A 90% Thumb's Up

For me, there has never been a more beautiful sentence than the one written by clinicians Jared Mukhola and Jeffrey Simon: "90% of children attending Hamomi Children's Centre are medically fit."

But wait, it goes on: "Nutritional status is excellent, height and weight is good. No child was identified with malnutrition, which is usually very common among under-fives. A number of children seem to have normal seasonal medical problems which are observed daily in normal days of life."

That is not to say everything is perfect. 20 students needed to be referred for dental issues, eye care needs, skin 

conditions and nose bleeds. Care which 
we need to find an affordable option for.

We need to do a better job making sure that kids under five all get their immunizations, we need to ensure that everybody over five receives tetanus shots when necessary, we need to have more health and hygiene workshops. 

Five years ago, we offered nothing. Today we offer an annual check-up, breakfast and lunch six days a week, voluntary counseling and testing workshops on HIV/AIDS, hosting of open dialogue and discussion workshops on a wide range of health topics, access to clean water, a hand-washing station and reusable pads for the girls of age. But we still don't offer so many things.

We will one day, but all we can do is add services here and there as funds allow. That can feel slow and frustrating, but it also leads to sturdy, reliable change. It leads to reports like these that I know aren't a fluke, but are actual reflections of change.

It's all more complicated than a sweeping 90% thumbs up. But for now, for today, for this small moment, I'll take it and be absolutely thrilled.

More Medical-Related Links:

An overall run-down of our Medical Program after our most recent audit in May, 2012, walking through the frustrations and difficulties trying to get even the simplest of free services. 
Read more.

We are already meeting our goals for more hygiene workshops, check out a recent visit from the Dettol mascot...we think he's supposed to be a bar of soap, but really it's really anybody's guess.

Read about an interesting workshop from August on Road Safety. May seem like a strange topic, but it is a very real concern that I feel better knowing we are addressing. 
Read more.

May we not get ahead of ourselves and forget just how complicated this all is, especially after the recent loss of our most beloved matron, Janet Kimuli, who died after giving birth prematurely. Preventable horrors are happening around our staff and students every day. We can't forget that, and we can't let that 90% take our focus away from how much work ahead of us.

-Susie

Giraffes and Elephants and Lizards! Oh my!

Through an incredible and generous donation from the Giraffe Centre, about half of our kids got to visit the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and Giraffe Center to interact with all kinds of animals. The trip provided a bus for transportation and lunch for the whole group. It was a big hit.

The second wave of students took a whirl-wind trip to Mamba Village where they also got to play with wild life. They made a second stop to get some swinging in a childhood carnival ride you might be familiar with.  Check out photos of Hamomi kids on their adventures below!

Quite the view!

Photo-op!

Part of the herd!

Can't wait to get there!

Someone's made some friends.

Watch your fingers!

Break from lunch for a quick hug.

Just two pals hangin' out.

Thumbs up!

Have a good swing, guys!

The kids are clearly enjoying time to goof-off!

Who knew tortoises were so cuddly?

Dettol Soap Hygiene Workshop

 Dettol Soap came and ran a hygeine workshop with our students at Hamomi.  We are always promoting good hygiene practices - what better way to do it than with a giant soap mascot?  Check out some photos from the fun and informative event!

The Luxury of Art

Bryn Mooney shares her experience volunteering at Hamomi and teaching a photography course.

I arrived in Kenya a little weary after 3 months in India and Nepal. However, as soon as I got off the airplane I immediately felt at home. I don’t know what it was about the colors, the people, the energy; it just felt right. 

My second day in Nairobi I took the 4-5 mile walk from my host home to Hamomi. Because they were on vacation, I decided to take the opportunity to travel to the coast. When I returned, still a little disoriented, I was in shock and almost paralyzed by the teachers' willingness to throw me right into a classroom to start my unit. No meetings to go over my material, no game plan, no assistant? I felt a little under-prepared and overwhelmed, but they seemed to have such faith in the face of my doubt. That gave me the courage to embrace it.

I dove into my first class, with grade 7. Wow. They first appeared a bit meek, an attentive class so quiet and tuned in. But, when I pulled out the digital cameras, all I could see were these eyes, like huge beaming saucers, looking back at me. I knew this would be a special and exciting experience.

I wasn’t ready for their total unfamiliarity with an object so “everyday” in our culture. Just finding the shutter button had to be taught, I quickly became aware of how pared back this unit and my lessons would need to become. Another obstacle that I just couldn’t have been prepared for was the students’ unfamiliarity with self-expression, voice, creativity, and thinking outside the box. I think due to the political climate throughout the history of the country, the kids were not as exposed to or encouraged to exercise creative thought.


In Kenya there is a lot of emphasis on 

how to get ahead, or stay afloat, which doesn’t really involve checking in with your personal thoughts, feelings or abstract forms of expression. I really became aware of what a luxury the arts are, and how I may be taking for granted the fact that I got to STUDY art in SCHOOL and MAJOR in art for COLLEGE and now be lucky enough to be TEACHING art for a JOB! Not to mention the superfluous adjacent “creative building models” I had access to in other classes and the ever-present elected “after school activity”.  I quickly understood how it would be a much larger hurdle to jump for these kids as opposed to those in America, who are constantly being fed the American dream, “you can do and be whatever you want to be.” 

Teaching in America, I am used to every kid shouting louder, louder, louder, to make sure their voice or idea is heard. Honestly, sometimes in Kenya it is like pulling teeth to get honest, genuine, and playful kids to imagine and come up with an idea or story someone hadn’t pre-placed in their heads. There was always concern for “correctness”. What never faltered however, was their enthusiasm to shoot images and to capture the life around them. Amongst their favorite things to document were friends and familiar surroundings- their community- the people who support them. Looking back I see how powerful this is.

My experience in Kenya really put into perspective just how raw and important safety and biological needs are. When they aren’t met, how can one be expected to think of abstract things? They are irrelevant. 




By the end of the unit we had finally made it through 5 lessons: Introduction, Learning your Camera, Composition, Concept, Advanced Functions). Finally we were ready to PRINT two images- 1 self portrait and 1 free choice (their best work) thinking about what would best represent them as an artist and what they had learned compositionally through the unit. The giddiness and pride that shown from the students is what I remember as we watched the images emerge from the printer. "Wow!" "Gladys….Ohhhhh!" "Beautiful!" etc.

As a class we were constantly shifting our meeting time, squeezing into lunch hour, laughing, and always, always, always running over on time. I think the donated book, of pop photography was held together by threads when I left from so much use as kids shouted, “Oh! Look at this one!”

We culminated our unit with a final show. Everyone, including, if not specifically the teachers, had a hard time being patient! The excitement to see the work captured on tiny, rectangular, electronic devices came with a long waiting period. Many more kids “helped with lunch” in anticipation and hope of catching an early glimpse of all the work. 

It was brief and displayed on a corrugated metal fence, but there, outside the office, hung 168 beautiful color photos. All work made within 40 days of picking up a camera.

The background information contained within each image was huge: weeks of looking at photos, exploring composition, learning new English vocabulary that had no relevance before this time. These children expanded their boundaries and the growth was drastic. You could see the expressions of pride, joy, and laughter from not only the individuals looking at the fruits of their labor, but also their parents, teachers, and peers. Hamomi students and staff went above and beyond to fit it into the schedule- Thank you!

In hindsight, I may have bitten off a little more than I could chew by trying to reach Class 3 all the way through Class 8, paired with planning 2 visits to nearby High Schools where Hamomi alumni currently study. However, I can most honestly say: “it was all 100% worth every minute!” I can’t wait to see the work being made as the year continues forward and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully one day soon it will be in my future to make it back for round 2.

We look forward to showing some of their work at a showcase here in Seattle this winter or next spring….perhaps keep your eyes peeled at the auction in February!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Hamomi and teachers for shuffling, postponing, supporting and encouraging the kids and me. It truly was a gift to me to be able to teach this unit and get to know such beautiful, loving children.

-Bryn

Meet Anna the Intern

Hello All!

I am the new intern for Hamomi!  I started back in July. I am beyond excited to have joined the Hamomi team and community. A little about me:

I'm originally from Ithaca, NY but spent the last two and a half years at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. I’m double majoring in International Affairs and Human Services – hopefully with a minor in African Studies.  I absolutely LOVE to travel and explore new places and cultures – my most recent adventure landed me in none other than the wonderful Kenya – oddly enough doing a research project unrelated to Hamomi.

So, how did a girl from Upstate New York going to school in Boston end up moving to Seattle to work for a school in Kenya?  Northeastern has a program called Co-op that is sort of a 6-months-on, 6-months-off model.  For 6 months students do internships related to their field of study, and spend the other half of the year taking classes.  While visiting a friend in Seattle last December I was connected with the wonderful Susie Marks and a plan was divulged to potentially create my own Co-op position with Hamomi.  Fast-forward six months….and here I am!

It has been a few months and I would argue that I have the best co-op anyone has ever had.  The entire Hamomi team has been so welcoming and patient in helping me settle into things.  I’m excited to contribute to all of the different projects going on here!

Best,

Anna

The Dangers of Crossing the Street

There are all kinds of horrific headlining causes of death in Kenya, but one of them, the 9th leading cause of death, isn't quite sexy enough to get the response it deserves. There will never be a 'Eureka!' moment in which the cure is discovered, there will never be an overnight solution to this problem and most upsetting: nobody, including myself, can do much to protect themselves from it. The cause of death: road accidents.

In Kenya everybody is subject to all the disastrous outcomes pretty much no matter what. If you ever want to leave your house, cross the street, trust a bus driver to get you somewhere, even drive yourself somewhere, you are putting your life at risk. I became convinced recently that the road accident deaths are significantly higher than the amount reported by the Kenyan government when Sheila Atieno from Youths for

Road Safety - Kenya showed me the official report released and the numbers seemed laughably small just pulling from my own experiences. 

It's easy to explain when many accidents go unreported, leaving the scene of the crime is nowhere near uncommon, police officers are easily bribed, and when people die later of complications, I can't imagine that is recorded very often.

The craziest thing to me is how well the 'cure' is understood. Fix the car-size potholes. Put in street lights. Create more lanes on the highways to make passing cars at 80 miles an hour around blind corners a thing of the past. 

Implement emissions testing so that the trucks/lorries people are forced to pass are not these dinosaurs creeping at 4 miles an hour while spewing exhaust. Institute quotas for 

traffic cops, affordable traffic violation tickets for drivers and a navigable court system so that speeding isn't so accessible and bribing isn't so necessary for all parties. 

But this is not a 'Eureka!' cure. This is bottlenecks wrapped in lobbyists covered in committees all inside an oven of party politics. It would require so much good-will, cross-party handshaking, statistical reporting and follow-up that when I envision how

difficult it would be in America's cluster-Congress, I don't even know how to realistically imagine this campaign's success in Kenya.

That is not to say things aren't slowly getting better. They are. Better roads are a quick, tangible way to appease a constituency for a politician trying to get re-elected. So at least I can say that's happening...

All I keep coming back to is: if these 

things cured HIV/AIDS, you couldn't stop activist groups from implementing them. But for some reason road accidents aren't at the forefront of the development conversation. I could explore how or why, but the truth is, it's just not.

One organization who is taking on this topic. Youths for Road Safety - Kenya (YOURS-K). YOURS-K came down to Hamomi a couple weeks ago and put on an educational workshop 

for Hamomi's students - who are just as at risk as anybody else every time they walk to and from school. I couldn't be there, but all parties reported a great success. YOURS-K posted an album on their Facebook page which you can findhere. These pictures are all ones I've pulled from that album. 

Not only is the content of this workshop incredibly important, I was so impressed with what you can see 

in the pictures: they know how to talk about this to kids. Classroom portion, outdoor portion, activity portion, food. I'm sure the Hamomi students loved it, but beyond that I feel certain it will lead to at least one student taking smart, preventative measures against road hazards, and that makes me feel like Superwoman.

Thank you to YOURS-K. You can find out more about them here. Thanks to Keats Landis for connecting 

Hamomi and YOURS-K and getting me to take on this issue more proactively. You are an inspiration.

All my best,
Susie