In August, I did a month long internship at a local Interior and Gifts shop called
Goodies Limited. I am a science major student and therefore interning in an Art
area was something that got most people I mingle with surprised. I remember
going for a part time job interview a week after commencing my internship and
my interviewer didn’t quite understand what on earth I was doing in an art
field.
Actually, I hadn’t thought about
trying something different from my major or related until I attended a
Women-to-Women leadership conference a fortnight before my internship. It was
during W2W that I met young girls from diverse backgrounds and cultures who had
different skills and talents. And my desire to learn more in the art world was inspired
by one Sarah Shaibani, a young girl who loves drawing and painting. She wanted
to use her art talent to improve and promote arts back home in Libya where she
felt they had rich art culture that wasn’t being adequately promoted. I felt
challenged by her action plan and wanted to learn something about local art
back home in Kenya. As I had long known a lady who was encouraging and promoting
art talents among local as a way of helping them earn a living, I felt it was
time to work with her and gather as much info as I could. I would later develop
an interest for African Interiors for my future house!
The highlight of
my internship came in the last week when I accompanied Goodie(my boss) and April(Goodie’s
friend) to an art workshop (exchange visit) in Dandora phase 5. In May 2011,
the 2 of them together with other ladies started “Sally-Ann Products”, a group
through which they promote art talent among local women in Dandora, Embu,
Kibera, and Makadara amongst other areas. Currently, Sally-Anne operates
through the Salvation Army church which has provided a gateway for Goodie and
her team to run the project especially because it targets a society part which
would otherwise be difficult to penetrate given the circumstances facing such
areas. Sally-Ann helps the women learn how to make various art products such as
baskets, mats and beaded jewelry and thereafter sell them to earn an income.
Most of these women based in slum areas are unemployed with no source of income.
But through art, they are now able to feed their families by making an honest
living. The group has held several workshops since inception aimed at empowering
these women, it organizes exchange visits which bring together women in various
sub-groups to learn from each other, share their challenges and have new ideas
to better their work when they get back home. So far, Sally-Anne has been able
to make quality baskets and jewelry some of them gaining market as far as
Norway. A majority of the products are also sold locally through outlets such
as Goodie’s and other art shops. The group has been able to attract more women,
including HIV+ women whom have not only found a niche to earn an income, but
they are encouraged and given hope to live each new day.
Amongst some of
the initiatives started by the project is “table banking” for Dandora women.
This is an easy way into micro-financing. Table banking is a method through
which people borrow small moneys (usually ksh. 2000 or 3000) for use in starting
up a business in weaving. I was able to listen to some of the beneficiary women
of table banking speak joyously about how helpful the business loan had helped
them. Some of the women, once not able to afford to afford needs such as school
uniforms for their kids are now able to buy their children uniforms and support
them more in their schooling.
I was impressed
by the approach used to conduct the training. It was a practical class where
the participants (local women) were engaged in activities that gave them an
opportunity to learn new things they needed to do to keep their work standing.
There wasn’t at any one time an activity which required a pen and paper to
write for the sake of remembrance…one could remember most of the lessons by
just visualizing the activity done. If only our school curriculum would be
that consumable, I think all pupils and students would be craving for school!
The workshop also provided a session where women would reflect back on how the
project started, the challenges they have faced all through. Sally-Anne was
indeed a voyage whose end was depicted by a ray from the sun on a drawing chart
with a track of the rapids and cataracts in every step of the way. It is not
often that we have people sit down to categorically talk about what happened
every month of the way until where they are now. That gave me a challenge at an
individual level to be more specific and detailed about what I do as far as my
project work is concerned.
I was also impressed
by the fact that each group was ready to work as a team and do all that is
humanly possible in ensuring it achieved its goal(s). Earlier on we had had an
exciting, heart-throbbing session on creating goals. I worked in a team which
didn’t manage to be the best in the goal-activity, but I had so much fun and
learnt a thing or two about my team members. In a team, we have people of
different abilities, and the most important thing learning how to accommodate
and tolerate each team member for who they are including some of those innate
traits in them that we cannot change. After all, it is what makes a team
unique.
