Kenya

In Kenya, we are working with the communities of Kagaga and Osiri who are located in the rural area between the towns of Ahero and Awasi in Nyando district, Kisumu County. The villages are situated approximately 25 miles from the major city of Kisumu.

Context

Osiri and Kagaga are small rural settlements with a population no larger than 150 people. As is the case with rural populations, there are no formal documented measurements of health or social outcomes for Osiri or Kagaga village.

Visits from community health volunteers or health NGOs are rare and means that residents need to travel into Ahero town for support. The journey takes approximately one to two hours via boda-boda and Matatu.

The majority of residents in Osiri and Kagaga live under the poverty line and rely upon subsistence farming with some members of the community travelling to major cities such as Nairobi or Mombasa for work.

Previous work

As in Uganda, we are building on pre-existing collaborations as the team have previously worked on a number of arts-based social impact projects in the area. These were mostly looking at issues around sexual and reproductive health, gender (in)equalities, maternity services and mental health.

Project highlights include the county wide tour of four participatory performances on sexual reproductive health including Hera Okcham and an arts-based research concerning male mental health.