So this chapter will be about our project – what I think how it went, about leadership and work/service relations, etc. I also had searched some excerpts from my travel journal describing how our view of the project changed, but finally I decided not to copy these here. Anyway it would be mostly repeating myself.
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First and foremost I have to say that actually we were already warned in the training in Estonia, that probably things will not be as they were proposed and written in project description. I guess we all also knew that at some point we would be disappointed because we are not doing enough. It always happens so, and yes; we had to go through such crises. Some of us even left before the right time because of that reason. Even many local colleagues. But still, I find that project was in the end successful. Sure we had some problems until the end, and we could have done more, but no one can expect that we had to save the world or even turn suddenly ideology and traditions of entire people. Kenya is still in many ways backwards country, but they have freedom to choose their own path and pace for development. We can only hope to share some ideas. If they use it, is absolutely their own choice. We also shouldn’t be propaganda makers but more like good parent who has raised up the child in his/her guard, but at some point introduces different possibilities in the world and lets the child go on its own.
For EVS, important is not only the impact on local target group, but also what we, volunteers, learn in that time. Certainly they can’t hope that these projects are intensively packed with activities from the beginning to the end. In other cultures, it is simply not common to be so busy as we are in Europe. And basically as this organization that hosted us, did it first time, then in my opinion it is quite acceptable that things tend to fail from time to time. Yet then they also should learn from failures. Sometimes they did learn, but some bad things happened again and again. But before going to certain failures and successes, I think it would be in right place to write again some facts about our initial mission and arrangements. Just to make things clear and offer knowledge to people who are also thinking about going as a volunteer to other countries.
-
First and foremost I have to say that actually we were already warned in the training in Estonia, that probably things will not be as they were proposed and written in project description. I guess we all also knew that at some point we would be disappointed because we are not doing enough. It always happens so, and yes; we had to go through such crises. Some of us even left before the right time because of that reason. Even many local colleagues. But still, I find that project was in the end successful. Sure we had some problems until the end, and we could have done more, but no one can expect that we had to save the world or even turn suddenly ideology and traditions of entire people. Kenya is still in many ways backwards country, but they have freedom to choose their own path and pace for development. We can only hope to share some ideas. If they use it, is absolutely their own choice. We also shouldn’t be propaganda makers but more like good parent who has raised up the child in his/her guard, but at some point introduces different possibilities in the world and lets the child go on its own.
For EVS, important is not only the impact on local target group, but also what we, volunteers, learn in that time. Certainly they can’t hope that these projects are intensively packed with activities from the beginning to the end. In other cultures, it is simply not common to be so busy as we are in Europe. And basically as this organization that hosted us, did it first time, then in my opinion it is quite acceptable that things tend to fail from time to time. Yet then they also should learn from failures. Sometimes they did learn, but some bad things happened again and again. But before going to certain failures and successes, I think it would be in right place to write again some facts about our initial mission and arrangements. Just to make things clear and offer knowledge to people who are also thinking about going as a volunteer to other countries.
-
To make also all involved organizations happy, I also repeat all their names. Our project was funded by European Commission Youth In Action Doors program, coordinated by Estonian non-profit organization Continuous Action and hosted by Kenya Community Sports Foundation (KESOFO), last of these are trying to make some social changes in Kenya through sports. Project name was “Let the girls play”. So our main interest was raising gender equality and promoting women activeness in society, or well, realistically just to inform people, both men and women, about gender issues and different views to it. Other objectives included HIV/AIDS prevention awareness work and also some environmental awareness educating. Also KESOFO visibility project that meant creating of web page for them. And basically on the way my art workshops and wall painting with local group known as Youth Art Research Centre who tried to reduce unemployment among local youth through art and environmental work; and break dance lessons from Love and some sport projects of Mykolas and Carlos were added. Informal part was then of course all the cultural exchange/learning and actually all other experiences and knowledge we got throughout this service.
It was very unique project as KESOFO invited altogether ten young boys and girls from age 18-30, with very different backgrounds, skills and ideas to work with them. All the activities, all spendings for our living place, our transport, food, very good health insurance from company named AXA, and also little pocket money was from EU, European Commission. Most of that was given to KESOFO. At first only our pocket money came straight to our bank accounts. But over time, when problems of managing the money by KESOFO started occurring, also our food money was given straight to us. Before going we though had to pay small amount of guarantee money that later was given back to us. It was needed to ensure that we wouldn’t change our mind after the plane tickets will be bought.
European Commission Youth In Action programme:
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/doc82_en.htm
Continuous Action web page: http://www.continuousaction.ee/?mid=1
Doors program information: http://www.continuousaction.ee/?mid=116
KESOFO in Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/KESOFO/105672582801594
KESOFO web page: http://www.kesofo.org/
From the minus side I can say that KESOFO was very badly prepared for such kind of project and actually it seems that African people quite generally are too ambitious, creating plans they really can’t fulfil. Second thing as already said was about managing money and accounting by KESOFO. These problems were the mother and father of all other, smaller problems. If I’m really honest then I would suggest that if you are doing something with Africans, then never trust them, but hold your own eye on things. Learn how things are organized; ask about spendings and details for plans. Of course there may also be other kind of problems and when locals think that you are too nosy or taking too many things under your control, then they may also lose trust on you or even feel assaulted, but limited control over things is necessary. If you don’t hold your eye on monetary things then it is possible that they try to exploit the situation. Usually when you show that you are strong at managing things and interested of mutual business, then they grow to respect you. And even when conflicts arise then every such thing teaches you limits and how to avoid offending them next time. It is nothing weird in Africa that ambitious men try to use every opportunity and try to escape problems simply with charisma and skill of persuasion. But they do such bag of tricks when you are weak.
That is how things were with our project. Local leader was bad organizer. We also had quite good proof that he often lied to us. He didn’t have proper accounting and so it was that project money mysteriously disappeared until we started bombarding him with questions and writing down all the plans and spendings on our own.
Neither was better the second man in hierarchy. Actually this man I liked even less, as he had some personal traits and ideology that didn’t fit at all into the project. He wasn’t only liar and bad organizer, but also greatest chauvinist I have ever seen. As I took our main aim to dwarf such behaviours towards women as this man often did, very seriously, then clash between me and him was quite personal and much more clear than any other conflict. And when I tried to explain that I don’t hate him just without reason, but because he is basically making our message null and void by stepping on gender equality, basic human rights and dignity of other people, then he just started protecting himself and it came quite clear that even if he understood what I meant, then he didn’t want to change his actions. Truth to be said, inside KESOFO I saw much more opposition, greatest bafflement about what we tried to do there and greatest lack of interest to learn, develop and work with us, than anywhere else. General population was very interested about everything connected to us, and of course also about learning from us then. Most of the people was much more understanding about our message. Anyway, there were two causes for this problem. Most KESOFO so called volunteers were gathered only little time before the start of our project and as we finally found out, they had little or none understanding of our greater goals. Secondly, as money ran thin, all the governing of the organization and project started to seem ridiculous and these so called KESOFO volunteers didn’t get paid what was promised to them, then they simply lost all the motivation. Their motivation was destroyed even worse than ours. And worst thing is that even those of them who were very close to us in the beginning and helping in every way they could, turned also serious and were rarely seen.
Ok, but not all was bad. I still saw that our actions had some desired effect. I met some people who were very enthusiastic and happy to work with us or listen what we have to say even when we told that we have no means to support them with money or footballs or whatever materials. I saw some women who finally found a place where to say out what they think about their situation in Kenya, eyes filled with security that they often don’t have. Some schoolgirls with whom I talked about gender equality, the reality in Kenya and possibilities to fight for better future, showed their intelligence and will to talk along in questions concerning their whole society. Actually it seemed that changes in their society towards more righteous and liberal living standards are anyway happening. It may take many generations, but finally Kenyan women will learn how to protect themselves, how to be more powerful and acquire their equal part in the family beside men. Probably over time also corruption and poverty will diminish, giving way to balanced society.
Our second goal, HIV/AIDS education, although as important as the first goal, was harder to work on and harder was to see impact we did. It actually seems that people in Kenya know quite a lot about HIV and about protecting themselves from it, yet at the same time HIV still spreads with alarming rate. So here must be some hidden factor. We can’t underemphasize culturally unique situations and common legends that sometimes make people to look past all the knowledge and simply set themselves into the risk. It is hard to make people to abandon the regular ways of life and doing things with what people are used to (for example that because of bad economical situation and fact that there is much more women than men in society, many men have mistresses or as locals say, spare wheels). But over time also came to me that their sexual education and family/life planning is if not absolutely taboo, then very primitive. No one usually speaks about different life decisions concerning sexual life and various possible results – not family, not in school, not in wider channels by community and institutions. That is what we can do. With straightforward talk and setting them to face the serious facts, we can show that such things cannot be taboos. They simply have to choose proper methods to educate youth about such things. But still, our program about HIV/AIDS prevention changed surely much more than other things. Problem wasn’t that we wouldn’t have known what to teach. We had a lot of knowledge about the matter. Carlos was practically an expert and also I knew a lot about it. Also as many of us were professional social workers or had a grade in education, then problem wasn’t that we wouldn’t have known methods. Simply it was hard to get close to people, to open them. At first it was even hard to find out how much they actually know, next problem was to talk about things that in this culture often still cause uncomfortable feelings. In the beginning surely great deal of local reality, the true nature of the problems, simply escaped our attention or understanding, but I think that in the end we did even better job than we believed to be able. In the end we had quite powerful program that didn’t cause cultural conflict and really made young people to be interested of that. Of course we also talked on these matters with our personal contacts – friends, co-workers, other acquaintances and in some cases even with more close people than just friends – in what case it was certainly much easier to reach them, and it was much more personal and effective. Even if we did impact on these few, then I believe it was already enough reason for us to be there.
About ecological work I will write separately. KESOFO visibility project manifests itself in Internet and I already added links above. I think our art and dance projects acted as something that generates interest to these arts that basically are absent in Africa, but would be very important for cultural development; also call young people to be engaged more in things that are mostly for themselves, creating therefore more active and self understanding generation. I hope we were a little bit as role models to these young people. By the way, I believe that arts are the key factor for creating a society where people are not out only for profit, competing each other, but who will find a way to good values, diverse personality, good education and honest relations with others and whole world.
-
To make also all involved organizations happy, I also repeat all their names. Our project was funded by European Commission Youth In Action Doors program, coordinated by Estonian non-profit organization Continuous Action and hosted by Kenya Community Sports Foundation (KESOFO), last of these are trying to make some social changes in Kenya through sports. Project name was “Let the girls play”. So our main interest was raising gender equality and promoting women activeness in society, or well, realistically just to inform people, both men and women, about gender issues and different views to it. Other objectives included HIV/AIDS prevention awareness work and also some environmental awareness educating. Also KESOFO visibility project that meant creating of web page for them. And basically on the way my art workshops and wall painting with local group known as Youth Art Research Centre who tried to reduce unemployment among local youth through art and environmental work; and break dance lessons from Love and some sport projects of Mykolas and Carlos were added. Informal part was then of course all the cultural exchange/learning and actually all other experiences and knowledge we got throughout this service.
It was very unique project as KESOFO invited altogether ten young boys and girls from age 18-30, with very different backgrounds, skills and ideas to work with them. All the activities, all spendings for our living place, our transport, food, very good health insurance from company named AXA, and also little pocket money was from EU, European Commission. Most of that was given to KESOFO. At first only our pocket money came straight to our bank accounts. But over time, when problems of managing the money by KESOFO started occurring, also our food money was given straight to us. Before going we though had to pay small amount of guarantee money that later was given back to us. It was needed to ensure that we wouldn’t change our mind after the plane tickets will be bought.
European Commission Youth In Action programme:
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/doc82_en.htm
Continuous Action web page: http://www.continuousaction.ee/?mid=1
Doors program information: http://www.continuousaction.ee/?mid=116
KESOFO in Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/KESOFO/105672582801594
KESOFO web page: http://www.kesofo.org/
From the minus side I can say that KESOFO was very badly prepared for such kind of project and actually it seems that African people quite generally are too ambitious, creating plans they really can’t fulfil. Second thing as already said was about managing money and accounting by KESOFO. These problems were the mother and father of all other, smaller problems. If I’m really honest then I would suggest that if you are doing something with Africans, then never trust them, but hold your own eye on things. Learn how things are organized; ask about spendings and details for plans. Of course there may also be other kind of problems and when locals think that you are too nosy or taking too many things under your control, then they may also lose trust on you or even feel assaulted, but limited control over things is necessary. If you don’t hold your eye on monetary things then it is possible that they try to exploit the situation. Usually when you show that you are strong at managing things and interested of mutual business, then they grow to respect you. And even when conflicts arise then every such thing teaches you limits and how to avoid offending them next time. It is nothing weird in Africa that ambitious men try to use every opportunity and try to escape problems simply with charisma and skill of persuasion. But they do such bag of tricks when you are weak.
That is how things were with our project. Local leader was bad organizer. We also had quite good proof that he often lied to us. He didn’t have proper accounting and so it was that project money mysteriously disappeared until we started bombarding him with questions and writing down all the plans and spendings on our own.
Neither was better the second man in hierarchy. Actually this man I liked even less, as he had some personal traits and ideology that didn’t fit at all into the project. He wasn’t only liar and bad organizer, but also greatest chauvinist I have ever seen. As I took our main aim to dwarf such behaviours towards women as this man often did, very seriously, then clash between me and him was quite personal and much more clear than any other conflict. And when I tried to explain that I don’t hate him just without reason, but because he is basically making our message null and void by stepping on gender equality, basic human rights and dignity of other people, then he just started protecting himself and it came quite clear that even if he understood what I meant, then he didn’t want to change his actions. Truth to be said, inside KESOFO I saw much more opposition, greatest bafflement about what we tried to do there and greatest lack of interest to learn, develop and work with us, than anywhere else. General population was very interested about everything connected to us, and of course also about learning from us then. Most of the people was much more understanding about our message. Anyway, there were two causes for this problem. Most KESOFO so called volunteers were gathered only little time before the start of our project and as we finally found out, they had little or none understanding of our greater goals. Secondly, as money ran thin, all the governing of the organization and project started to seem ridiculous and these so called KESOFO volunteers didn’t get paid what was promised to them, then they simply lost all the motivation. Their motivation was destroyed even worse than ours. And worst thing is that even those of them who were very close to us in the beginning and helping in every way they could, turned also serious and were rarely seen.
Ok, but not all was bad. I still saw that our actions had some desired effect. I met some people who were very enthusiastic and happy to work with us or listen what we have to say even when we told that we have no means to support them with money or footballs or whatever materials. I saw some women who finally found a place where to say out what they think about their situation in Kenya, eyes filled with security that they often don’t have. Some schoolgirls with whom I talked about gender equality, the reality in Kenya and possibilities to fight for better future, showed their intelligence and will to talk along in questions concerning their whole society. Actually it seemed that changes in their society towards more righteous and liberal living standards are anyway happening. It may take many generations, but finally Kenyan women will learn how to protect themselves, how to be more powerful and acquire their equal part in the family beside men. Probably over time also corruption and poverty will diminish, giving way to balanced society.
Our second goal, HIV/AIDS education, although as important as the first goal, was harder to work on and harder was to see impact we did. It actually seems that people in Kenya know quite a lot about HIV and about protecting themselves from it, yet at the same time HIV still spreads with alarming rate. So here must be some hidden factor. We can’t underemphasize culturally unique situations and common legends that sometimes make people to look past all the knowledge and simply set themselves into the risk. It is hard to make people to abandon the regular ways of life and doing things with what people are used to (for example that because of bad economical situation and fact that there is much more women than men in society, many men have mistresses or as locals say, spare wheels). But over time also came to me that their sexual education and family/life planning is if not absolutely taboo, then very primitive. No one usually speaks about different life decisions concerning sexual life and various possible results – not family, not in school, not in wider channels by community and institutions. That is what we can do. With straightforward talk and setting them to face the serious facts, we can show that such things cannot be taboos. They simply have to choose proper methods to educate youth about such things. But still, our program about HIV/AIDS prevention changed surely much more than other things. Problem wasn’t that we wouldn’t have known what to teach. We had a lot of knowledge about the matter. Carlos was practically an expert and also I knew a lot about it. Also as many of us were professional social workers or had a grade in education, then problem wasn’t that we wouldn’t have known methods. Simply it was hard to get close to people, to open them. At first it was even hard to find out how much they actually know, next problem was to talk about things that in this culture often still cause uncomfortable feelings. In the beginning surely great deal of local reality, the true nature of the problems, simply escaped our attention or understanding, but I think that in the end we did even better job than we believed to be able. In the end we had quite powerful program that didn’t cause cultural conflict and really made young people to be interested of that. Of course we also talked on these matters with our personal contacts – friends, co-workers, other acquaintances and in some cases even with more close people than just friends – in what case it was certainly much easier to reach them, and it was much more personal and effective. Even if we did impact on these few, then I believe it was already enough reason for us to be there.
About ecological work I will write separately. KESOFO visibility project manifests itself in Internet and I already added links above. I think our art and dance projects acted as something that generates interest to these arts that basically are absent in Africa, but would be very important for cultural development; also call young people to be engaged more in things that are mostly for themselves, creating therefore more active and self understanding generation. I hope we were a little bit as role models to these young people. By the way, I believe that arts are the key factor for creating a society where people are not out only for profit, competing each other, but who will find a way to good values, diverse personality, good education and honest relations with others and whole world.
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But like I already said, we didn’t go to Kenya to do service only to the world and humanity. We also were sent there to develop ourselves and then perhaps teach others what we learned. I’m quite sure that none of us would argue if I say that actually impact of our stay there was greatest on ourselves. In this chapter I’m not writing specifically what we learned about Kenya, people and culture, I even plan to dedicate a separate chapter for my personal relations and another one just comes about me. But anyway, I just say now, that for us, being half a year in Kenya was like intensive course about human nature, life and crazy, crazy world. Course; or sometimes it also seemed like social experiment bringing out all sides of us, setting us to different tryouts and looking what comes out of all this. It was pretty extreme.
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