“When I say STOP, you say POVERTY!”
We finally arrived in Nairobi on Friday after spending a total of 26 hours sitting in a bus spread out over 3 days of travelling. Ugh.
Now, why are we back in Kenya? The reason we’ve spent the past week in Nairobi is to work with a campaign that was initiated by Norway’s YWCA-YMCA, called “Stop Poverty”. We’re going to campaign for this cause and go on an information tour around Kenya and Tanzania the next three weeks.
By the way, “we” is not only us four in the Tanzania team. We’ve met up with the 8 CfCers in Kenya, as well as another group called YPP – Young Peace Performers. They’re also on an exchange program, and their group includes people from Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Zambia and Sri Lanka. That makes us a total of 23 energetic and passionate young people, who are ready to visit many schools and youth groups on this “Stop Poverty tour”. (I can’t believe a week has already passed! We’re such a family!)
Keeping in mind how complex the problem of poverty is, the challenge has been: What is the most effective way to inform, engage, and invite young people to join? Entertain them, duh!
So what we’ve been working on is to make a show! It includes dancing, singing, role play, video clips and of course information about the campaign, how to join and what one can do to fight poverty in one’s local community. I must say that I’m so impressed with how well the show has come together in just a few days of planning and rehearsing. We had our first performance today, for representatives of FK Norway (The Norwegian Peace Corps) as well as board members of Nairobi YMCA and YWCA. The past few days have been intense, which is proved by the fact that by 10 PM most of us are in bed, but it has been worth it. The performance went great!
Tomorrow is the first official day of our tour, so we’re putting on our “Stop Poverty” campaign t-shirts and performing our show twice, at two different places here in Nairobi. Wish us luck!
