Volunteer work in Garissa, Kenya (3/5-3/20 in 2011)

Hello, this is Megumi Fujimoto, M1 student.

Please let me share my experience in Garissa, Kenya.

Grissa is located in North-Eastern part of Kenya, which is known as a very hot place.

I visited and stayed with International NGO (Mikono International) which has been organized by a Japanese couple and working on various activities; construction of school building and hospital, water well digging and scholarship projects.
http://www.mikono.org/

It was actually my first time to visit AFRICAN country. Since Professor Yamada introduced Mikono International to me, I could have an opportunity to go there and visit them.

In the first week of my visit, I had a look at their current activities. They have been conducting construction of counseling room in girl’s high school because of high dropout rate of girl's education in Garissa and they do not have any opportunity to confide in their personal issue. This is actually JICA’s grass-roots technical cooperation collaborating with Tenri University and Mikono International.
http://www.tenri-u.ac.jp/topics/q3tncs00000067lu.html

So, I had a chance to see the process of doing the project. It was very interesting. In addition to this activity, they have been working on finding a place for digging water well and making it. After deciding where they dig water well, local workers started to dig. They told me that it took only six hours to come out water. It was surprising for me to know it.

In the second week, two professors from Tenri University came to Garissa and viewed their collaborative projects since they are planning to have a seminar for training teacher of counselor in this coming August. So, they visited District Education Office (DEO) to ask them to cooperate with this seminar. Thanks to them, I had an opportunity to look in the Office and talked about educational situation in Garissa for a bit.

Through these activities, I found that girl's education in Garissa has had various issues such as early marriage,poverty and muslim culture. Also,I knew some of them from nomadic family have to move into a dorm and separate lives from them. I felt that it could be hard for them to focus on study without their family.

On the other hand, I could see female principal in girl's high school. It could be a　great role model for girls and motivate them to study hard, I thought.

As well as these activities, I had a great opportunity to stay and live in African country. Actually, it was very difficult for me to get used to living there. This is because of not only linguistic and cultural differences but also insufficient infrastructure and ingredient. When I was in Nairobi and Garissa, there had been power blackout and water stoppage several times. At the same time, using computer and internet, and making food had been also difficult for me. In the first week, I had no idea about what I can work and what I can make food even though the staff of Mikono asked me to make one dish. (It might be related to lack of opportunity to cook for people though).
However, through these environments and difficulties, I found that creating materials and things could be very important and enjoyable. I really had a good time in making food and clothes (Somali dress) with local people there.

Doing activities and living in different countries could be difficult for Japanese people and necessary to gain long time and experience. As for Mikono International, I could say that they enjoy their life in Garissa and succeed in their activities because they gained respect and trust among local people. When I walked around the market, I’ve heard that many local people appreciate to making schools, hospitals and water well, and scholarship projects.

This experience makes me know how to struggle with living in African country and how to interact with local people.
Since I am planning to go to Senegal for two years on the JOCV programme, this experience also gave me some tips for my JOCV activities.

Thank you for reading.
Megumi Fujimoto (M1)


At North Eastern Province Girls Secondary School

Ms. Yumiko NAKAHARA (JICA expert of Health), Professor Akihiro INOUE,
Professor Katsuyoshi SEKIMOTO, Mr.Akira HIJIKATA
Itsuka san (Volunteer), Megumi FUJIMOTO, Mrs. Eiko HIJIKATA