First day of training goes sawa sawa, very fine!

Habari! 

 

I conducted our first day of TB Photovoice training yesterday and today the trainees are out in the community taking photos of things that represent their community.  Tomorrow we will discuss the photos and listen to the intent of the trainee for several of the photos they took.  They then will identify themes amoung the them, then move to narrowing our focus on issues that have come to the surface regarding the interaction of the wider community and TB.  The trainees are looking to implement photovoice with a group of 15 women in Nakuru as early as next week.  I am so impressed with the insight and compassion of the trainees.  They understand the importance of truly listening to the women in the Nakuru group and are excited to hear their perspectives.  Tomorrow's session is going to bring photovoice alive as the trainees share their photos and begin to see how this process begins to take form.

 

For training purposes, we brought single use cameras from the States.  There is no problem developing the film, but this type of camera is not an option to use with the Nakuru group as this type of camera is history in Kenya!  The TB ACTION Group will brainstorm how best to provide digital cameras to the Nakuru group, since they are costly.  Options they are considering are sharing cameras, decreasing the number of participants, and I am sure other ideas will come forward in the next day or so.  Since they are not worried about this, neither am I!  I am confident it will fall into place.  Hakuna matata!

 

Since in TB Photovoice, we look to see the broader picture of TB in terms of how a persons relates to their family and community, I have found the issue of schools particularly of interest while I have been here.  The public schools here in Kenya were supposed to start yesterday.  Yet over the weekend, the teachers' union members were out on the streets protesting the fact that the schools are overcrowded.  Thus, the teachers are now on strike and are standing firm.  An inadequate number of teachers have been hired to accomodate the number of students attending school.  There seems to be overwhelming support for the teachers since it is obvious to Kenyans that effective learning can not take place for children when there are more than 100 students in class.  The teachers are demanding that 28,000 teachers need to be hired to adequately provide instruction for their students.  The biggest grievence  is the apparent last minute diversion of money  which was supposed to have been set aside for hiring teachers.  Instead it went to the military. Speaking to people in the community, they are in support of the teachers. For now, children are being kept home, with the impact already being felt in the business  and transportation community as families have decided to wait until the strike is over to purchase necessities for the school year and to transport their children to boarding schools.