My expectatives from MCDF and about the work with them.

MCDF – Muthaa Community Development Foundation
My name: Lina Fernanda Perico Martinez
My age: 24 years.
Nationality: Colombian.

First of all, I need make a very important clarification, I don’t speak english very well because I am from Colombia and there we speak spanish, so I am sorry if I make some mistakes. I am going to present myself, then I am going to talk about my expectatives in Kenya and with the work with MCDF. 

My name is Lina Fernanda Perico Martinez, I am from Tunja in Colombia, but I live in another city –Bogota- that is the capital city from my country, I live there because I am studying `Political Science’ at Pontifical Xaverian University, I am in my last semester of the career.

About my expectatives for the work with MCDF, I have big expectations because when I decided to come to Kenya I was really thinking that it’s a great country and Africa in general it’s a beautiful continent, so my expectatives about MCDF are big but realistic, I think so, because when you think that you are going to work with community you can think that you are going to do something in one way or in one direction, but the reality is that humans are complex and you can not decide the things, the things happen and you must be prepared for all the challenges, and aven thought that is not a garantee for nothing. But it’s more about to preview what could be happen with your actions and intentions, the implications of those, the actions and reactions of the other people. 

So, when I was in Colombia I always thought that I would like to live in Africa and then I came here, and confirmed my intentions, yes I am pretty sure that I want to live in Africa. I think that Colombia and Kenya have a lot of things in common, since that both are really beautiful countries until there are really great and friendly people, as well in both countries there are problems and you can not deny them, social problems, economics problems, so there is where is the importance to work with and for the people.

For other side, when I saw on internet that MCDF have programs with children that is making the transition for the adulthood, with empowered women, and with Reproductive health, I was really interested about those because that kind of programs are vitals for make a least a change in a country, because a country can have a economic improves but it can not be necessrily a translate in an improve for the people. But if you work with people and for the people, and always with the idea in your mind that “nothing is wrote with people”, or in otrhers words, there are a lot of wrote about people but people are a complex thing and you can not assurance nothing and you can not generalize about that because people change and all people are different.

For other side, when I saw on internet that MCDF have programs with children that is making the transition for the adulthood, with empowered women, and with Reproductive health, I was really interested about those because that kind of programs are vitals for make at least one change in a country, because a country can have a economic improves but it can not be necessrily a translate in an improve for the people. But if you work with people and for the people, and always with the idea in your mind that “nothing is wrote about people”, or in others words, there are a lot of writting about people but people are a complex thing and you can not asseverate nothing and you can not generalize because people change and all people are different.

And about it, I think that work with children is the key for make a changes to long term, and may be you can not see the big changes right now, but the next generation could see it, and if you and people themselves work on it, we are could be a different people. For the other hand, if there are a work with the empowering of women, it would make a huge difference in how works a place, because you work with women that can make a change in their families, their homes and in their communities. So, that is one of the reason for I am really interesting in the work with the ‘FC2’ –Female Condom 2-, beacuse there are a condoms for males and it is very known on the world that women have anticonceptive methods, but the fact that a women use a female condom it’s not only a thing about the pregnancy, it’s more than this, it’s about health too, because with the female condom you can prevent some diseases like VIH and an others a lot of sexual transmission diseases and yeah the men can use the condom, but women have the same right to use it and decide about this, and may be for someone that is not the big deal, but it isn’t true because when you talk about FC2, you are talking about the sexual responsabilities and it’s not just about the condom question, it’s about all things that imply the health sexual relations.

Finally, about the team, when I arrived to Nairobi and Emily told me that MCDF staff are 5 people, I was thinking but how, how can they make this big work with all those programs, so I remembered in that moment one of those things that I learned in my life, and it is that when you really want to do something you make that happen, so now I can see that noone of people that work with MCDF are saying that it’s impossible or that they can not do something about, because they are not wasting time thinking about the impossible things, they are thinking about what they can do.

So, I am really happy in Nairobi and I am looking forward to working.

Lina Fernanda Perico Martinez