Annina Lux - A Definition of Snow

It is my hope therefore that the perception of Africa as a country, constantly perpetuated, will be laid bare, and that in years to come, the joke that my friend and I share will no longer make sense. It is my hope that through VOICE, the work that citizens of these countries do will be appreciated more and better supported. And as people from developed countries offer to help or extend support, they will do so as partners, as co-workers, and not as heroes going in to save ‘poor’ people. The long-held view that people from developing countries are helpless is challenged through VOICE as it demonstrates the same people working tirelessly to bring a change in their societies. We therefore invite you, dear reader, into our world. We hope that as you enter our world through our stories, you will be moved, challenged, refreshed – but more importantly – enlightened.

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Sheila Chepkoech (Kenya)

I come from Africa, a continent that is very rich in many ways. We are very wealthy in non-material things such as happiness, laughter, joy, contentment, generosity and love. We are also wealthy in natural resources, breath-taking scenery and fertile land. However, we are famously known in the Western world for poverty, disease, corruption and war. The truth is we are more than that and there is our own side of the story that is not often told. Although suffering, pain and poverty exist among us, just like they do in many other societies around the world, what is often left out is the resilience, the passion and the sacrifice by which the majority of the African people rise amid the difficult circumstances around them: the genuine joy and laughter that emanate from our hearts regardless of the challenges surrounding us. And most importantly the hope that is always burning in our hearts and the courage to dare the impossible, which are often omitted from the narrative.

I am a 28-year-old, born and raised in Kenya, an east African country with a population of about 43 million people. My childhood started out very well as I lived with both of my parents and my younger brother. However, when I was 11 years old, my parents separated and my mother moved us from Kitale, a small town located towards the western part of my country, where we lived then, to the capital city, Nairobi. The move in itself was a big change: Kitale is a very small town of about 100,000 inhabitants while Nairobi is a big city, with over 3 million inhabitants, and is full of activity. The majority of the government offices and the headquarters of notable international organisations such as the United Nations (UN) are located in Nairobi.

As a child, going through my parents’ separation and moving to a big city was a challenge that became a defining moment that shaped my life. Everything happened very rapidly without anyone explaining to me what exactly was going on. You see, in our society, children are often not consulted or offered an explanation on events going on around them as they are considered to be too young to understand. In one week, my brother and I were moved to Nairobi and had to live with relatives for several months before my mother could join us. We had to change schools, make new friends and adapt to the city, and at this point, the future looked scary and uncertain. Although I was deeply saddened by my parents’ separation, I chose to focus on how I was going to make my life better. I made a decision that my life would not be defined by my circumstances but instead, I would choose a path of excellence. From that moment on I took every challenge that came my way as a motivation to aim higher and to push harder in life.

Life in the city was never easy and, since my mother was the only source of income for our family, we always had to sacrifice a lot as there was hardly ever any money to afford any form of luxury. It is the financial difficulties that I faced in my life which inspired me to want to help other people, because I always felt I could identify with them. As a result, I have chosen development work as a career as I truly believe it provides me with a broader scope in which I can help people.

One of my greatest satisfactions is to make people’s lives better, no matter how little the impact might be, and as a result I enjoy doing volunteer work. One of the first organisations that I volunteered with was Compassion International, a Christian organisation that sponsors the education of children from poor backgrounds from kindergarten to university. In Compassion, I was a facilitator during their holiday camps organised for the children, usually running for a week. I am also one of the founding members of Tuwakuze Africa, a youth-led initiative now registered as an association, which aims at affording access to quality education for children from underprivileged backgrounds.

I have also worked both as a volunteer and as an intern on two social projects run by an Italian NGO called European Committee for Training and Agriculture (CEFA Kenya) 2. The first project that I worked for was dubbed ‘Arts against Poverty’, and worked with a group of 40 selected artists working in different media. The artists went through various workshops to equip them with marketing and communication skills, and they were provided with platforms to showcase their art as well. The other project that I worked for was ‘Improving the Juvenile Justice System’. The aim of this project was to bring about much-needed reforms within the juvenile justice system in Kenya. I got the opportunity to interact and work with children living in juvenile justice institutions in Nairobi. Together we were able to carry out a project called ‘Face to Face’, a collaborative venture between Kabete Rehabilitation School and Casumaro School, Italy.

The aim of this project was to familiarise the children from the two different countries and cultures with the lifestyle and perspectives of the other, through exchanging videos highlighting their lives and questions on things they would like to know about the children from the other school. I organised and guided discussions on children’s rights with 15 boys from Kabete Rehabilitation School to create content for filming. Going through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was an eye-opening experience both for me and for the boys I was working with. This is because these rights are seldom talked about and most of the children were not aware that they have rights. For the boys it was even harder as learning these rights brought the realisation to most of them that their rights had been denied in one way or another.

Children’s rights, and the awareness of the lack of them in my society is what informs part of what I have done so far and what I would like to do in future. Rights that may seem simple in other societies such as access to education, the right to good living standards, the right to good health, and the right to special care and support are a rare commodity for a huge number of children in Kenya. Acknowledging that I had access to these rights during my childhood makes me realise how fortunate I am, and it is hence my desire to see that other children in my society are accorded the same. It is this background that informed my choice of where I wanted to undertake my community service when I was pursuing my undergraduate degree.

I had the opportunity to do my community service at a rehabilitation centre for children with disabilities called Total Rehab Centre for the Disabled, located in the Kasarani area of Nairobi. During and after my experience in the Centre, my desire to help, especially those who are unable to stand up for themselves such as the disabled, grew immensely. Though we did not communicate in words, as many children could not speak, our actions and reactions enabled us to understand one another. We formed a bond that I will forever cherish in my heart, and it is for this reason that I feel compelled to share some of my experiences.