Written by Annabel Prokopy
I arrived in Kwale County, Kenya on the evening of June 1, 2023. As the sun was setting, I traveled up Kwale Road through the stunning tropical landscape towards the small town of Kwale: my home for the next month. My driver was quick to point out the maize fields that we were passing - a small reminder of home in Indiana.
Kwale Town is where the office of the Hijabi Mentorship Program (THMP) is located. I was lucky enough to become connected to THMP this past year through consulting with the Global Development Consulting program and greatly admired their community-based approach towards empowering women in Kwale County. That’s why, in January, I reached out to their director, Nimah, asking if I could spend part of my summer interning with THMP. I hoped to develop a deeper understanding of their work and of the place. Through this invaluable opportunity, generously funded by the Tobias Center for Innovation in International Development, I have certainly gained this understanding alongside countless other life lessons and experiences.
As an intern with THMP, I spent the majority of my time out in the community: helping to support community events, facilitate trainings and programs, and provide healthcare services to women and children. Most days, I would travel in a tuk tuk (a sort of small car that can take you and a few others a short distance) or on the back of a motorbike (called a “boda”) down Kwale Road towards Diani with my colleague and now good friend, Caroline. We would spend the day visiting children’s homes, the homes of women, and small medical practices where Caroline would provide free and vital healthcare services, particularly to address the impacts of gender-based violence (GBV).
Simultaneously, I worked to create a map of the social services available to women in multiple sub-counties of Kwale County using QGIS. This resource is something that THMP hopes to use to better visualize the availability of services and to increase the effectiveness of their programs by focusing on areas where services are lacking. In creating the map, I talked to the people in the leadership of children’s homes, hospitals, and police services to collect descriptive data including what community resources they utilize and what their goals are. This gave me the opportunity to form a much deeper understanding of how these various institutions function, the challenges that they face, and their roles within the community. I unexpectedly gained a significant amount of insight into the social work scene in Kenya, which led to interesting conversations about how it compares to and is simultaneously different from the United States. Similarly, I was interested to learn about the resources that women have when faced with GBV and to consider how these can also be compared.
Through THMP, I was connected to a small organization that is in its early stages called Graceful Ageing Initiative. This organization provides support to vulnerable elderly community members in Kwale who are not supported through social services. Much of this support is related to challenges presented by GBV. I decided to spend some time collaborating with the initiative to create a video about them - something which they are particularly looking forward to using in order to push their programs off the ground and to gain support.
Filming the video was an unforgettable experience. I spent the day traveling down dirt roads into the mountains on the back of a motorbike to reach the remote homes of community members that the organization supports. I then had fascinating conversations with them about their lives and the challenges that they face. It was absolutely invaluable. Through these conversations, I was able to practice some of the Swahili that I have learned throughout the year in order to connect with the community members, who often spoke little English. These conversations left me with a lot to consider about access to services, the role of small-scale agriculture in livelihoods, and how a small community-based organization can be successful in improving lives. The organization was also interested in learning more about how they can consider funding opportunities and how to develop polished internal policies; I was able to use skills that I gained through consulting with HLSGDC this past year to go through some of these steps with them.
Outside of interning, I had the most incredible time exploring coastal Kenya and meeting countless wonderful people. The geography of the area is stunning: with beautiful white sand beaches, a national park in the rainforest, and access to fascinating cities to explore. While for the majority of my internship I stayed in a small hotel in Kwale, learning to live on my own and gaining a better sense of the town, I also found the opportunity to stay at a hostel in Diani - a nearby town on the coast - where I made life-long friends with other young people from all around the world. On my days off, I swam in the depths of the Indian Ocean and hiked to the most stunning waterfall, avoiding biting safari ants along the way. My memories of Kwale are truly beautiful and unforgettable.
My internship with THMP was invaluable and many meaningful conversations throughout my time in Kenya helped me to process and express my experience. Rather than understanding the issues that THMP addresses from the viewpoint of an outsider, I gained a nuanced insider perspective. I had the opportunity to understand how a community organization addresses needs in a way that is directly helpful, how organizations within a community cooperate and impact each other, and spent significant time reflecting on my role as an outsider within the community. Ultimately, I was able to contribute to THMP’s initiatives in ways that they expressed would be directly impactful to their work, learned more than I will ever find words to express, and grew immensely as a person along the way.
Thank you to the Tobias Center for giving me the opportunity to have this experience and to the entire THMP team for being so welcoming to me in Kwale, Kenya. I hope to return soon. Asante sana!
Annabel Prokopy received the Tobias Center for Innovation in International Development Internship Scholarship in the summer of 2023.