ACTIVITIES

HHIV/AIDS Peer Education Program

A substantial compontent of Binti Pamoja is the Peer Education Program, which teaches Binti Pamoja members how to disseminate the information they gain at the center to other youth in the surrounding communities. The center hosts three multi-day training sessions each year focusing on HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, and other relevant issues. These sessions cover one-on-one counseling, group facilitation, and confidence building, among other topics. In addition, each week the Center hosts a "peer education hour", which serves as time both for in-house training and for discussion among group members about their work in the community. The Peer Education Program also includes the Drama Club, Newsletter, and Community Forums discussed below.

Drama Club

The Drama Club, as part of the Binti Pamoja Peer Education Program, is one of the ways in which Binti Pamoja members seek to educate the surrounding community about HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and other related issues. The members write and perform their own original educational plays, using theatre as a way to reach the community at large. Approximately every three months, the Drama Club goes out into the community accompanied by a dancing and drumming group (which draws the crowd) and performs their new play. After the performance, the members facilitate a conversation about the topic with the audience. Recent plays have covered such issues as drug abuse, abortion, and the stigmatization of and discrimination against people living with HIV. The group also performs skits at other Binti Pamoja and CFK events, and has been invited to perform at various youth drama festivals in Nairobi.

Tunanego (Let's Talk) Newsletter

Tunanego, a newsletter produced as part of the Peer Education Program, is published three times a year and geared toward youth in Kibera. Newsletter committee members write, edit, and type articles on topics of their choice, which in the past have included HIV/AIDS, education, and girls'/women's rights, among others. To assist them, Binti Pamoja sponsors training in creative writing, interview techniques, educational cartooning, and computers/word processing. The newsletter is distributed in the community and at all Binti Pamoja events.

Community Forums for Youth

Over the course of the year, Binti Pamoja holds numerous community forums for youth in Kibera. Previous topics have included drug abuse, teenage dating, condom use, rape, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT).

Financial Literacy

In March 2006, Binti Pamoja partnered with the Global Financial Education Program to developed a financial literacy curriculum for adolescent girls.  Prior to the drafting of the curriculum, research was conducted with adolescent girls in Kibera, parents, and financial institutions, and then the curriculum was pilot tested with Binti Pamoja members.  Alumni of Binti were trained as facilitators of the curriculum and now girls in Binti’s core program and the safe spaces are trained regularly on savings, budgeting skills, banking services, and earning money.  The Binti curriculum is also serving as a model for other programs across the globe and is being adapted to local contexts in Bolivia, Peru, Morocco, Nepal, and Uganda, and will serve as the basis for a universal curriculum for youth.

Safe Spaces Program

Building on the skills, dedication, and energy of the alumni members, and in response to the high demand in the community for joining Binti Pamoja, the Center has developed a new program which supports the alumni members to start their own girls groups in the community.  Within a year of the program’s start, the alumni have established 10 groups throughout Kibera, reaching over 200 girls ages 9-16.  The groups follow a similar format as Binti Pamoja’s programming, including training on reproductive health, financial literacy, leadership, and peer education.