A NARRATIVE ON A THREE DAYS WORKSHOP OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

FROM 6TH DECEMBER 2017 TO 8TH DECEMBER 2017.

TOPIC: SELFAWARNESS

This workshop had anticipated to have twenty five participants on each day of the workshop but

that did not happen as planned. All of them were women. Two were facilitators. The head

facilitator was Mrs. Leah Asego who was assisted by Mrs. Christine Obura. On the first day 18

participants came.

DAY ONE.
  10:00-10:15 am Registration

 10:15-10:45 am Introduction (They also selected their leaders, class representative and

time keeper. Identified norms that would guide them during this period)

 10:45-11:00 am Ice Breaking Activity ( Song entitled Wawili Wawili)

 11:00-11:30 am Short Break

 11:00-1:00 pm introduction of the workshop topic. Participants were allowed to share

what they know about the topic.

 1:00-2:00 pm Lunch Break

 2:00-2:30 pm Experiential Activity (The facilitator instructed them on what to do while

observing their response.)

 2:30-3:40 pm they were asked questions and we needed them to respond by writing on a

piece of paper then pin them on the board.

 3:40-3:50 pm Question and answer Time

 3:50-3:55pm A.O.B

 3:55-4:00pm Closing Prayer.

INTRODUCTION

The participants came in closed minded and each of the kept to themselves. Some covered

themselves with lessos and even greeting each other was a challenge. We chose the following

method to help them open up a bit. Each of them had to get a partner however not the person

they had sat next to, then find out more about them after which both of them would to introduce

each other to the rest of us. After the introduction they selected a class representative and a time

keeper. This was followed by identifying norms that would help them have a good stay during

the workshop period and this norms included:

  All phones should be in silent mode while in class

 Punctuality during reporting time and after every break.

 One person should speak at a time.

 Respect one another

 No noise making in class

 Learning materials provided must be used during class time. No one should leave hers at

home.

 Everyone should at least try to participate.

We then asked them about their expectations and below are some of the answers they gave:

 To come and make new friends

 To gain knowledge and interact with fellow women

 Gain more knowledge on business

 To learn

 To attend a seminar

 To get advice as women of Kimbra.

ICE BREAKING ACTIVITY.

This was done by singing and dancing a song called” Wawili Wawili”. During the song’s climax

one was meant to be in groups of two, three, four or single. This activity was done repeatedly

and participants started opening up because when pairing they clanged to each other without

choosing specifically who to cling on. At the end of this activity we asked them to say what they

had learnt and their response was as follows:

 When we cling on each other we find warmth

  When one remains alone she is lonely and glum my

 When we are united we are strong

 Singing has brightened me up

 My husband does not allow me to dance and now I have the opportunity to do so here

 I came in with a lot of thoughts. Singing and dancing has made me forget my worries.

 I came in heavy but now I feel much lighter.

Introduction to the workshops topic

Self-awareness

We allowed them to share what they understood by the term self-awareness and their response

were as follows:

 I have never heard of this word

 It is me.

 It is what I should think about myself

 It is what I should not think about myself

 It is what troubles me

 It is what I do not know about myself

 It is about my family

The above helped us as the facilitators know which level of understanding we were handling. We

then defined to the self-awareness as: “Being aware of your inner core, uniqueness, beyond your

name, status, roles, skills and profession then reflecting upon it.

EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVITY
The participants were instructed on what to do as we the facilitators observed their behavior.

Statements such as, “all people in skirts group together, all people with short hair group together,

any person wearing a black dress group together, all people wearing flowered clothes group

together or people wearing trousers group together” were made.

We observed all manner of grouping which was fun to them. When asked what they learnt from

this activity they said the following:

 One must be attentive in class

 One must listen to what she is being told

 Do not be in a hurry to do something

 One could find a person whose behavior is similar to hers’

 We are different

 It helped in uniting us

 Always be alert.

Then to help in internalizing the topic, we asked some questions which were to be responded on

a piece of paper then the pieces of paper were to be pinned on the board.

Question 1. What makes you happy in your life?

Their responses were as follows:

 Being alive and seeing my family

 I have a husband

 I am who I am

 I have a family
  I wake up in the morning. I thank God very much because they are many who have not

seen the day.

 I have a house

 To see my family prosper

 To see my business succeed

 The way God created the world and everything in it including me

 Being my real self

 When I am not sick

 When there is peace everywhere my business goes well.

 To look after my family without any problems

Question 2. What makes you angry in life?

 Seeing the policemen killing innocent people and seeing neighbors hating each other.

 Tribalism

 Nikikosewa na mtoto wangu ama wa jirani nakasirika san ahata kula nasahau hata siku

mbili

 The way the country is, there is no money people are not one

 Wakati ninapo patwa na msiba

 Na pia ninapofirisika kima pato

 Kukosa pesa

 When I am sick

 Burden of my house

 Stress
DAY TWO.

We had twenty five participants on this day. Since we were now familiar with each other we

started with a group activity to bring back our thoughts to class.

Group Activity.

We sang the song wawili wawili. As they sang and danced to the song we could see them

enjoying it and even helped in leading the song at some point. We again asked about their

experience after the activity and they said the following:

 The mentioning of the song alone gave me life

 The song reminds me of who I am

 The song reminds me of love

 The song reminds me of being my sisters keeper

 The song reminds me of peace.

After that we recapped the previous day’s topic by allowing them to participate in the following

questions:

1. What are your weaknesses? Explain?

Their responses were:

 My weaknesses include trusting people too much and forgetting so quickly. This

makes me not detect my enemies quickly.

 Misusing money I buy everything that passes in front of me

 After eating I sit down because I am tired and cannot do anything.

 I love seeing people at peace so when I see no peace I get very worried.

 Nina roho ndogo huwa na kasirika haraka

 Mimi ni mwananchi wa chini, I am poor and I have no power, if I could be president

or talk to God I could bring peace to this country Kenya.

  I don’t know how to ask for forgivness when I am wrong and I do not know why.

 Nimeamka sina pesa ya biashara nitaanzia wapi?

2. What are your strengths?

Their responses were:

 Attractive business language

 God has helped me not to worry doing things without disturbance

 I have the strength to do my business everyday and I thank God for that.

 Nguvu yangu ni Mungu

 Uvumilivu

 Nikona nguvu ya kufanya biashara.

3. Do you have goals in life?

Their responses were:

 To expand my business and get a plot. I do not want to rent a house all the time.

 Lengo langu ni kuwa katika maisha mazuri na familia yangu. Hata nikitoka duniani

niwaache pahala pazuri. (To have a good life for my family so that even as I depart from

earth I leave them set).

 To boost my business

 To take my children to school

 To always fear God and pray always

 To learn new skills in life

 To do my job very well and put more effort to push forward

 To go to America and I do not know the way.

4. What prevents you from achieving your goal?

Their responses were:

 Kitu kama magonjwa ama ukosefu wa hela inanirudisha nyuma kupata matarajio

(illness and lack of capital).

 Little business

 Because what I’m thinking is not what my husband is thinking. Tunakosana hapo

hapo

 Because I do not know where to start singing people to approach so that I can

achieve this thing since it is my talent since I was a small girl.

 No money

 Umaskini.

After answering the questions to help them internalize the topic of self-awareness we

took them through three fundamental questions. The questions included:

 Who am I?

 What am I?

 Where am I going?

Their responses were:

 A woman

 A human being like others

 First born in my family

 My uniqueness makes me different from others

 Fearfully and wonderfully created by God

  Submissive wife

 I am Veronica

 A house wife

 Proud to be a good mother

 Am a Christian

 A strong woman

 Can do anything in life

 Knows how to look after my family

 Have children

The above responses indicated that they were now understanding the topic self-awareness. To

dig in deeper we now introduced a topic on ONE OF MANY SELVES. The one of many selves

included: the material self, social self and spiritual self.

They were able to combine the three selves and give examples on how they complement each

other. They gave examples such as child birth.

A child is a gift from God, by knowing this they identified with the spiritual self. After child

birth a mother needs a person to help her recover or even take care of the child. This could be a

neighbor or a family member. This they identified with social self. They said that in African

Society, a child is regarded as a property, hence a woman who did not give birth could not inherit

any property. They identified with material self.

They also said that a wedding could be traditional or Christian whoever both are spiritually

involving. Those that adored the small god not necessarily all and in a Christian wedding those

who adored the God almighty. Here they were about to know their spiritual and social self.
They said they thought the social self was dominant reasons being if one is anti-social who can

come help you welcome you’re new born. If one is anti-social are they able to talk to their

church members or even the clergy and engage themselves in the process of infant baptism,

weddings or requiem mass. If one needs help raising their child’s school fees and they aren’t

social with other people, how will the fund raising be done. Any activity on earth is fulfilled by

people, hence one must socialize to develop, to learn new ideas and to make new friends.

One of them was quick enough to mention the workshop as a social forum that is helping her in

building her social self.

Those who did not appreciate social self promised to be social to their relatives, friends and even

neighbors.

DAY THREE

On this day we had twenty one participants. The numbers were fluctuating. When we asked them

why that was so, they said that it was due to some of them being sick, death and their economic

activities from which they earned their livelihoods.

After the brief chat we sensed their baggage which ruined the gains they had made so far. Thus

we engaged them in a group activity. The song wawili wawili brought smiles to their faces. They

sang and danced it off enjoying themselves to the fullest.

After the song we asked them that being the third day of repeating the song how did it make the

feel. They said the following:

 It helps me become aware of myself

 It reduces my stress

 It lightens my burdens

 It feels me with love

 It helps me appreciate people

 It unites me with my friends

 It humbles my

 It soothes my soul.

Since it was our last day of the workshop, we wanted to find out if we had made any impact

hence introduced the topic WHY SELF-AWARENESS.

They responded by saying the following:

 Self-awareness helps one have a clear image of self

 Think well of yourself

 Be more in charge of your life

 Be more sensitive to other people’s needs

 Able to handle life situations

 To be open to change
  Aware of resources.

The above answers enabled us to give more questions and to work in groups since they were now

aware of self.

We asked them how one can increase self-awareness since they knew what it was. Their

response were as follows:

 By associating with other people

 By knowing myself

 Being a good listener

 Practicing what one knows frequently

 By forgiving others

 By always thinking positively about myself

 By learning from others

 By pretending that I have not seen but I have seen.

 By confirming with others

 Through hard work

 Seeking advice from my elders

 Appreciating others opinion.

The final exercise of the workshop was group work before answering evaluation questions. We

divided them into four groups and gave a question to each group.

Group 1

Where am I in my life journey?

Their responses were:

 By knowing ourselves

 By having goals in our lives

 By accepting advice and being ready for everything

 By working hard

 Being social

 Being forgiving

 By achieving our goals

 Then we move on with our lives

Group 2

What is the influence of the nuclear and extended family in which I was born in?

Their responses were:

 I must learn their behaviors e.g. for instance the place I got married the people there

aren’t Christians, I have to encourage them to go to church and even teach them some

Christian values.

 Respect :

Group 3

What cultural factors influence me?

Their responses were:

 Respecting others and honoring elders

  Community style of living

 Interacting with other communities

 The way children were being disciplined

 Working together

 Unity

 Traditional food

 Loving each other

 When others did not have milk we would share

 Circumcision reduced the spread of STIs

 Use of horns and drums when emergency occurred in the community

 Games like fighting of the bulls, dancing and singing

 Fishing together with peace and harmony

 Cooling water in the pots

 Styles of paying dowry

 Eating together as a family or a community

 Use of polite language

 How to communicate with God

 Styles of farming that was being used.

Group 4

How has my education and my work impacted my life?

Their responses were:

 Education assists me on how to calculate my profits and losses

  My education assists me on how to open a bank account for my business

 My education helps me know how to arrange my work place

 My education assists me on how to spend my income

 My education assists me on how and when to sign business documents

 My education assists me on how to make measurements on ingredients

 My education assists me on how to communicate with my customers

 My education assists me on how to get a loan and spend it wisely.

 My education assists me on how to make business orders for my business

Conclusion

The participants co-operated and participated actively. Learning was experienced from both

sides. We the facilitators learnt a lot from them and they also learnt a lot from us. Women from

Kibra shouldn’t be underrated. At first we thought that they could not present or write in English

but we were delighted to watch them write and present in English. It was a wonderful experience

to empower open minded women. Our sincere gratitude goes to the organizers and all the women

who participated.

Report has been compiled by:

Mrs. Leah Asego- Lead Facilitator

Mrs. Christine Obura- Assistant Facilitator