Safe MAA Diary: Day 2 & 3

Song and theatre are bringing positive change to the Samburu in a unique and remarkable way –– See the background to the SAFE MAA project.

SAFE Maa Diary: Day 2

Wednesday is market day at a village just on the outskirts of Westgate Community Conservancy.

It is a place where many people gather every Wednesday to buy necessities and to buy or sell livestock.This provides the Safe Maa Team with an ideal opportunity to perform to a large number of people in one place.

The reception was large and the welcome warm. Safe Maa performed both routines, one about HIV and the other about FGC. It was perfect for the Samburu Youths to see the team in action and they also all joined them on the stage.

Margaret, one of the Sasaab waitresses who has taken on the lead role for the women, made a short speech to the audience about how exciting it is for us to be working with SAFE Maa and how she is looking forward to being part of the SAFE group in Samburu and being able to help educate the communities around.

Tomorrow, we will be revisiting Naisunyai a village that we performed in last year. The two lead SAFE Maa girls Sarah and Christine, and Amos the team manager, will do a workshop with 24 of the women from the village.

Margaret will accompany them for the learning experience. The other SAFE Maa members and the rest of the youth group will continue with a workshop at the Headquarters, discussing Samburu culture and how it compares with Maasai culture and trying to write a song that will help the SAFE Samburu group send a message to the Westgate Community about HIV.

SAFE Maa Diary: DAY 3

What an amazing day! Watching the two teams work together has been inspiring.

The Maa team have been so supportive of the Samburu team and really encouraged them. Morgan, a Samburu musician, has also really helped them to work out which of the Samburu traditional songs would work best for passing on the educational messages.

Today, the teams have concentrated on the two HIV songs. I think the pictures speak for themselves – not only have they achieved a great deal in such a short time, but they have really enjoyed themselves.

I feel privileged to be here at the very beginning of SAFE Samburu, to see how the project develops and to watch the team increase in confidence and ability.

Amos and Sarah, the leaders of SAFE Maa, accompanied by two others had a fantastic day in Naisunyai with the women. It was the first women’s workshop that we have done in this area and they were welcomed very warmly.

They started by discussing HIV and prevention, which went very smoothly. AS the workshop progressed, they ventured into the topic of FGM, talking to the women about how they had felt during sexual intercourse as young girls and how different it is after circumcision.

The revelations from the women were very open and probably led them to consider things in a way they have never done before.

The team was gone for the whole day and came back so excited by what they had seen and done.