MY EXPERIENCE WITH MCDF SO FAR

I am going to talk about my experience working with MCDF until now. I arrived to Kenya Thursday 12^th June, but I started to work Monday 16^th June with MCDF. When I arrived to Kenya that Thursday I was really happy thinking “I am going to work with two NGO’s in Kenya”, one of them is MCDF. Then, the next day I met with three people of the team of MCDF in the hotel that I was staying, and I thought ‘they are really great people’ so I was expecting how is going to be the Monday when I start to work with them. So, the Monday we come to the office with Martha, one of the team and met again with Winnie and Emily (MCDF’s Founder) and she introduced me to Esther, and we started a meeting at 9am, then they told me something that during all this time has been truth, they told me “Please feel like at home” and always has been like this, they are really amazing and hard worker people.

The first week we had an event on the KICC – Kenyatta International Conference Centre, it was the ‘6^th International Conference on Peer Education, Sexuality, HIV and AIDS’ that started 18^th June and finished 20^th June 2014. And those three days we had a tent where we were explaining how the FC2 –Female Condom Second Generation- works, so we were advocating about the use of this in Kenya. One of the things that I think that was really great was to see that not were only women asking about the FC2 but also the men, and not only the people that went to the Conference, also the people that work in the KICC and people that went to this place for another International Conference, then when I talked with some of this people from another countries I could see that they were really interested in the FC2 because it isn’t something really popular in another countries outside of Kenya, even in my country it isn’t really known for people because it’s more popular the male condom.

Then when Emily Karechio made a presentation of the FC2 during the Conference I could see that not only she is a really an empowered woman but also she really believes on the use of the FC2 for avoid STI’s (Sexually Transmitted Infections), HIV, AIDS and unwanted pregnancy. For the other hand, it’s really good to observe that this kind of small details can make a big change about empowerment of women, because it’s a way to say that the women have the choice to decide about their sexual relations and what they want, and it is not only a decision of the man. So about it, it’s important to say that if the women have this choice, it is a responsibility too, because if someone has the choice to do something so also has the duty to do it. But I cannot set aside that the money it’s a problem for a big percentage of women to buy the FC2, so it would be amazing if the institutions make it for free because for the NGO’s like MCDF it’s a really hard work to keep these costs despite all their efforts. 

Another big important event in which I worked with MCDF was the Citizen’s Day with L’oreal East Africa the last 4^th July. I really enjoyed the preparations for that day and the activities that we made. The last week of June we made a preview of the Locations that we were going to visit for the Citizen’s Day, so we went to ‘Mlolongo Market’ (another County of Kenya), ‘Jophen Primary’, ‘Motherly care Children’s Home’, ‘Compassionate Hands for the disable’ and to ‘Watoto wema  children’s centre’. Go to these places was a really illustrative thing, I learned a lot of and I could interact with some people there something that I really appreciate because were things that is a knowledge that I acquire for my life, and another things will result really illuminating for the things that I studied in my career about ‘Public Policy’, so it was great.

And for finish, I am going to talk about 4^th July as such (Citizen’s Day with L’oreal East Africa), because that day I went with Emily to ‘Langata Women’s Prison’ in Narobi, Kenya. So, I need to make a clarification, I am studying Political Science In Colombia and my thesis for graduation it is about a case of Prison in my country, so the fact that I could go to know to this place was another thing really illuminating for me and my thesis. In that place I think that I learned a lot of because I was playing with the prisoner’s babies and the Director of the Prison let us to know some pavilions of the jail, and we could talk we some people there, listen their stories and interact with them. For the other hand, L’oreal East Africa offered a day of beautification for the some prisoners which I think that it’s really great for them because for some of these people it could be a moment when someone else is working for them and take care of them in a good way.

To sum up, work with MCDF has been one of the most enriching things that I never made, so I really must to appreciate to all of them (Emily, Martha, Winnie, Esther, Noella, Moses, Charles, Sylvia, Ken and Moses) for all the things that they have shared with me and allow me to learn of each one of them.

Lina Fernanda Perico Martínez

Volunteer on MCDF
Student of Political Science with Emphasis on Conflicts Resolution and Peace Research
Pontifical Xavierian University, Colombia