Woman Against Violence: A Beginning Should Be More Than A Start

Toni Morrison said, ” Beginnings must do more than simply just start.” Thinking over the last two months and the changes in Kenya, I see so much more in her words. Sitting, phoning, lying awake late into the night, I thought of the real victims in the post-elections violence, women. Since we have determined that Kenya will never be the same, this year 2008 is a new beginning for us. We must decide how to approach Kenyans once again, and relearn how to talk around tribe and ethnicity, and of course politics.

I must go beyond my anger with the politicians, who have much more in common with each other and with mutual political survival, and focus on how to do something tangible to empower( note that I cannot really help the situation if I aim just to hand out things and words of kindness) If we have to start donating, then this beginning is not yet mature, because our co-operation for the humanitarian crisis in Kenya cannot end there. This beginning is a call to re-build. As an African, as a Kenyan and as a woman, my activism has barely begun.

My angst one night in January knew no bounds and reached a crisis when I heard from female family members, and while I was so relieved that are all well, caught myself about to sigh for relief, until I thought of the other women who went to women’s group meetings with my mother, my grandmothers and my aunts. Ruefully, I reflected on my own efforts and saw the stark reality that I was doing nothing but sitting at a computer reading the news.

It seemed obvious to an outsider, but I did not realize how powerful an African woman’s voice is in the call to action. The pictures and the presence of those women and their children who had been displaced kept me up at night and kept my eyes wet with tears. It dawned on me that there was nothing that I had done that qualified me for my safety, my travel and my education. Any of them could have been me, and it could have been my cracked heels that dodged arrows, machetes and my wails could have pierced the night sky at the loss of a child, a sibling, a spouse or a neighbor.

Come February first, I had not taken any real steps to do anything about the story, the one of the silent rape of women, blamed on their tribe, being in the path of a gang, and those attacks on men, forcibly circumcised or sodomized, that those were my brothers, were leaders, my countrymen. Living in a nation now, where there are still not enough women in leadership, I remembered all the great women who had served as my mentors, and as my teachers, who believed that I was good enough.

I remember going to visit a Kericho family who had hosted me when I was ten and on a school trip to Kericho. Or those women who eked out a living as in Mombasa and Malindi, whose livelihoods depended on the tourist visits in the peak season, who would be laid off from their jobs and have to take to the streets. I remember taking a fourteen hour bus ride both ways to Kampala and back to Nairobi last summer, when I passed through Eldoret and Kisumu and across the border to Uganda, and all at night, since I prefer to travel. Was it true that if I took the same trip now, I may be pulled from a bus and killed for being from the wrong part of Kenya? Woman, girl and child, my memories of a happier time were not, unfortunately, the same as those of the children taken out of school to return to their homeland, with not a shred of their tribe language to their memory. But the violence was not mine this year, I could opt out of it.

“The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women (1993) identified three main areas where violence against women occurs, namely in the family, the general community, and perpetrated or condoned by the State, clarifying that such violence can take physical, sexual and psychological forms.” The violence on ones emotional state has yet to find a scientific measurement that counts the level of abuse women take on a daily basis.

I believe that gender violence activism is the most under-reported effect of the recent violence in Kenya. Outside of Nairobi, where the harshest news emerged, amid the uprooting, women were still expected to continue their roles as nurturers and care-givers in the internally displaced camps. If she was the one who was from the minority community, she had to leave, and if he was the one who was a minority, he had to leave or worse yet, was beaten within an inch of his life, or killed. She still had to get up the next morning and fetch water and make a meal and take care of their home.

Was the violence perpetrated or condoned by the state? As policy makers debate these questions and broker peace, I am not alone in assuming that she did not have a choice as to whether the group of armed men could enter her homestead and ransack everything including her dignity and her body. Nor do I think that now, as the family sits in the camp waiting for the next inadequate ration of meals, that she can avoid the pressure to go and sell her body for a little more posho(ground cereal) for her baby. As I sit in my cushy seat trying to see who from the U.S is sending things in a container, I doubt that she can afford to wait for my secondhand clothes nor my canned string beans, or even sit to think about whether the peace will make our wealthy leaders more considerate, or not.

I doubt that the girl whose early marriage has been speeded up for more money to salvage the family will pen a letter to our overpaid members of parliament to buy her freedom, nor will the fresh wound of a newly initiated female genital mutilation(fgm) survivor cover the hole in her heart from the brutal rite carried out to prepare her for the new school year. Still yet, it is unlikely that the woman whose partner welcomes her return to their tent with a shower of patronizing slaps will stop because Kofi Annan and his team got our esteemed leaders to sign to a solution.

You can learn that one in three women is a victim of abuse. Yes, one in three,
If you do not know already, March 8 is International Womens’ Day, look for events in your area and attend.
If you have sisters, daughters, partners, spouses, mothers and other relatives, imagine how you would feel if anyone harmed them, and think about what has been keeping you from activism, from speaking to men about gender violence.
When you next read a story about Kenya, if you see a picture of a child, remember its mother, the siblings, and the future for a woman in rural Kenya today.

I dedicate this post to the women who have endured violence in war zones and conflict areas. Darfur, Bosnia, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo and here in the United States

V-Day: Show Love and Support To Victims of Gender Violence

Dear friends,

In light of V-Day observation worldwide, I thought about what it means in an international context and perhaps to give you a sense of V-Day around the world, here is an example.Feel free to pass this on to your networks.

According to a 2003 report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), one in three women around the world will be raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime.

In 2004, the brutal rape and murder of a two year old in Kikuyu, Kenya, inspired V-Day 2004 organizers in Nairobi to organize to raise money for the Nairobi Women’s Hospital in Nairobi, which is the only private health care provider in Kenya catering to the needs of women.The story, which made headlines on all the local press, shocked the everyone by the sheer magnitude of its brutality. “Investigations are on going but by V-Day 2004, they had not arraigned anyone in court on the charges. Earlier in 2004, the papers once again highlighted the story of another minor who had been brutally raped by a neighbor. The little girl survived her ordeal and the man guilty of the crime was swiftly apprehended and convicted of defiling a minor and got a life sentence,” says Lorna Irungu, a thespian and the V-Day 2004 Nairobi Organizer.That year, the Vagina Monologues show which was held at the Carnivore Restaurant In Nairobi raised Ksh 305,607 (US$ 5055.64)

2008 began with some of the darkest days in Kenyan history, when post elections violence gripped the country in fear and silently the mass rape of women and children began, amid the chaos. As Kenya counts the human and material cost of the political violence, hospitals are reporting an increase in reported rapes during the immediate post-election period, spurring the government and health organizations to find ways to treat these cases as well as protect the displaced from further incidents of sexual violence.

“In the first two days of the violence, 56 people were treated for rape and admitted; there are so many other victims back in the slums who have not received any medical attention,” Lucy Kiama, chief nurse at the Nairobi Women’s Hospital.Other cases are in the areas where internally displaced people live, where they are out of reach of law enforcement officers, and the first targets of mounting frustration and anger. The Nairobi Women’s Hospital Gender Violence Recovery Center, is part of treatment and counseling efforts for those most affected by the violence. The need is much more dire right now, particularly for rape kits, which are now standard in routine medical checks, and post-HIV exposure prophylaxis kits.

Urgent Action Fund-Africa has supported The Nairobi Women’s Hospital to set up 4 crisis response centres (Women’s Gender Recovery Unit s) in Mathare, Huruma, Jamhuri Park and Kibera to provide shelter, security, and more importantly medical and psychological care to rape victims who are unable to access the services because the informal settlements have been sealed off by security personnel and violent protestors.The hospital is now FULL; it has dealt with 19 cases in the last 24 hours. There are 75,000 displaced people in Jamhuri park alone, majority of whom are women and children. Total numbers of displaced Kenyans has topped 300,000 and growing daily.

In 2006 I performed as part of the V-Day cast here and my piece was titled ” My Vagina Was my Village” retelling the account of a woman who was brutally attacked during the 1993 Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict, as told to Eve Ensler, founder of the V-Day global campaign. Never would I have imagined that such brutality would reach my home country Kenya, and never in such a widely executed manner. My voice is just one, but there is need for more people to respond to violence against women everywhere.

As a Kenyan, I am especially encouraging women to attend the upcoming “V-Day” events such as the Vagina Monologues not only to understand and spread awareness of post-election violence against women in Kenya, but in the United States and other parts of the world. I urge you to join in making more people aware of the violence against women in our communities and regions globally.

You can find ways to help, including:

a) Giving to the Nairobi Women’s Hospital Gender Violence Recovery Center
and supporting women-led peace building initiatives in Kenya that are underway.

b) Supporting the Urgent Action Fund

Sons Of Lwala: A Documentary of Hope

Amid all the stories that have hit the news about Kenya in the recent weeks, the story of the sons of Lwala has to be told, and what a better way to  tell this story than through a film. So, for those of you in the Nashville, TN area or in front of a computer, you are welcome to donate  and/or buy tickets for a benefit screening of the story of the two young doctors who returned to Lwala to build a hospital after being educated in the United States.

The Story

Milton and Fred Ochieng’ are two brothers from Kenya whose village sent them to America to become doctors. But after losing both parents to AIDS they are left with a heartbreaking task: to return home and finish the health clinic their father started before getting sick. Unable to raise enough money on their own, the brothers are joined by students, politicians, and a rock band who launch a fund raising drive among young people across the United States. Sons of Lwala follows Milton and Fred on their incredible journey as they find a way, despite all odds, to open their village’s first hospital.

How To Take Action

After Fred and Milton completed the hospital, with the help of well wishers and friends, they realised that they needed to keep it open, and created the Lwala Community Alliance to continue funding the initial donation.

Filmmaker Barry Simmons says via the team’s Facebook page:

It’s time (finally!) to celebrate the completion of our little documentary, and more importantly, to gather around Milton and Fred for a blow-out night at TPAC to raise money for their clinic in Lwala! The screening will be in Nashville on Thursday, March 27. Order tickets at www.tpac.org/lwala.

 

And just in case you are wondering what your donation will do:

 

So folks, you can watch the trailer here or the trailer below.

 

“Producer Barry Simmons was introduced to Milton Ochieng’ by a friend when he was a television reporter with WTVF-Channel 5 in Nashville. In addition to receiving eight regional Emmy Awards and two Edward R. Murrow Awards, he was twice-named “Best Writer in Tennessee” by the Associated Press. When Barry traveled to Lwala with Milton for a story in 2005, the experience was life-changing. He left the television station to begin work on Sons of Lwala as a fellow with the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University-School of Advanced International Studies, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He was recently awarded a fellowship from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.”

(Image tpac.org/lwala)
Other images( sonsoflwala.org)