First JustJourney to Africa

We weren't in the country 24 hours before we were being taught the Kiswahili words Ndio Tunaweza — Yes, we can!," shared Rev. Liz McMaster, of Albuquerque, N.M., who traveled with UUSC to Kenya in March 2009, as part of the first-ever JustJourney to Africa.

The JustJourney was a rare chance for eight UUSC supporters to meet members of UUSC's four Kenyan partners. They learned about how they work, despite overwhelming odds, to lift up their communities and lay the foundation for improved human-rights protections — particularly after last year's post-election crisis.

"All four partners uphold the right to work in dignity," explained Ariel Jacobson, UUSC's associate for Economic Justice, who helped to lead the group. "This trip highlighted the cross-fertilization and synergy between our partners."

Starting in Nairobi, the group traveled by bus to Machakos and then west, through the Rift Valley, to Nakuru and Kakamega, to get a fuller picture of UUSC's partners and their work. The distances were long, sometimes covering hundreds of miles of bone-rattling, dusty roads, but all onboard were buoyed by the positive energy and attitude of UUSC's partners, whose impacts were demonstrated again and again.

"Ndio Tunaweza could be the rallying cry of all the people we met and talked with," remarked McMaster.

Informal traders and vendors

At several key meetings with the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT), JustJourneyers heard directly from informal traders about their efforts to organize and raise working standards, a goal made all the more difficult by the current global economic crisis.

Studies show that the informal economy in Kenya employs approximately 70 percent of all workers; yet their contributions to the national economy are not yet recognized or respected. This is why, under the slogan "Let the people trade," KENASVIT draws together street vendors in seven urban centers, to advocate at the policy level for recognition of workers who contribute so much.

"The incredible energy generated by the KENASVIT members as they reported on their work of the past year was not limited to the leadership," commented Mary Russell, of Boston, Mass., who won the trip in last year's JustJourneys raffle. "The members themselves reflected a deep understanding that only together could they improve their common welfare. The phrase ‘We are one' was spoken again and again."

Revolving-loan fund multiplies recovery

Last year, after whole sections of Nairobi and other cities were destroyed by post-election violence, KENASVIT and a new UUSC partner, the Kakamega Grassroots Initiative (KGI), set up revolving-loan funds that use monies raised by the UUSC-UUA Kenya Crisis Fund to help people restart businesses.

In Kakamega, over a meal of sweet potatoes, toasted sesame seeds, and chapatti bread prepared by KGI members, JustJourneyers heard from women displaced by the 2008 electoral violence. Having fled to Kakamega, they were struggling to make ends meet, when KGI reached out to them, giving them loans of $70-200 to start small businesses, such as poultry raising or vegetable farming. Shared one KGI member, "Now, because I can sell eggs in the market, my children have fees to go to school and food to eat, so life is much better."

The multiplier effect of these revolving-loan funds was a source of great interest and discussion among JustJourneyers, particularly during their daily group reflections, an important feature of UUSC's experiential-learning model. "It was amazing to see the impact that what to us is a small amount of money was able to make," commented Martha Easter-Wells, a JustJourneyer from Davenport, Iowa. "It allowed people to start their businesses, get them going, and they're paying them back."

Similarly, another UUSC partner, the Rock Women Group, extended the scope of its job-skills training programs after the post-election crisis. While members previously focused on supporting girl students and women in Nairobi's slums, they now also work with boys and young men. Remarked McMaster of the dynamic teacher-organizers who make up the group, "They are truly named: they are rock-solid women, saving young lives with undaunted courage."

A joyful last stop

The last stop on the JustJourney was in Kakamega, in Kenya's last remaining rainforest. There, JustJourneyers met with Environmental Justice partner the SoilFarm Multi-culture Group to learn more about its innovative Hope in Crops project. Hope in Crops trains children and teachers in ten schools to plant native tree species to help preserve the rainforest and mitigate climate change, while producing food and livelihoods in a sustainable way.

A high point of the JustJourney for many was meeting the children touched by the reforestry project. "I think the high — or at least one of the great highs — for me was when the bus stopped at the first school to see perhaps 200 kids in blue uniforms racing toward our bus, singing (with drum accompaniment) their welcome to us," reflected McMaster. "Their joy and exuberance were contagious."

Written by UUSC's Meredith Barges for Rights Now, Spring 2009.