Finding myself again;A recovering addicts journey to sobriety

While 90% of drug users in Kenya are male, there lies an undergrowth of young women -as  young as 14 years-addicted to hard drugs. As I found out speaking to three women from Kisauni,Mombasa, life under the influence is twice as hard for a female than a male. Their sad  accounts tell of wounded souls -robbed of the natural gift of care, motherhood and family.

One day while wasting away in prison following a police sweep, I told myself if you don’t stop this SD, you are going to hell,” SD recalled. 

“I have been using cocaine and heroin for 15 years since i was 14,when i ran away from home to the city. I took drugs to forget my problems. I had no money, food nor shelter. I would sleep at an abandoned building together with other street children, there smoking bhang, cocaine and heroin was the only recreational activity we had.

"Months later" She went on to say, "i met a white man and moved to Ukunda hoping to leave everything behind and start a new life, but the addiction came with me. My dependency was so high that I sold almost all our property to buy drugs when my boyfriend was out of the country, eventually he left me. Right now I have nothing except the clothes I have on me”, explained the 28 year old gesturing at her clothes.

 “Heroine is expensive. An eighth of a tea spoon goes for Ksh 200 and a regular addict needs at least 4 fixes in a day. I had no choice but to do anything in my power to get a dosage.” she continued.

Chichi 32, also a recovering addict, recounts how she dropped out of school the second day she sniffed cocaine. “i started using bhang in primary school then later on a boyfriend who has since passed away, introduced me to heroine. At the time it felt wonderful, one shot would take you to the high heavens. With time i started craving for more dosage, i higher fix. I stopped school because i could not concentrate anymore; all I thought of was where I was going to get money for my next fix”. 

As her life in drugs grew geometrically, Chichi ran free to do anything to get her fixes. “I could do anything for drugs, including stealing money and property from my parents and neighbours’.” Chichi actions led to rejection by her family. "My own mother told me to go die in the streets like a dog-that i was better off 6 feet under, she had had enough of me." 

She was told never to be home until she was off drugs. “I hope I will be able to go back home someday,” 

Amina, a college graduate brings a reality of Kenyans skilled workforce enslaved to drug addiction. “I smoked bhang with my classmates after school. Slowly and steadily, we began taking heroine. I ran away from home to the streets when my parents discovered the new me. I also feared the idea of being taken to a rehabilitation centre; I was scared for my image. In the streets I had to sometimes sell sex to get money for my fixes”, it was terrible said the 26 year old.

According to the three, there are many female drug addicts out there especially from Kisauni region of Mombasa, they  want a way out, but the will power and support to take that grand step to get away from drugs.

The turning point…

One fact is clear, the trio desired to rebuild their lives. I saw a self-driven action point…I wonder how many can do that out there. I quickly learnt that they had been exposed to information and one-on-one messaging through outreach activities. These activities cut across community mobilization through magnet theatre, and counselling and testing.

 Chichi, SD and Amina narrate how they begged MEWA rehabilitation centre  to take them in after outreach workers from the center  visited them in prison under the Narcotic anonymous program. The center provides detoxification services, food and shelter for both female and male recovering addicts.

“Drugs are everywhere today. Earlier, you had to go up to Mtwapa and Ukunda to get some. I am not sure if we can stop it from getting into our country. I beacon the government and well-wishers  to continue with awareness creation on effects of drug abuse and establish  more free rehabilitation centre’s  Believe me, many addicts want to change but cannot afford the services,” said SD.

As i leave ,i advice the three who have been complaining throughout the interview of being broke and having no source of income  to start a female support group for addicts with a vision of awareness creation, behaviour change and support to female addicts still enslaved to drugs.

We will call it "Women out of drugs" yells SD

I hope they do.

 Note: names have been changed to protect identities

How to Develop a Social Media Strategy, Not a Bunch of Tactics

A lot of “how to” posts about social media offer insights on how to conform to community values, how to save you time, how to save you money, or best social media practices. These posts focus on tactics: plans for promoting a desired result. Tactics are actions supporting a strategy.

In this post, I’m going to break with convention and discuss strategy: what attributes are specific to it, and what tools may help to develop a social media strategy.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu

SWOT Analysis

Tactics and strategy are military in origin, but their business application is quite similar. In an Army Operations Order, for example, the first paragraph is called the “situation” and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of an enemy much like a business might conduct a SWOT analysis (SWOT = strengths weaknesses-opportunities-threats). It further recognizes any additional resources available similar to a business budget.

Through the process of a social media SWOT analysis, you might find that one of your strengths is that you have 1000 Facebook fans. But, one of your weaknesses would be that it costs $X per post to reach them. You may use the Facebook ad planner, Twitter’s ad planner, or one of many others to zero in on the reachable target audience on these platforms. SimplyMeasured offers a great complement of competitor social media reports to inform the SWOT process, and for Twitter specific research TweetArchivist is a great tool that you can use for free on their website. The point is that you should understand your resources and competition thoroughly prior to planning anything.

It’s also important to understand what these channels are capable of and what they’re aren’t. Rand Fishkin wrote a guest post in the Wall Street Journal blog recently where he discussed strategy and tactics. Here’s what we had to say about conversion:

“Do not expect social media traffic to have high conversion rates. Social browsing is a very different activity from search.”

There are other very reputable studies such as Forrester’s Purchase Path of Online Buyers that substantiate Fishkin’s point.

Developing a Strategy

Once you have a good sense of your organic resources and your competitor’s social presence, you may be ready to develop a strategy.

In an Army Operations Order, the second paragraph is the mission. The mission contains the who, what, when, where and why – in other words: the strategy. Everything else in an Army Op Order details the tactics to accomplish the mission, and that’s how your strategy should work. Your social media activities should contribute to the success of a strategy. For example, Jim using ManageFlitter to grow a Twitter following isn’t a strategy, or if it is it’s a pretty pointless one.

But it might be a completely appropriate tactic to support the company’s strategy for Jim to increase year-over-year revenue by 5% in the Greater Cincinnati area.

One of the best recent examples of developing a social media strategy is the shipping company Maersk Line. They worked with McKinsey to benchmark other people’s successes (here is the McKinsey report they used as a baseline). They worked with highly regarded social media strategist Jay Baer to on-board their employees. And they zeroed in on four areas of emphasis (communications, customer service, sales, and internal), utilizing ten social platforms. In two years, they’ve created one of the most admired B2B social media properties in the world. They utilized tactics to support four strategies, some that weren’t exclusive to social-media.

Another example of a well-developed social media strategy was Walmart’s campaign to “share corporate news and build public goodwill by sharing information about how Walmart is helping society.” With the goal of reputation management, for low costs, Walmart achieved a battery of impressive KPIs around communicating Walmart’s philanthropic work.

Incidentally, one of the many cool apps that Vocus offers (for free) is a strategy tool that helps to develop a social media strategy and determine the appropriate channels and tactics to achieve strategic goals. There are plenty of similar tools, all with the caveat that you get out of it what you put into it. Research is crucial.

VIA-vocus.com

Breaking chains!

President Kenyatta's declaration of an all-out war against drug peddling and abuse comes as a ray of hope in Country that has seen an upsurge in substance abuse in recent years. NACADA reports 5.5% of Kenyans are addicted to alcohol(could be much more),0.1% are injecting drug users and 1.2% use marijuana/bhang.

While the government comes in at  a time when situation is a national disaster,communities have been using limited skills and  resources to  address the same and set their  communities free from its disastrous effects.Here is one such story from Taveta-Kenya. 

Nancy* started smoking bhang at the tender age of 10.By the time she was 17, she could have more than 6 sticks of the illegal drug a day.

 She belonged to a feared gang of idlers who roamed the streets of Taveta –getting high all day and partied all night moving from one club to another in Kenya and Tanzania-across the border.

                                                                         

 On several occasions she got into brutal fights with other gangs and people who dared challenge them, they were untouchables. At times, she had to prostitute to get money to buy drugs and alcohol.

Looking back now, Nancy dreads the life she lived. At 19,a reformed addict  and  a tailoring student in a boutique in Taveta, she realizes she could have easily have either contracted HIV, ended up in prison or even died from the effects of that risky life.

  When her father died, her unemployed mother could not afford to school her and five younger siblings, let alone feed and clothe them .As a result of idleness, Nancy made the wrong friends and ended up in a gang.

“I joined the gang because I knew no other life. I loved them as they offered me free food, bhang and friendship which I lacked at home,” said Nancy.

Her turning point came in 2010 at an event in the town’s main square. After watching a play by KULOSHA, a local youth group educating the audience on positive behavior change, she was not only impressed by their positive message but also the impact her age-mates were making such impact in the society and their good conduct. Two months later, she left her gang and joined the group, a decision she is yet to regret.

Meaning ‘teaching’ in Taveta language, KULOSHA is a CBO formed in 2007 by local youth. Through donor funding, the group has successfully championed Behavior change  initiatives through Magnet theatre and small group discussion sessions to encourage in-and-out of school youth to desist from drug abuse, illegal good trafficking across the border and prostitution, vices common place in the border town and whose quick money lures many youth out of school.

With proceeds from their account , the group  sponsored Nancy to a six month tailoring course and still  intend to buy her a sewing machine to kick start a business after completion.

 “We decided to sponsor the training to enable Nancy earn an income instead of depending on the group. That way she will have no reason to go back to the gang” Explained the group chairman. 

                                 

                                        

Similarly, the group is now a key stakeholder in the community working closely with the Ministry of health, local administration, NGOs and is recognized key decision makers in their community. They have started profitable income generating activities enabling them give loans to not only group members but also other parties.   Due to their positive influence, like minded youth CBO’s have been formed and are slowly helping young people find direction in their lives.

“I look forward to a better future now, KULOSHA has really changed me. I am glad I decided to change as seeing my transition many of my former peers have left the gang and are rebuilding their lives”, Said an optimistic Nancy.

Names changed to protect identities

New beginnings for Nyambura!

For years Nyambura knew not any other source of income. She started selling sex at the tender age of 16 to feed her poor parents and pay for her secondary education. Immediately after finishing her high school examinations in 2005, she took the first bus to Mombasa-in hope of making it big in sex trade. A friend residing in the city had once told her of how lucrative this business was over there.

In Mombasa, life fell short of her expectations. Instead of making a quick buck and living it big, The 26 year then only 19 years old,  had to put up with a friend who shared her one roomed apartment with six other women-all sex workers-not  to mention the constant harassment from police ,uncooperative clients and fights with other twilight girls sprawling the Sabasaba street-a sex trade haven in Mombasa.

Today, Nyambura-says she is alive because of a decision she made in 2010.That year, she followed a friend to a group meeting in her neighborhood .She liked the discussion as the girls spoke openly about their issues and in the end she got free condoms.

 “My friend asked me to accompany her to one of the sessions. I enjoyed being in their company so I joined them. ” explains Nyambura

Through the group she has been involved in behavior change programs with adequate access to information on HIV and STI prevention, care and treatment services. She learned how to protect herself from disease infection and where to go for treatment. In addition she runs her own home-made soap business from skills she acquired from her peers. Now, Nyambura uses proceeds from her business to fend for her two children-something she is really grateful for.

Since her exposure to health programs, Nyambura works closely with Community health workers and the local administration from her home area  in hygiene and community health sensitization programs. She is now a respected community member.

Although she has not completely stopped sex work, Nyambura is grateful that that she does not rely on it anymore. She distributes condoms to other sex workers and sensitizes them on its proper use and HIV care and treatment services.

 Names have been changed to protect identities

Cleaning the streets!

Crime rates are soaring in  Kenya.From terror attacks in major cities of Nairobi and Mombasa to tribal clashes and banditry in North,Eastern and western parts of the country. Most common  are regular reports of  carjackings, armed robbery. "Snatch and run" crimes in the city  streets...Nobody is safe anymore.However youths in a part of the country are using minimal resources to address the situation.  Below read about a youth group in Nairobi is its own way is reducing rates of crime in the city ...

Even after going  through tough  rehabilitation programs within the confines of prison , Njagi Karume came home to sad realities outside where finding employment and acceptance back to an unforgiving the society  was a major challenge.

“No one would hire me. People feared and did not want to be associated with me because of my history of bad conduct” recalled the 26 year old “when life became unbearable I would steal and use heroine to forget my hopeless life.

Hope came in 2011 when he joined Dagoretti youth welfare association, a local youth group run by his peers that conduct peer education sessions in Kawangware, a low income area riddled with problems of poor drainage and flooding. The group with support from donors,runs a community rehabilitation and detoxification program targeting ex-convicts, Sex workers, drug addicts and street children, offering counselling sessions, Knowledge sharing forums and referrals to health services and a street children feeding project.

 As group member Laboso explains, their most outstanding outreach has to be their income generating project which has become a life source for reformed members.
“We wash cars, home carpets and clothes for clients daily at a fee. That way those without jobs earn a living and do not go back to stealing, sex work and drug abuse”

Seemingly the group is changing lives of many youth in Dagoretti; the two lead members Lawrence and James are now family men, are looking for more support to establish a more comprehensive rehabilitation centre to cater for more youth and rid their society of crime and drug abuse.

All the best guys!

Names have been changed to protect identities

Young Communicators Promote Climate Change Awareness

Young Communicators Promote Climate Change Awareness

 WHEN A FATHER DRAWS DAGGERS.......

Child molestation cases in Malindi-Kenya are rampant . The child protection centre receives up to 50 such cases in month .But due to victimization and compromise by the community  many cases never get to Court, instead they are solved traditionally which takes as little as a goat sacrifice to cleanse the perpetrator.

The pain and agony they endured at the time can only be told by Kadzo, the other two are too traumatized to speak about it. Sitting across me at the God our father rescue center-their new home- Kadzo now 17 tells the story of a father turning against his own flesh and blood.

As she narrates, the cycle of abuse began right after Pwagu, their father left prison in 2011. He had served 7 years at the Malindi GK prison for a series of sexual related crimes in their village of Ramada-70 Km from Malindi town.

One night as the three children slept in their little room, Kadzo was woken up by something jerking her legs apart. Before she could scream a massive hand covered her nose and mouth and after a sharp pain when through her private parts, did she realize what was happening. She only managed to get a glimpse of her father’s face when he was done. In pain and shock she cried herself to sleep.

The next day she told- but nobody believed her. Their grandparents, who lived in a nearby homestead, consoled but talked her into silence-she was not to tell anybody of the ordeal. Two weeks later it happened again, from then the abuse was regular, but this time she did not run to anyone, she decided to suffer in silence. Not long after that, Pwagu as if possessed by a demon, turned to his other three other children, molesting, 12 year old Moses, 8year old Maria and six year old Bernard in turns.

It was after Kadzo fell pregnant that the heinous crime came to light. A teacher at her school noticed her quickly growing tummy. After her pregnancy test confirmed that she was two months pregnant, Kadzo broke down and told the teacher all that had happened. Fearing for her safety, the teacher-took her to the local chief. The chief took up the matter with the child protection centre after the grandparents showed reluctance to proceed with the case.

Pwagu was eventually arrested after Medical results at the Malindi district hospital proved indeed the three children had been sexually abused by him. Matron Jane, who mans the gender desk –supported by APHIAplus at the district hospital,-took the three through trauma counseling during the trial of their father as they had to testify against him. With the help of the child protection centre and community, Pwagu got a twenty year sentence.

The children eventually put up at the God our father children’s’ home-a donor funded safe centre, because of the magnitude of rebuke and threats they received from relatives after their fathers sentencing.

“They said that I taught the younger ones to lie so that my father could go back to jail. When it was a matter we could have settled at home” Said a tearful Kadzo “they told us never to go back there again”

Today, the children are happy at their new found home. Kadzo is now a mother, Bernad is fine but Janet still gets anxiety attacks whenever she gets into compromising situations. Nelly, Their counselor at the facility says the children are adjusting well to their new home. They no longer have nightmares, stress or isolate themselves as when they first came. Kadzo now in class eight, she hopes to become a doctor a one day.

NOTE:

NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE IDENTITIES