CWID’S QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER

(January- March 2012)

Since the year started CWID has kept on soldiering on in her advocacy work to ensure her objectives are met. As we think globally and act locally, we try to make everyday an international women’s day to ensure that the future of girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding. Our main feature for this edition is the International Women’s Day activity that is marked internationally every 8^th March of every year.

CWID’s Executive Director Ms. Betty Sharon.

Welcome.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2012

Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures”

This year’s theme “Connecting girls, Inspiring futures” girls gave respect to women who have played a big role in ensuring that they are indeed connected to a bright future. Coast Women In Development- CWID in collaboration with the Pwani GBV Network joined other stake holders that work towards the betterment of the women and children’s welfare

The day was filled with successes especially when the Mombasa County Gender office awarded individuals and institutions that have been on the forefront to ensure women and children’s rights are adhered to from institutions to the grassroots in the region. CWID was proud to have one of her staff’s, our field officer Mr. Tom Ng’ar awarded as one of the three recognized gender warriors in the Mombasa County.

Our field officer Tom Ng’ar receiving the certificate

The Pwani GBV network whose mission is to prevent and respond to all forms of GBV in Coast Province, and whom CWID is the secretariat was also recognized for the great work it has done in reaching out to communities and helping the GBV survivors get help at the hospitals, police and even at the courts.

Among the guest speakers was CWID’s Betty Sharon who emphasized on the need for providing a better environment where our girls can be nurtured towards a prospective life. She challenged the women political leaders and aspirants to give priority to girl child education during their terms as it is the only key to a brighter future.

Girls especially in Coast region face a lot of challenges being a tourist destination, most of them are exposed to commercial sex working, child trafficking, customary early marriages and drug abuse. Sharon therefore challenged the parents, specially the mothers to engage themselves in income generating projects that will enable them to be economically empowered and be able to keep their children in schools.
Betty Sharon giving a speech

THE SEXUAL REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH EDUTAINMENT ACTIVITY IN MSHOMORONI

CWID in collaboration with German Foundation DSW facilitated the event that brought together youths from the Kisauni region to share their experiences regarding their sexual reproductive heath- SRH. Blue angels and JUDEVI youth groups entertained as well as educated the audience.

Some of the challenges tabled included;

The many myths that are associated with Reproductive Health such as contraceptives cause infertility.

Services at the public hospitals are inadequate and sometimes unaffordable for the youths who do not have proper jobs, they require a subsidized pricing of the SRH services so they can access them easily.

Being youths, most service providers are not friendly to them, they get Blue angels youth group performing and RH play.

insults about being immoral at their ages, and this puts them off from attending the hospitals for the services.

Most youths are not equipped with information about contraceptives. Most of them do not even know what rights they have towards accessing the SRH services, this has led to misconceptions about SRH especially on family planning methods

MITIGATIONS.

-The youths were made aware of their SRH rights and most especially their right to information on something they do not understand especially at the hospitals.

-The youths were also challenged to pass information to their fellow youths who do not get opportunities to attend SRH forums and be educated on the same.

-There was a need for NGOs to create more awareness on SRH especially to the youths.

-The community leaders were also challenged to involve the youths in their forums to bring out the youths issues in the communities.

The 10^th Global Peace Initiative for Women Meeting

CWID was privileged to be invited and attended the 10th Global Peace Initiative for women meeting on 2/3/2012 at the United Nations headquarters Nairobi. The main objective of the meeting was to celebrate the growing network of men and women around the world who are quietly working to tap the human potential for inner transformation so that we may collectively create a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.

CWID’s Betty Sharon with Joy Mboya the secretary The participants for external affairs, Bahai Faith KENYA

Agape Children Home

CWID officials Ms. Betty Sharon and Lorine Awuor visited the Agape Children’s Home together with Mrs. Shabaal who is the wife of an aspiring governor, she donated foodstuffs as well as stationeries to the children. The home is currently run by Mr. John Opindo and its hosting eleven kids who are all in primary schools, other older children are in boarding secondary schools. Mr Opindo is making a huge impact on the children’s lives, they get education, clothing food among other necessities in the home. He is also reintegrating them back to the society so that the children may grow up understanding their origins and where they came from, he does this by identifying possible guardians of the children to get in touch and be involved in the welfare of the children. He works closely with the local administration to be able to establish the children’s background who most are from within Coast region.

Mrs Shabaal with the kids CWID’s officers giving out stationeries to the kids.

Working with International Republican Institute- IRI.

CWID is working with the IRI together with local elected officials to help them meet the needs of their constituents, strengthen democratic governance policies and promote transparency and accountability. IRI formed three groups to look into Employment, Water and waste management issues in Coast region. CWID was elected as the chair of the waste management group and we have done tremendous works in terms of linking proper strategies in the times of garbage collection and disposal in Likoni and Mombasa. We have worked closely with the departments of transport, mechanical and procurement as well as treasury and the local councilors have been on the forefront to mobilize the citizens to support the initiatives and as a result most heaps of garbage has been cleared

Local area Chief also giving a hand in garbage collection in his area.

in many areas especially the slums. The garbage was exposing the residents to a high risk of infection and poor sanitation but now many of them feel responsible to make their areas clean.

Healthy Action Project in Kilifi

CWID in partnership with Family Health Care Options- FHOK, MTG kilifi, Kwetu Center and the National Coordinating Agency on Population and Development- NCAPD are conducting a healthy action project in three constituencies- Bahari, Chonyi and Kikambala in Kilifi. The project is aimed at improving maternal health and child health care services in Kilifi though advocating for and increase the national budget allocation. So far we have involved the three constituency residents to identify the gaps existing in the health facilities and we have involved the local authorities and non state actors in identifying ways to mitigate the problems. The project is sponsored by European Union through DSW.

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For more Information kindly visit our website; www.coastwomen.org or write to our news desk at cwid@coastwomen.org