Binti Pamoja becomes self-sustaining
Monday, May 9, 2005
By: Holly Peterson

NGO begun by SIT alumnae is vital part of Nairobi community

Karen Austrian and Emily Verellen met while students in the School for International Training’s Kenya: Development, Health and Society program in the Spring of 2001.  While in Kenya, Emily worked with Nairobi street children and Karen worked with a reproductive health clinic doing community outreach.  After returning home, the powerful experiences that they had while in Kenya left them with a desire to go back to Kenya and use their combined experiences to implement an innovative program specifically targeting young women.

After receiving a small grant from Columbia University, Karen and Emily contacted Carolina for Kibera (CFK), a community youth organization with two main programs, a medical clinic and a soccer league that brought the youth of Kibera together to play sports and do community service.  They returned to Kenya in May 2002 where they ran a two-month program with teenage girls in Kibera using photography as a tool to talk about women’s rights and reproductive health.  The curriculum for this new program, called Binti Pamoja, or Daughters United, was not pre-set, but determined by the questions, concerns, and critical issues raised by the young women in the group.  Early on in the project, it became clear that Binti Pamoja should be expanded from the two-month project, and that both the interest and necessity were present for a long-term, sustainable program of the larger CFK organization.  From August 2002-August 2003, the Binti Pamoja Center was in Phase Two, a scaled back version of Phase One, in which members met twice a week for group discussions and occasional educational speakers and field trips.  Back in the States Karen and Emily did fundraising for the Center through grant-writing and photo exhibits of the girls’ work.

In September 2003, Emily and Karen returned to Nairobi to implement Phase Three of the Binti Pamoja Center and remained there through August 2004.  During that year the Center saw a significant expansion in both membership and programming, which remain in place today.  The center’s activities now include photography, community projects, family events, field trips, educational speakers, and a substantial peer education/community outreach program.  This expansion in programming marks a shift in the focus of the Center to educating the community.  This is done through the drama group, which writes and performs educational plays in the community, a newsletter group that publishes a newsletter for youth in Kibera, monthly community forums for youth facilitated by the Binti Pamoja members, peer education trainings, and one-on-one counseling by the members in the community.  Through these activities the Binti Pamoja Center has been able to expand its reach past the members themselves and have an impact on the Kibera community. 

In addition, another major accomplishment of Phase Three was the development of a local and sustainable leadership structure to ensure the future stability of the program.  In December 2003, the Binti Pamoja Center hired Caroline Sakwa, a fourth-year Kenyan University student with substantial experience in youth work, peer education, drama, and HIV/AIDS education.  In June 2004, the Center hired Hilda Wambui, a recent Psychology graduate with a background in youth outreach and education.  Both women started working part-time and slowly took on management responsibilities.  Currently, Caroline Sakwa is the Program Coordinator and is running the daily operations of the Binti Pamoja Center.  In August 2004, the original group of Binti Pamoja members graduated and formed the first Alumni Group of the Center.  They have now taken on various leadership roles within the Center, chairing various groups and serving as mentors to the newer members. 

For more information please visit our website at http://cfk.unc.edu/binti-pamoja or email bintipamojany@yahoo.com