Well...plans changed. Mostly because the Red Cross wanted me to have experience in many different fields and I appreciate that. Also because the structure of the peer education program is almost non-existent and the interns were given a "training" the week before I arrived. I put training in quotes because I'm not sure how effective a 1 week seminar is for the type of material that needed to be covered. Furthermore, there are three groups of 5 interns that are assigned to a school for the 8 weeks. I am in a group with 4 other Kenyan interns and we are to travel to Bungoma High School (an all boys school every Friday) to present a different topic. Last week, we all congregated at the office around 4 PM to head over to the school. I ended up getting into a meeting with Wekola, the branch coordinator and kept looking at my watch, which read 4:15 PM. He asked me if I had somewhere to be and I replied, "Well we were supposed to leave for peer ed around 4." Then Mark, the youth coordinator, chimed in,"Oh they are testing right now so we will not go." I was confused, shouldn't we have known this well before Friday? Or was this a pop-test? No body knew, all we knew was they were "testing" and we could not give our speech on life skills and relationships. We start off with basic topics and work our way up to HIV/AIDS discussions.
Today, after our weekly intern meeting, I asked about peer education for this week and if the interns needed to prepare anything to travel to the school. Mark replied with, "The teachers are on strike so we will not be going to the schools." So far we've missed two weeks, and we, the interns, have not prepared anything for these sessions. Many people seem uninterested and I don't blame them. 2 weeks of inactivity is discouraging and they don't want to put effort into something if it's not going to work out. So instead of getting frustrated, I've found different outlets to help out with. For example, my peers Alyssa and Ali and I began fundraising to purchase soccer balls and equipment for the KRCS youth branch. Currently, there are no soccer balls on the compound and many youth gather here on Sundays to hang out. However, they are lacking many sports equipment, including soccer balls (or footballs as they are called here). The Red Cross compound sits on about 2 acres of land and includes a large field for recreational activities. We hope that by purchasing this equipment we can encourage youth to not only come to the compound to use these new balls but also teach them about personal hygeine and health. This will hopefully translate to leadership in their school and community and encourage them to play sports or be involved with other extracurriculars. I am really excited about this project and even though it is different from my original plan, I feel that I, as well as Alyssa and Ali, am making a lasting impact. Check out the page below. Our goal is currently $1,000 and the site talks more about what we plan to do with the funds we raise.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/krcs-youth-sports-campaign/x/3732592?c=home
Furthermore I have made some goals that I would like see happen during my time here. As I mentioned before, it can be very challenging at times working with an international organization because your schedule and time does not always match theirs. However, I am hoping I can implement 3 of these 6 goals I have made out for myself. I feel that they are attainable in the short (yes, short) time-span I have left here. I am still trying to help out with the HIV/AIDS peer education program as much as I can and hopefully by the time I leave, I have a better outlook on how the Red Cross can improve the program, without my attendance.
Goals in Bungoma:
1) Purchase soccer equipment and hold a tournament
2) Make "public health message" cards for jigger campaign
3) Make flip chart for jigger campaign
4) Create a timeline and calendar for KRCS Bungoma
5) Re-do the international interns brief
6) Needs assessment with KRCS
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