Heshima Kenya, the organization I’ll be interning for this semester, is an NGO based in Nairobi that specializes in identifying and protecting orphaned and separated refugee children, particularly adolescent girls, living in Nairobi, Kenya. In Swahili Heshima means respect, honor, and dignity. The girls that Heshima works with come from all over the region including Somalia, the DRC, and South Sudan.
Heshima has a really cool holistic model for addressing the needs of the girls and empowering them to lead productive and efficient lives as well as to promote change their communities. The most vulnerable girls live in the safe house where they have access to 24-hour protection and resources. At the main Heshima Kenya site (where I will be working), educational programs provide girls with classes in English, Swahili, math, and sciences. This is the first time many of them will have access to formal education. They also have economic programs where the girls are taught financial literacy, tailoring, and other life skills. They also hold seminars on important topics like reproductive health, sexual assault, and more.
I will primarily be working in the girls’ empowerment wing, which includes the educational and life skills trainings. Today was my first day at the site, where I was introduced to some of the staff and girls I will be working with over the course of the semester.
When I first arrived, all of the staff members were in a meeting (unbeknownst to me). Luckily one of the girls in the tailoring class pulled me inside and gave me a seat. There was a lot of giggling and staring, but I introduced myself and was able to meet some of them (although I had a lot of difficulty understanding their some of their names). One of the girls who spoke more English took me around and gave me a quick tour of the facility. It’s basically a large house, which they’ve turned into various classrooms and offices. There is a shed out back with a few computers and the “library.” I walked around and met various groups of girls all engaged in their work. Some of them were pretty friendly and excited to meet me, while others refused to look at me or speak. I think it’ll be a really interesting dynamic working here since a lot of the girls seem to be at really different stages in their rehabilitation (not sure if that is the best word) after what must have been some extremely traumatic experiences and in their English abilities.
I’m not going to lie, some moments were definitely a little out of my comfort zone (to be expected) but I think my experiences teaching and interacting with people with minimal English skills during my service trips in high school, (which were super uncomfortable at times), were oddly similar to some of the initial moments of today’s experience. These previous experiences proved really valuable in navigating some of the different situations.
Finally, I was able to find Fatuma who eagerly greeted me and took me around to meet all the staff. There are a lot of names of people I need to remember, which is going to be a bit of a struggle, at least in the beginning. She led me to the shed where I was introduced to the two teachers and told about my first project. Heshima recently had a large donation of books from UN Women that they needed to sort, organize, and shelve. She told me if this were one thing I could do during the internship, I would leave a lasting impact on the organization. She wanted to me to find a system of organizing the books according to a mixture of the Dewey Decimal system, reading level, and topic. Seeing as I have really minimal library knowledge and a fair amount of the books were in Swahili, I was at a bit of a loss for where to start. The teacher explained to me that some of organizing process had been started so I just needed to pick up from there. Fatuma had to run to the airport and I was left in the shed with a pile of books and a lot of confusion. I spent the next two hours trying to research how the Dewey Decimal system worked, how to find reading levels of books, and how libraries are organized. Finally, due to a lot of communication difficulties, I discovered what they were asking me to do was a bit less difficult than I was thinking.
The teacher told me next week I could actually get started and he would have some of the girls come to help me. Even though this is definitely not the most exciting project, I am excited that it will be something that is actually beneficial to the organization and I’ll have a chance to work with some of the girls. Once I become more full-time, I anticipate my role with the organization will shift quite a bit. From past interns, it seems like then I will mostly be tutoring, teaching, and helping in the life skills seminars.
While I am a little jealous of the people who are actually working in Kibera and some of the other areas of the city, I am really grateful I have the opportunity to work with one of the most vulnerable and invisible populations in Kenya and that no matter how small the work I may be doing, I am interacting with real people with amazing stories and histories. I think there will continue to be uncomfortable experiences, but that is a large part of engaging with people from very different cultures and it is the best way, I’ve found, to grow as an individual. I am hoping I can make a mark (however small) on some of their lives, and I know that they definitely will on mine.
When I first arrived, all of the staff members were in a meeting (unbeknownst to me). Luckily one of the girls in the tailoring class pulled me inside and gave me a seat. There was a lot of giggling and staring, but I introduced myself and was able to meet some of them (although I had a lot of difficulty understanding their some of their names). One of the girls who spoke more English took me around and gave me a quick tour of the facility. It’s basically a large house, which they’ve turned into various classrooms and offices. There is a shed out back with a few computers and the “library.” I walked around and met various groups of girls all engaged in their work. Some of them were pretty friendly and excited to meet me, while others refused to look at me or speak. I think it’ll be a really interesting dynamic working here since a lot of the girls seem to be at really different stages in their rehabilitation (not sure if that is the best word) after what must have been some extremely traumatic experiences and in their English abilities.
I’m not going to lie, some moments were definitely a little out of my comfort zone (to be expected) but I think my experiences teaching and interacting with people with minimal English skills during my service trips in high school, (which were super uncomfortable at times), were oddly similar to some of the initial moments of today’s experience. These previous experiences proved really valuable in navigating some of the different situations.
Finally, I was able to find Fatuma who eagerly greeted me and took me around to meet all the staff. There are a lot of names of people I need to remember, which is going to be a bit of a struggle, at least in the beginning. She led me to the shed where I was introduced to the two teachers and told about my first project. Heshima recently had a large donation of books from UN Women that they needed to sort, organize, and shelve. She told me if this were one thing I could do during the internship, I would leave a lasting impact on the organization. She wanted to me to find a system of organizing the books according to a mixture of the Dewey Decimal system, reading level, and topic. Seeing as I have really minimal library knowledge and a fair amount of the books were in Swahili, I was at a bit of a loss for where to start. The teacher explained to me that some of organizing process had been started so I just needed to pick up from there. Fatuma had to run to the airport and I was left in the shed with a pile of books and a lot of confusion. I spent the next two hours trying to research how the Dewey Decimal system worked, how to find reading levels of books, and how libraries are organized. Finally, due to a lot of communication difficulties, I discovered what they were asking me to do was a bit less difficult than I was thinking.
The teacher told me next week I could actually get started and he would have some of the girls come to help me. Even though this is definitely not the most exciting project, I am excited that it will be something that is actually beneficial to the organization and I’ll have a chance to work with some of the girls. Once I become more full-time, I anticipate my role with the organization will shift quite a bit. From past interns, it seems like then I will mostly be tutoring, teaching, and helping in the life skills seminars.
While I am a little jealous of the people who are actually working in Kibera and some of the other areas of the city, I am really grateful I have the opportunity to work with one of the most vulnerable and invisible populations in Kenya and that no matter how small the work I may be doing, I am interacting with real people with amazing stories and histories. I think there will continue to be uncomfortable experiences, but that is a large part of engaging with people from very different cultures and it is the best way, I’ve found, to grow as an individual. I am hoping I can make a mark (however small) on some of their lives, and I know that they definitely will on mine.