Kenyan alumni from the British Council’s InterAction leadership programme have been using their skills and contacts to assist those displaced by recent post-election violence in Kenya.
Kenyan society was wracked by violence in December 2007 after controversy surrounding national elections saw ethnic groups lashing out at each other. Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who belongs to the Luo ethnic group, accused President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, of rigging elections. The post-election violence left a death toll of roughly 1 500, as well as 300 000 people displaced.
The British Council’s Kenyan InterAction Alumni Society (KIAS), with the assistance of several partners, set up a post-election crisis intervention programme at a camp for displaced Kenyans at the Eastleigh Airbase in Nairobi.
Initially the most basic services were provided, including food parcels, water and basic counselling. Since then the project has expanded to include group and play therapy, craft sessions for women who make products to sell, and school tents where children are taught and given space to do artwork.
Despite the formation of a coalition government in Kenya, which sees Odinga take the newly formed position of prime minister, tensions are still running high in the country. Many of the displaced are unwilling to leave the temporary camps for fear of continuing violence.
Recently the camp had to be relocated from the Eastleigh Airbase to the Moi Air Force Base in Mathare.
Carrie Ndoka from the British Council in Kenya was one of the alumni working in the camps. She says InterAction programme participants have been able to draw on international support, citing InterAction networks in Mauritius, Senegal and the UK who have offered advice and resources.
Conflict-resolution skills learned during InterAction workshops have also helped alumni deal with issues in the camp. Michael Bibby, a British Council training manager, says: “[The alumni] use conflict-resolution skills learned during Interaction to counter desires for revenge among the displaced, changing those negative energies into a willingness to rebuild Kenya across the social divisions highlighted by the election.”
Ndoka says that the camp now benefits on an almost daily basis from visits by Ministry of Health personnel, who provide medical services. They have also been provided with Gertrude’s Garden Children’s Hospital, as well as mobile toilets and water tanks provided by the Red Cross.
Municipal officials have also visited the camp and are trying to identify means by which they can assist the displaced to build new homes and move on with their lives.
However, this is an arduous and slow process, and in the meantime, the camp is the only reliable safe haven for the displaced masses.
Ndoka credits the success of the intervention initiatives to the chairperson of KAIS, Joyce Oneko. Oneko is a lawyer and counsellor who runs her own development programme, the MamaNaDada Foundation, one of the primary partners in the intervention.
Other partners and donors include Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevolkerung, the Red Cross, UNICEF, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, the Catholic Diocese in Kenya, the British Council in Kenya, the Nairobi Baptist Church, InterAction, Save the Children UK and The African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect.
Oneko has played a crucial role in soliciting help from other organisations, and has also recruited professional counsellors to visit the camps, where they focus primarily on helping children who have suffered abuse.
Ndoka says that Joyce’s vision has encouraged and motivated InterAction members to participate in the humanitarian assistance initiatives, and has also “directed the project to greater heights.”
Ndoka adds that the alumni and its partners are now trying to find more sustainable interventions for the displaced.
“Currently, 45 women at the Mathare camp are engaged in income-generating activities, such as making and selling beautiful handicrafts. InterAction is working hard to find markets where the women can sell their products with a view to becoming self-dependent and eventually moving away from the camp. These are women who are traumatised and are unable to return to their homes where many were violently raped. It is through this project that we plan to use revenue to resettle them in safe and stable environments."
Three children from the camp are being sponsored by UNDP to participate in a Children’s Rights conference in Norway in June 2008. Joyce will be accompanying them.
If you would like to provide assistance to KIAS, please e-mail us here. To find out about Interaction and success stories relating to other participants, visit their website. InterAction is one of the programmes run for professionals. Find out more about other development services and resources which we offer to professionals, including our popular networking forum, Management Express.
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