Project visit in Kenya, Africa
As a member of Inclusive Network, Nepal, BIKALPA-Nepal’s honorary advisor/Consultant Ram Chandra Paudel has visited Kenya in May this year for a project visit in his capacity and experience on rights of children. He was accompanying with Danish, Nepali and Colombian delegates from 12-27th May. His reflections of the visit are as follows:
- Had opportunity to visit to Directorate of Children’s Services under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, Kenya (https://www.socialprotection.go.ke/directorates), Different Government line agencies, Kenya Institute of Special Education/Educational Assessment, public schools, Kamukunji deputy county commissioner office and share & exchange status of Care Reform practices between Nepal and Kenya. They are ahead on formation of this policy and working together with civil society organization to practice and implement. Government officials are very informative, dedicated and supportive to the case. They have National Care Reform Strategy for Children in Kenya, 2022-2032 (file:///C:/Users/DELL/Downloads/kenya_national_care_reform_strategy_web_version.pdf) and implementing it. It inspired us to facilitate process to have Care Reform Strategy plan in Nepal.
- Had opportunity to visit, meet and interact with the representatives of Civil Society organizations- APDK, KAACR, GCC,PLK, Different Networks including Child Protection network and PWD networks, Youth Advocates, Youth Champions, She Leads/Ignite and so on. It helped me to understand how civil society organization partner with Government agencies and playing a positive role independently for service delivery and advocacy on different issues. We also share our experiences and good practices in Nepal.
- Had also opportunity to visit slums -Mathare informal settlement- flood effected area, Kibra slum, Kamukunji slum which was effected by flooding and demolition with high security of police officers. We observed how capitalism exploiting people and making them so poor and venerable. We noticed the high population in need and wondering about how Civil Society Organizations – APDK, KAACR, PLK can take initiative to fulfill the need of the people collaborating with Government Agencies. The need is so big!
- APDK team (Anthony, Benson), Colombia team (Salka, Nico), 100 % Children Team ( Camilla L, Camilla O) and Nepal team representative Ram had an opportunity to share the visit experiences and learning on 24th May. We delegates from Colombia and Nepal were very much impressed about the visit plan, opportunity to exchange each other and Government representatives and Civil Society Organizations. Everything went smoothly and positively. We thank APDK and 100 % Children giving this opportunity to us. We also appreciated the Civil Society Organizations – APDK and CAACR closely working/partnering with Government. Keep it up!!
- APDK teams were so impressed about the documentary of “Nandalal” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYbZfzND5JM) presented by Nepali team including ATOS. They shared that it should be our goal! They want to learn more about it. They also wanted to learn more about community mobilization, parents taking ownership of the services including bottom up approach. They were impressed about Sex education in Colombia and wanted to learn more about it too.
Next Steps
- Inclusive Network team including ATOS drafted the project to apply to CISU during the visit time. Rita is working hard on it. Thank you Rita! We are planning to apply it soon.
- Ram is thinking to draft guideline/ Status of IN and present to IN core group. Shudarson will contact Manish, Lama and Rita Shrestha. After that, very soon we should have a core IN group meeting!
- Ram is planning to make an exchange with youth in Pokhara and youth in Nairobi through ZOOM.
- 100 % children will apply project including exchange visit to CISU. Tentative time to visit Colombia will be in October/November this year and visit to Nepal will be February/March. Visit to Colombia would be learning more about Sex Education focus. Visit to Nepal will be more focus on advocating Government and Civil Society organization to work on Care Reform Strategic plan. For this we request to have a representative Children Services Directors of Government Representative from Kenya who is good on sharing Care Reform Policy development.
- Colombian team will translate their documents into English and share to all of us including APDK.
- 100% Children has applied rapid response fund of CISU to flood victims in Kenya and attracting many other donors. They are also applying various projects- for Colombia with micuerpo, for Kenya with APDK, KAACR.
