing makes me smile more than seeing the crowd react to when I am performing.” He makes a special effort to greet everyone in the crowd personally before the group leaves. Ngugi’s family lives in a small compound with a main house and some smaller mud and cement buildings on a hill overlooking Lake Nakuru. Behind the main house is a field where the family grows vegetables. Mwai begins each day with an hour or so work in the fields, cutting grasses with a machete to feed the livestock, or tending to the beans, corn, peppers and other crops they grow that are sold to make a little extra money. The family is middle class by Kenyan standards. Mwai’s father is a retired bank accountant. He and his wife have raised six children, and all of them have had some education, which did not come free until 2003. Four generations of the family sit down together in the main room of their home, eating a simple meal of beans and bread. Mwai’s father says Mwai and his siblings are good children: honest, no quarrels with others, and loving to the family. ABC’s Jim Sciutto talks to Kenyan 21-year-old Mwai Ngugi.(Clark Bentson/ABC News)
More PhotosFamily is the first obligation for any Kenyan. Mwai knows that he must help provide for his parents and take care of them in later years. Kenyans, he states, are not like Americans, who put their older parents in homes. He will take care of his parents, and when they die, they will be buried behind his house just as his grandparents are buried in his father’s garden now.  

RV: REPACTED deals with behavioral changes among Kenyan youths on social issues. How is ICT helpful to you in your endeavors?

Dennis Kimambo: REPACTED uses ICT in terms of looking up for the latest information and to keep the world updated of what is happening or what we are doing as an organization. The organization is growing and has not had a chance to tell the world what has been going on within the organization and we want our partners to be part of the growth.

RV: Tell us about Magnet Theater, your Forum Theater initiative. How much success did you have with it? Is it getting popular?

Dennis Kimambo: Magnet Theater is a form of participatory theater that is performed within the community space available. The group members, who come from the communities that we go to, researches on the problem that faces a community and enact a skit that poses a dilemma on the problem subject of the day. A process facilitator then freezes the play and poses a question to the audience i.e. the community members present during the session.

The facilitator guides the discussion to solutions that are brought by the community members through the discussions that happen. In simple words Magnet Theater helps the community to have a forum to discuss issues that they will not have discussed in their day to day life, not even within the family setup because of taboo and cultural practices. Through interactive theater we are able to break the inhibitions and have them discussed. One of the catchy thing is that we use the members of the same community who have changed behavior as magnification candidates who magnifies the behavior that they have changed to the rest of the community. In this way the community can easily adapt to the same behavior without feeling that it is foreign.

Photo by Dennis Kimambo- Magnet Theater: Enacting with a community member stepping in the shoes of a character.

RV: How are you combining Magnet Theater with the new media tools? Tell us about your workshops.

Dennis Kimambo: The media tools will be a blessing in terms of helping us to cover what we do and have a record of the same and also help us in communicating the same to the world.

Once we have the training of the community members on how to use the media tools we will be able to get to know the more challenging things that they face in terms of reproductive health and HIV and AIDS and they will help us to have more discussion with the community and tackle most of the problems that they face. This will be possible because we are going to give incentives to the best stories that we will get from the community members as they will be in the project.

RV: Tell us about the participants. What difficulties you face in arranging and conducting the citizen media workshops?

Dennis Kimambo: We have been recruiting members from the site that we go to within the community and now we are recruiting from the Internally Displaced People camps that are in Nakuru. The challenge that we are facing is how to ensure that they will continue with the outreaches once the camps are no more in Nakuru as they will go back to there homes.

RV: What roll did REPACTED play during Kenya’s political crisis? How was Nakuru affected?

Dennis Kimambo: REPACTED played a major role of spreading peace messages through the mobile phone to the youths who were participating in the war. Ensuring that those targeted in worst hit areas could get to safety and this we did by sending them airtime which they used to call for escort. We also housed some of the displaced peoples in our homes. We also went to visit the internally displaced in the camps and took them food stuffs and clothes since they were in need. We visited the fighting communities and held peace forums with them in order for them to stop fighting. We held community theater outreaches in some of the site which were adversely affected and taught them the need to live peacefully as (this we are still continuing and the citizens media outreaches will help a lot) brothers and sisters so that our country can develop in all aspects.

RV: The Western media has said the political crisis is over in Kenya and things are getting back to normal - is that how you see it right now in Nakuru?

Dennis Kimambo: The political crisis might be over in terms of the fighting but if the issues that caused are not addressed it might go back to that situation and even be far more worse than it was. Because communities have armed themselves and are ready for anything.

Nakuru is safe and things are slowly getting back to normal but more than 12000 displaced families are within the town area, which has become a security threat to the residents. The number of crime has increased with a lot of mugging within the estates.

RV: Please describe how December’s post-election crisis has changed your citizen media outreach project.

Dennis Kimambo: The post election crisis has changed our outreach recruitment and the messages that we are going to pass to the public and the world at large. Through what we saw and happened we have a different perspective of how we live in the country. It is emerging that communities that were living together and trading together most of the members there were living a hypocrite like life with one another. In this way we want to bring out the message of reconciliation and coexistence with one another.

Photo by Dennis Kimambo: Members of REPACTED before a performance

RV: Are you getting any feedback from the participants and community regarding your initiatives?

Dennis Kimambo: The community has been cooperative with what we are doing so far and many young people are willing and ready to join the initiatives that we have.

    Dear Brothers and Sister,As the calm surface waters of the rivers flow slowly down the valley after the violent mad storm, passing between the rocks washing away the loose top soil the river is silent. The wind is blowing forcing the leaves to wave to the passing waters of the river. The mad river is calm on the surface but the pain caused by the historical madness is grave and lies deep in the silent waters waiting for disturbance from the corrupt nature. The pain of loosing a child in the mad waters of the river is more than labor pain and the pain of loosing children to the mad waters of the river is a serious economic death that remains a tale.Tula Nyongoro the Owl was one of the greatest rulers in the Animals kingdom, Tula Nyongoro the Owl ruled the Animals Kingdom from the sea, lakes to the dry land. With his big eyes Tula Nyongoro the Owl claimed that he cold see success and difficulties approaching, with the big eyes Tula Nyongoro the Owl claimed that he cold see through the events in the dark night and tell it during the day to all the birds. With his big eyes Tula Nyongoro the Owl claimed that he cold see through your soul, thoughts, and feelings this made the other birds get scared of thinking. With his sharp ears Tula Nyongoro the Owl claimed that he cold hear your mind and thoughts clearly. And with his sharp horns Tula Nyongoro the Owl claimed that it cold pierce you to oblivion and with his small sharp beak Tula Nyongoro the Owl claimed that it cold shred your head and drink your brain. Nobody talk at the back of Tula Nyongoro the Owl because his neck cold turn at three sixty degree like a jet fighter indeed Tula Nyongoro the Owl, the most feared ruler in the history of the birds Kingdom.With his strong claws Tula Nyongoro the Owl cold hold tight on the braches while flying and with his tough large wings it flow for miles without rest the wings were strong that a small bird could not fly next to him or else it risked being blown away with strong winds produced by the flapping wings of Tula Nyongoro. Tula Nyongoro the Owl ruled during the day because he was powerful during the day.                                                                                                                            But when the birds realized that all that Tula claimed to be were truly lies the birds strake back and Tula become powerless, never to rule again, until today Tula can only fly at night crying the all night because the birds will always bit him up during the day. That is what the people will one day do to this democracy, this democracy which is paged on one tribe and poor distribution of resources by excluding other communities from resources management and distribution since independence. We need to lay our lives for the good of our country by stop watering and grooming the leaves of pretence while the root of tribalism is thriving.  Internally displaced old man in Afraha stadium campThe hand shark as only silenced the madness of the river but not the madness in the deep waters of the rivers. The surface is pretending to be silent and forgiving while the depth is blooding with the pain of displacement and suffering.The wound on the hand shake with the help of the fingers should be left to heal natural, let no one disturb the silent waters of the river by stubbing it, it may blood profusely to a point of no return. people are tired of formation of commissions of inquiry without their permission to look into every silly omissions which have solutions, this is all public money going in a chosen few pockets in the name of commissions yet the nation is silent, please use this money to build the nation instead of begging to feed the nation.A political solution may be the only current solution to the mad currents of the disturbed waters of the river but not a long term solution to the silent surface waters yet painfully blooding from inside. A political solution is not a solution without the people. The youth have been turned into political objects, subjects and tools of settling political and tribal revelry, instead of economic engine, oil and lubricants to development. During the great migration the wilder beast cross the river while hungry crocks wait with their sharp teeth and strong jaws ready to tear down the weak and the strong, with prayers to cross the river safely the wilder beast sarcomas to a painful death, though thousands will pass, hundreds fall pray to the croaks, that does not stop the wilder beast from crossing back when nature calls. This is not the first time the river is mad and the waters disturbed it is the second, third, fourth, fifth, and maybe it is not the last.The hand shack may make it the last or the worst. For us to quench the thirst of the madness of the delta before it returns poverty, corruption, historical land injustices and unemployment should be given the first priority, the umbilical cord of the above issues is a new constitution not an amendment. The current constitution is a multicolored rage which can corrupt a chameleon system. And indeed it is true the citizens are the chameleon always confused of their constitutional rights. All the constitutional amendments have fevered the political elites but not the poor man.The silent waters are still thinking the good, the bad and the dangerous this can be stopped in time if we dig deep into the historical treasures in the achieves. For one to treat and cure a disease properly it is important to find out the medical history of the patient. We have not found the medical history of the river yet we are pretending to have reached a solution. The source of the madness of the river must be addressed properly and with care. A house built on the rock may be perfect but a house built on the rock without a proper foundation is equally dangerous.The source of the madness of the river is the source of the solution and the source of the solution is the source of peace, love and unity. The use of excessive force to force the solution is the beginning of the uncontrolled delta force that may injure the healing wounded hand shake. The window of calm is wide open yet the door of peace narrowly open, let us take the advantage of the wide open window of calm and change the rules of the house to accommodate the all family members so as to open wide the door of peace and bring about freedom, justice, truth and reconciliation in the family. The dark corners of the house must receive equal distribution of the light. The citizens of this wonderful nation let us rise above the tribal lines and raise our voices and lay to rest our ethnic lines, and stop this madness.  

FEBRUARY REPORT

Introduction

The following is the account of the organization activities report in the month of February despite the post election violence. The report captures activities conducted from mid February to first March within the accessible Magnet Theater community sites, learning institutions and the prisons.

The body   

The quarter started on a slow note due to the post election violence that rocked our country after the disputed presidential elections results. Most of our magnet theatre sites were adversely affected and most of our community key persons were internally displaced and camped at the Afraha stadium internally displaced camp. This led to the change of strategy by conducting most of the outreaches at the internally displaced camp at the Afraha Stadium. The organization also conducted moon light focused group discussions in the internally displaced camps, during the FGDs condom dominated the sessions because of the raise in transactional sex in the camps. The organization also managed to mobilize and distribute condoms in the camps.

 Immediately after the cooling of political tension the organization embanked on the normal Magnet Theatre outreaches but setting the environment with video shows in the community video den. The organization took movies on reproductive health to the key person’s, some of the movies being transit, yellow card silent epidemic and scenarios from Africa. The video shows lead to discussions of the events in the move including healthy relationships and unhealthy relationships among the youth, STIs and stigma and discrimination.

 The greatest success story came from our prisons theatre outreaches which lead to the formation of the prisons post test club ‘TUMAINI LA WAGONJWA GEREZANI’ (The Hope of the Sick in prison). The inmates welcomed the idea and said that the post test club will act as a pillar of hope to the sick in the prisons by representing the sick and fighting for their rights of proper health care while in prisons.  From the formation of the post test club the organization also increased the number of outreaches in the prisons despite in accessing the facility at the beginning of the year. The post test club is made up 80 inmates.

The organization managed to conduct Magnet Theatre outreaches in schools and focused group discussions within the safe community magnet theatre sites just to make sure that its project goal, objective and relationship with the key persons is maintained within the community.   

The organization managed to conduct 12 community outreaches and each organization member conducted own initiative peer education session within their respective communities.   The community outreaches were held in different sites namely Hilton, Maili Sita and Njoro. The sessions were held through focused group discussions and one on one conducted by the magnet theatre troupe members. The topics discussed were faithfulness, Condom demonstration, and HIV testing .Referrals were also made on Sexually Transmitted Infections treatment.

 We hope that the situation will improve so as to provide enabling environment for the normal MT sessions. The organization are also using the approach of talking to the community members about peace and co-existing together as brothers and sisters in one country in our country to develop in all areas since without the calm and peace we cannot be able to talk about the issues that we normally talk about and the issues that affect the youth.

  Success

Through one on one more magnification candidates were identified, key persons who have changed behavior through the Magnet Theatre with mobile VCT.

Increase in the number of condoms given out during the sessions the organization managed to give out 3,000 male condoms during the community outreaches and 3,000 male condoms outside the sessions through organization members own initiative, and distributed 500 IEC materials to the key persons. In total we were able to carry

After long talks with the prison department we have finally got access to the Nakuru GK prison this time with one major success.  We have successfully started our peer education sessions in the prison with the formation of a post test club. It was on Thursday 14/02/08 when Collins and James visited the prison and had their first session with the members of the club who were recruited by the prison VCT counselor Sammy. With the help of these prison officials we were allowed in the premises since the security has been beefed up due to the current situation in the country. We first had a meeting with the officials explaining to us why the need for us to establish the club officially since the prisons that are infected needs are not addressed adequately by the prison authorities but with the post test club their needs will be heard and addressed. The needs of the post test club members included the following,  

• HIV positive members under ARVs need special attention because of understanding treatment and adherence,
• Stigma and discrimination within the facility among the inmates and the officers is on the raise
•  Management of integrated health problems like TB, and Malaria,
•  Improvement of VCT referrals in the facility by the post taste club through reaching out to their fellow inmates and encouraging those who have not gone for VCT to access the free service.
• The post taste club also needed someone to represent the members of the club who are on ARV in the kitchen so that they are put on special diet.
• The club will also have weekly health talks from professionals and get facility based trainings on peer education, peer counseling, home based care and Magnet Theatre.
• The club will also carry out one on one peer education sessions in the facility and focused group discussions.   

We are planning to do the same to the woman’s department so as to leave no stone unturned in respect to gender and HIV/AIDS. 

After the meeting we were led to where the members of the club were waiting for us in order for us to hold our first session with them. The session had 60 members who were all male. There was need to recognize the fact that the magnet theatre outreaches held in the prison since last year had the number of people accessing the VCT services on the rise which was on the positive side. About 30% of the inmates know their status by now. Our target is to achieve an 80% by the end of June since the post test club will help us in the mobilization of the rest of the inmates. Collins emphasized on the importance of the club since it was through it that one would get help when in dire need. He also touched on the issue of psycho-social support once one is the club. For ones who are positive they would get it from the fellow members when they have their weekly post taste club meetings. The club also has the responsibility of creating awareness amongst other inmates within the facility.

They will be meeting once a week and discuss on various topics and issues affecting them. They decided that they will be meeting on Thursdays. James also emphasized on the need of them getting experts to discuss with them on various chronic diseases such as T.B., malaria, and other opportunistic infections. This would be the start of peer education sessions by the inmates themselves in their blocks once the club is fully in place. Collins volunteered himself to offer lessons on magnet theatre so that they can have M.T. on their own. After that Collins touched on the issue of stigma which was on the rise in the prison. He talked on enacted stigma and self stigma. We saw that this was a serious barrier in fight against HIV/AIDS. The club will also look at the issue on drug adherence for the ones who are on ARVs. With that we were through with the session for the day will continue in the coming week. The start of the post test club was a great achievement since we started the outreach sessions in the prison since last year. With this we shall be able to achieve the 80% VCT turn out that is including the prison officers and their families and the inmates. With that we left the premises with the assurance that we had made a great step in the project.

WORKPLAN FOR MAGNET THEATRE OUTREACHES AND PEER EDUCATION FOR THE MONTHS OF JANUARY, FEBRURARY AND MARCH 2008 IN MAILI SITA, HILTON, and NAKURU GK PRISONS, LEARNING INSTITUTION AND NJORO.

FORUM FOR BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

This is the work plan for the quarter beginning January to March. Individual peer education activities have not been included in the work plan but reports are expected from every peer educator.

We were able to hold 5 activities during this month despite the violence that rocked our town. Most of our audience in all our sites were displaced and are now at the Afraha stadium camp. We held three outreaches in the showground and Afraha camp and held a two days midline survey on the impact of our project during the last six months. The survey looked at the relationship between stigma and our cultural customs and values that we have in our different communities.

The outreaches were quite successful since we had a large audience in the camps. Most of the people did not have the information about HIV/AIDS because of the mixed audience in the camps. Basically our outreaches talked about condom use since we had the information that sex was on the high in the camps. We had a session which mainly touched on the effectiveness of the condom and finally had the session on condom demonstration. The audience was very pleased and asked if we could continue for the time that they will be in the camps. We also emphasized on the peace issue. We asked them to maintain peace and order for the stability of our country even though they were there because of the violence. We used the slogan “CHAGUA AMANI ZUIA NOMA” to preach peace. We also used peace tiles for the children to help them overcome all that they gone through.

The survey which was conducted by REPACTED members was carried in sites that we have been conducting the magnet theatre sessions and two sites that have never experienced any outreach sessions so as to get the difference and the impact of the sessions, the two sites were control site for the middle line survey. The survey was very successful since we were able to know the areas where we are going to improve on in the next quarter because very many people in the community who participated in the survey did not understand stigma, so addressing the issues stigma and discrimination adequately will improve areas like access to VCT and other reproductive health services by the youth. 

 Hoping that the situation will come back to normal we have embarked on school peer youth education  outreaches in the following schools Menengai High school led by James and Flamingo Secondary School lead by John.  Having peer education sessions in schools, camps and the prison since it is not still safe to carry out magnet theatre sessions in the community sites that we had but we will resume soon.