From Nyambura Wa Mundia, URI Africa's Country Contact in Nairobi:
The joys of working with communities that have too little are plenty and rewarding, not so much for what we give, but that we see very little go a long way. If you have had the pleasure of visiting Nairobi or know the Kenyan CCs, you know that most of our members come from low-income areas, and that we have a number of Youth CCs that come from the informal settlement called the Kibera. Partnering with communities through our CCs for development that the use their inventiveness and labor to create is more sustainable than structuring their needs as we might perceive it.
In the last weekend, Youth Led CCs with support from the Young Leaders Program held a training for 35 young people, largely from the 7 Youth-led CCs and young people from other CCs in the region. CCs participating included: Young Mothers Kibera, Twinkle/Hands and Hearts Initiative, Soweto East Initiative, Change Mind Change Future, and Big Brothers Society.
By popular vote, and from previous trainings, the Youth CCs were trained on Organizational Development with an emphasis on strategy and branding. For follow up, CCs in clusters of five will have sessions with Nyambura Mundia in the Kenya office, and five young leaders will help the CCs determine their strategies, refine their visions, and come up with suitable branding. Those who attended the training also committed to going back and training their fellow CC members. When and if they need help, we have also arranged for a Big Brother/Big Sister CC to step in and guide them.
In my time working with communities in and outside URI, I have learned that we do not come with solutions to communities, but that our job as organizers is to help them explore possibilities and add value to their efforts, because ultimately empowerment is theirs to define and achieve.
The tools requested may vary from community to another; giving skills such as proposal writing or digital communication could go a long way transforming the business of a CC. Additionally for organizations such as URI that are not an implementing organization, assisting the CCs may also be in facilitating multi-stakeholder partnerships which allows the them get their work done with ease and validation from the larger community.
Towards this, the Kibera Youth Cluster CCs with the support of other CCs are going to organize a Community Barasa (inclusive community meeting) with religious, political, and law enforcement leaders to create a lifeline of peace ahead of the Kenya General Elections.
