Community First Aid Kits

Walking through any urban informal settlement an outsider will see ‘disaster waiting happen’ scenes. Looking at small children playing cooking games with fire, women washing clothes in dirty river, haphazard crossing of Juja Road, open electric wires, possibility of being mugged in dark place,  regular fire outbreaks and people living next to big rocks. The dangers posed broken sewer and open ones are even great incase of major disease outbreak. All these are scenes one will encounter while walking in Mathare.

There have been cases of fire outbreaks which led to loss of life and this was contributed by lack of access road in the inner parts of the community; There are no emergency numbers readily available in the community that people can call for assistance. When assistance is called it takes longer than usual since most people will expect community leaders to be the person to call.

Those who gets injured through various activities both good and back have to seek assistance in far places since the health centres near the community do not operate of 24 hrs basis. This mean that if a disaster strikes at night then it is most likely that number of causalities will be very high compared with day time. Availing first aid kits in strategic points within the community can help reduce number of casualities.  While there has been investments in improving infrastructure, very little has been done to deal with disaster. Having emergency telephone/mobile number people can all and erecting first aid centre can help reduce the number of causalities.  – Simon

PEOPLES INVOLVEMENT IN MAPPING

People’s involved in development is not something new in Tanzania, the first president of the nation once “If real development is to take place, the people have to be involved.” Working with community members today really reminded me of this wonderful quote. As walked with a group of community members to map one of the six sub wards and the biggest, I was first struck by how community members in our training went on explaining the what the exercise was all about and one community member responded, “Baada ya kumaliza kuchora ramani mturejeshee  sisi ili tuweze kuona ni jinsi gani jamii yetu inavyo kaa (When you finishing drawing the maps, bring them back to us so that we can see how our community look likes)”.

In an open society like that of Tanzania people have culture of being represented by elected people at the grass root and government has a good network of communicating with people. Therefore involving people and government agencies become gateway to success of starting community initiative. By the end of day, the government is the biggest investor in putting up infrastructure needed required for ICT development in most countries.

The use of ICT gadgets like Global Positioning System, modern video and user friendly digital cameras make it easier for people to want to use them in making and sharing information. By presenting what Ushahidi platform and its wonders, people in Tandale were eager to go out to map their community and tell their own stories.  A university Amuri has today designed his blog (nyarpress.blogspot.com) page to tell stories about his community back in DCR.

Having advanced ICT drives people from sharing and accessing information. Looking back at and the most publicize Kenya Open Data website which is more relevant to researchers than ordinary citizens. Open information data need to be open and not hidden in technicalities and boring presentation. A presentation like  this video demonstrates the inherent appeal of the idea shows us an appealing way of sharing information using technology can attract feelings and need for action.

Lesson Learnt: The key to people generating, sharing information in the community is dependent on how user friendly the technology be used and how it is presented.

Simon

Mathare Youth Vote

Felix, one of the contestants from Huruma Ward

The National Youth Council elections are going across the country and Mathare held its elections for the delegates. In each ward, youth gathered to elect their choice peacefully. At Mabatini ward, 13 youth came out seeking to be elected as youth delegate. In each sub location, 3 youth delegate will be elected.

While in all the polling station there was high presence of women, very few of them were seeking position. For instance, in Mabatini out of the 13 contestants, only 3 women were on the list seeking to be elected. In Huruma, the situation was the same, with only 4 women among 16 contestants. Given that there is low women participation, this might affect articulation of women issues at higher level.

The election has been so peacefully against to what was expected. At Huruma, one of the contestants Mr. Felix, 24 yrs was happy with the arrangement and was optimistic that he will be elected. The selection of administration camps as voting sites has greatly contributed to the elections being held peacefully.

When it came to mobilizing people most people were using mobile phone and texting through SMS service. Printing of poster was common combined with collection of mobile phone numbers. When I visited Huruma polling station, I found Felix calling people to remind them about the day.

The situation on ground revealed that the elections of youth delegates in Mathare being less tribal and this is one of the lessons that the political parties can learn from the youth elections. The election is driven by how well known one is for doing things than money politics.

However there is generally low voter turn-out by the youth. This could be partly attributed to low publicity of the elections by the Ministry of Youth and the local administration. Also the election being held on a working day has locked out youths attending colleges or those working.

From the start of youth election, there was very little interest civil society organizations which conduct monitoring of elections or promote voter registration. Part of Yes We Can Fund by the USAID should have been invested in the youth election. – Simon