Activity Report: 10 laptops in Safe Forums protects over 400 girls in 60 villages.

Safe Forums- Safe Forums were designed to help children:

1.      Monitor and protect girls from FGM during the December- January cutting season in Bukira East Ward, Kuria.

2.      Help children understand more about their rights and how to advocate for them

3.      Stay busy during the school holidays

People involved in the Safe Forums

- Safe Engage Mentors who were facilitating the forums

- Village elders who were mobilizing the children and helping with monitoring

- Boys and girls between 8-18 years who were the participants in the forums

Topics taught during the Forums

-  Self-esteem and Confidence

-  Children Rights and Well being

-  Computer and digital literacy and skills

-  Menstrual hygiene and ending menstrual stigma

- Talents discovery and talent development

- Importance and value of Education

Program Area

60 villages across Bukira East in Migori County 

The villages were classified into 7 clusters referred to as Forums for easy management by the mentors and the village elders.

How the sessions were conducted

Each of the 7 forums was attended and facilitated by mentors 2 days a week.

Every session was attended by 3 mentors whose transport was being facilitated by SEF friends and supporters who gave through Go Fund Me page hosted by our partners Education for Development.

In the Forums, there were champions among the participants who helped the mentors identify which girl was at risk of being taken for the cut and these cases were referred for rescue. If the girl’s parents were receptive the mentor would visit with the village elders who were being facilitated by our partners, The Five Foundation, to talk with the parents on why they should not subject the girls to FGM and the parents would agree and send the girls for the village forums in the said days.

But if the parents were not ready to sit and dialogue then, the village elders through the chief and the police officers would plan to rescue the girl from the home, which then the children officer would be involved in ensuring that they summon the parent for further engagement as the girls were being taken care of and protected at Safe Engage Foundation’s Safe space.

No of children reached during the Forums

A total of 582 children aged 8 years to 18 years were engaged.

493 being girls and 89 boys.

Many girls attended as boys were going for circumcision and we aimed to protect girls from FGM during the circumcision season.

Most of the boys that attended the sessions were confessing that they do not want to go for traditional circumcision but they wanted their parents to take them for circumcision in the hospitals.

This means that they understand the health implications at the traditional grounds as it is not hygienic and they do not use medicine to numb their pain which leads to psychological trauma and physical pain for the boys.

Impact seen from the 7 Safe forums

1.      As the sessions progressed the mentors witnessed a higher turnout of children than originally expected.

In the community, for the longest time, many organization including Safe Engage Foundation have been fearing to conduct end FGM sessions and forums in the community during the cutting season. The fear has been because many community members are always very hostile during the season and they can attack people during a session. As they always walk with pangas and Machetes.

There was such an incident back in 2011.

When we were planning for these session and calling it a safe space for children to come and learn from each other and stay busy throughout the holiday period, we had in mind that if we told parents that children were coming to learn more about ending FGM and how we can help protect them, this would be something they would not have allowed their children to participate in.

We had just received donation of 10 laptops from Mr. Dee Atkins a friend and big supporter of Safe Engage Foundation’s Programs, we thought it wise to use these computers to engage Children.

We informed parents that we were going to help their children learn what a computer is and how to use them during the holiday season.

This message was very well received by both parents and the children.

Many boys and girls have never seen nor touched a laptop and for them it was a very exciting experience and they turned up for the session and told their friends too to join.

Many children who started completed the sessions as they were heard saying they can’t miss computer lesson.

We realized there is big need and urge for computer lessons and digital literacy not only for children but also for youths in the community.

2.      Over 490 girls were protected from FGM during the cutting season while engaged at their homes and villages.

Many girls kept coming for the sessions and when they had a one on one sessions with the mentors, they shared how they would have gone for FGM were it not for the safe forums they were attending twice a week.

Some of them shared how their parents had asked them to visit their grandmothers so they can have the cut done to them but they refused by saying they can’t go visiting and leave computer sessions ongoing.

Some girls had an opportunity to report the cases of parents planning for them to be cut at home and when they shared with the mentors during the forums, the mentors informed the village elders and the chiefs who visited the homes of the parents and warned them against taking their daughters for the cut.

3.      All the Children who were involved learned and developed their different talents i.e playing football and showcasing dribbling skills, rope skipping, drawing, molding, modelling, singing, rapping and dancing.

Over 175 children who had identified their talents used their voices and skills in an innovative way to send out end Violence and end FGM messages during the Art to End FGM program day as we finalized the Safe forums.

From this Art to end FGM program, the winner of the Little Miss Anti-FGM tittle in the modeling category was able to profile her story in which she had dropped out of school 1 year ago and was being forced to go for FGM and then married of by her foster father. She was rescued to Safe Engage Foundation Safe space through the space is where she got mentored to embrace her modeling talent, through this she got a well-wisher who is going to support her school fees.

Secondly, a girl who emerged the winner in the journalist category, was awarded an opportunity to be a co-host in a local radio station during the children radio session on Saturdays.

Also 2 boys and 1 girl in the drawing categories got their pieces bought by guests who graced the day.

All the 175 participants received back to school packages of books and pens from our friends and supporters WHO lives.

4.      Throughout the engagement most of the participants gained confidence and were able to showcase their talents and express themselves.

5.      During the sessions in understanding menstrual hygiene and sanitation, many girls shared that their parents are not able to support them with period pads and some ended up missing sessions during the days they were menstruating, this informed the distribution of sanitary pads and over 111 girls were supported with period pads and panties.

6.      During the one on one engagements with the children, it was identified that 3 boys had dropped out of school due to child labor and drug abuse, boys were counseled by the mentors and by the end of the Safe space program, the boys had agreed to go back to school.

7.      Increased Knowledge of computer knowledge among children in Bukira East ward. The Children who were engaged, now know what a laptop is, how to power on and off and how to interact with the basic application such as word, and excel.

Lessons Learnt and Way Forward

1.      Safe Engage Foundation learnt that children and youths need to learn more about computer literacy and this need to go beyond just basic computer packages to more complex way of using a computer to design and execute programs that will be helpful in the community. Thus need to help them learn Programming and coding.

2.      Children know their rights and they can speak about them they need to be given a platform to advocate for their rights to be upheld by the rights holders. This year Safe Engage Foundation will be advocating for children representatives to be included in Area Advisory Council and take part in active advocacy to ensure that Child Protection Policy is developed and adopted in Migori County for better implementation of the  Kenya 2022 Children’s Act

3.      More activities and forums for children need to be incorporated during holiday seasons going forward as many children were sharing how useful they have been able to spend their holiday as they learn and develop. This helped to protect them from harmful practices.

This means Safe Engage Foundation will need to source for more funding to keep the Safe spaces for children running through all the school holidays and source for more playing items and activities that help children nurture and develop their talents.

4.      Parents and caretakers need to be sensitized more to protect children against harm and violence.