The 8 weeks I spent becoming part of the Mukuru on the Move team proved richer and more fulfilling than I could have imagined.
We spent the majority of our time together preparing for a series of participatory workshops in partnership with Lea Toto, an organization that provides comprehensive care and psycho-social support services to approximately 8,000 children and adolescents living with or affected by HIV in 6 informal settlements in Nairobi. Each day consisted of a series of activities to prepare for the workshops including role plays, meetings, and debrief sessions. Role plays allowed facilitators to practice and adjust the curriculum as well as allowed all team members to offer constructive feedback to facilitators. These activities helped us understand the aims of the curriculum so we were all well versed in what each exercise aimed to accomplish. We clarified objectives and addressed challenges through daily meetings, discussions, and debrief sessions. My Emory colleagues and I quickly learned that our Kenyan colleagues highly valued full and active team member participation — I have vivid memories of sitting in our offices for hours until we reached a consensus. This approach to conflict resolution and objective clarification revealed to me that consensus and team solidarity are largely built through time and a shared mission. While it was sometimes hard to sit and resolve conflicts as a team, I do think we were stronger for it.
By the end of the summer, we conducted two workshops with 22 adolescent Lea Toto patients and one workshop with leaders of community organizations. Responses from Lea Toto staff on the workshop outcomes were overwhelmingly positive. Lea Toto staff members were impressed by the participatory nature of the workshops: how they engaged youth and sought to understand their perceptions of community resources as well as their needs and knowledge related to HIV. They noted how empowering an experience this could be for youth. They seemed excited and impressed by the possibilities.
I am so blessed to become part of the Mukuru on the Move team over the summer. While I miss the morning prayers preparing us for the day’s work and uniting us as we departed for home at the end of the day, I appreciate that my professional relationship with the team didn’t end after I left Mukuru and for the opportunity to continue working with them to analyze the results from the workshops and strategize next steps in their partnership with Lea Toto. I am so grateful for the ability to stay involved in this project and the opportunity to continue building the relationships I formed with my team members. I thank the Emory IHP for this opportunity. I thank my professors, John Blevins and Mimi Kiser, for their guidance. Lastly, I thank my team members for their love, patience, kindness, humor, insights and hard work.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Whitney Williams is an MPH Candidate 2014 at the Rollins School of Public Health