WHAT'S GOING ON?

Post-Election Violence New Programs:

The January post-election violence sparked a new direction for programming for Binti Pamoja. The Center has held group counseling to all the girls to discuss the emotional, physical and psychological aftermath of the violence. The Center has also held several team building and cooperation events to rebuild bond and friendship across ethnic lines. Also, Binti Pamoja organized a peace concert by the of "Let's Give Peace a Chance" and has also included the peace initiative 'Jamii Ya Kibera' at its family event.

Additionally the Center attended the Reproductive Health and Research Conference in Abya, Nigeria at which Caroline Sakwa (Binti Pamoja Program Officer) and Azra Runji (member of the Alumni Program) presented on the Binti Pamoja Center.  Recently Caroline Sakwa also travelled to Ethiopia to collaborate with a sister program to Braintrust and observe the differences between urban and rural programming for the betterment of girls and young women in Africa.

Binti Pamoja Around the World:

Binti Pamoja staff and members have traveled widely in 2007 to share the work of Binti Pamoja.  In February 2007 Binti Pamoja alumni member traveled to New York City to speak the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.  She spoke on a panel with other adolescent girls from Malawi, Guatemala, Jordan, Botswana, and Mali about the situation of adolescent girls in Kibera and what Binti Pamoja does to address their issues.  Program Coordinator, Caroline Sakwa, and Co-Founder, Karen Austrian, traveled to Bolivia to participate in a partner workshop sponsored by the Global Financial Education Program (GFEP), on the development of a youth financial literacy curriculum.  They presented the process that Binti Pamoja went through to develop their curriculum, lessons learned, etc.  Partners from Bolivia, Peru, Nepal and Morocco will use the Binti curriculum to develop their own local version and then GFEP will develop a universal curriculum.  Binti Pamoja member Azra Runji traveled to Botswana in August 2007 to share the experience of Binti Pamoja with SEYDEL, a local organization working with girls.