I had a fantastic time in Kenya. Nairobi was a lot more western than I had imagined with lots of big office blocks in the centre. Quite different to some of the other areas which I visited..

On the first day I travelled up to one of the Sumerian Foundations Seed of Hope Training Schools in Kariti, about an hour North of Nairobi, where they teach underprivileged teenage girls skills for dress making, and also teach them maths, business skills and about health issues. The girls also work in a rota system to clean and do the cooking for everyone at the school. The kitchen was a wooden shed just down the hill from the main building using open fires with large vat type pots to cook in. Two of the girls showed me around and I was amazed at how great their English was, they have all their lessons in English as it is the official language and have extra lessons to learn more of their native language Swahili. We also visited an orphanage at Kandara which the Foundation provides support for. There was one 2 month old baby who had been abandoned at the side of the road at the age of 2 weeks old, the police had found her and taken her to be looked after by the orphanage staff. It was great to see the more rural conditions in Kenya and see the projects which the foundation support.

That afternoon I went to meet Sheilla and the girls who I would be working with. Everyone I met over there was fantastic, very friendly and supportive with a good dash of humour mixed in. There are 5 girls currently being employed by Johari to make the jewellery which will be sold in the shops in Kenya and over here in July. Johari, the brand which sells clothes made by some of the girls after they leave the seed of hope schools, have 2 shops in Nairobi. I went to the newest shop which is in a large shopping mall where the girls were making beaded jewellery in a room at the back. They had been looking for a more permanent workshop space but unfortunately had not secured anywhere by the time of my trip (they have since found somewhere). I had taken across a suitcase full of tools and materials to get the girls started, and the samples of work kindly given by the students at ECA. The girls loved looking at these and they gave them lots of inspiration to work on the new designs by Jenny Sweetnam. As it was the back of a shop we were only able to do some of the things there, obviously it wouldn't be great to do too much hammering or any soldering in these surroundings. I had a rough plan of what I wanted to cover with them, with the flexibility to adapt depending on what was possible. We worked for the next couple of days at the shop and I showed them how to make simple things like jump rings and catches which they had been buying in until then. I also had a look at the beaded work they had been making and gave them a few lessons in how to finish things to a higher standard and how to develop these ideas into new pieces if they wanted.

To be able to do things like soldering and hammering we went to another of the Seed of Hope Schools which was in Nairobi. We took over half of a classroom which had sewing machines and weaving looms in it. It was hard to know which tools we would need each day and where we would be working, we had to take the tools and materials we would need to the school from the shop and some days I had to use what we had if I had forgotten anything from the shop. It will be so much easier for them now they have a workshop where they can do everything, and have all the tools and materials close to hand. We also had problems in sourcing materials like sheet metal in Nairobi, there are no online shops like Cooksons to make things easy. The shops we did go to were hidden away up flights of stairs and round corners so you could only find them if you knew where they were. Sheilla had heard of a shop selling sheet metal but when we tried to find it no one in the area knew where this shop was. We used a heated vinegar instead of acid for the pickle (this is a very old way of pickling one of my students told me about) It stinks really badly so we had to do this outside over some hot embers from the fire used to cook the lunch. Everything is aimed to be as simple as possible so the girls can continue after their training even if they have no electricity where they are working. All the tools I took across were basic essentials, hopefully these will last some time and allow Sheilla to pass on the new skills I have shown her to more girls in the future.

We worked mainly with wood and wire to develop the skills needed to transform these materials into pieces of jewellery which can be finished to a high standard. I am going to be involved with quality control when the samples come over in May so I can make sure the work is up to a high enough standard to be sold over here. As there was so much to teach them and so little time we were not able to produce finished pieces while I was there so I am looking forward to seeing the samples when they make it over. We also looked at starting sketch books to record thoughts and development of source materials into designs, so hopefully the girls will be able to come up with designs of their own in the future. Sheilla is great, and by the time I left she already had new ideas of how to develop the wooden neckpiece idea into bracelets and earrings to go with these.

While I was there I had the chance to go away over the Easter weekend and get out on Safari. I decided to go down to the Massi Mara for 2 nights and stayed at a lovely camp on the top of one of the hills overlooking the plains. I had a room with an amazing view, veranda and en-suite (I'm never one to be away from home comforts for too long). We went out on 3 Safari Drives over the time I was there, it was quite a bumpy drive down the hill as the road was more like a dirt track and I had seemed to bring the scottish weather with me! The dirt track was very muddy and it seemed like the kind of off-roading people over here would pay good money for. On one of the drives we went all the way down to the Tanzanian border. I saw so many amazing animals and it was so good to see them in their natural habitat rather than the cages we usually see them in over here in zoos. The lions feeding, giraffes and elephants were my favourite parts and when the zebras came to see me off on the last day I don't think I could have asked for a better send off. Due to all the troubles the place was fairly empty, not many tourists had been back which is hard on the local economy, especially over such a normally busy period.

I also visited Kibera, the huge slum in Nairobi which was worst affected by all the post-election violence. It was a real eye-opener to see the devastation which had been caused by the violence, and the conditions which these people live in. The houses are small mud huts with corrugated tin roofs, all crammed together in an area the size of Marchmont. There are little winding alleys between the houses, and when it rains it is like walking through rivers of mud. There are estimated to be between 3/4 - 1 million people living in this area alone. We visited one family who live in a hut not much bigger that my front room, there are 7 children and the mother who live there. The room was divided by a large blanket hung on a washing line to separate the sitting area from the bedroom. 2 of the children suffer from Sicclecell and the mother has Aids, the father had passed away 4 yeas ago. It is at times like this when I feel very humble and realise just how lucky I am to have the life I do in Edinburgh. It also reinforces my drive to try and help people lift themselves out from these conditions by teaching them skills which they can use to make a living. I admire what the Sumerian Foundation have set up and are continuing to develop to help people like these.

I don't think I had nearly enough time to pass on all I wanted to and am sure I will try and go back in the future to help more and develop the skills I had started to teach them. It was occasionally difficult to work around all the different things that were going on but I had been warned that things can get a bit hectic over there. The girls are so enthusiastic to learn new things and pick up new techniques quickly, they also help each other so if one person is not understanding then they will explain it in a way she will understand (it might have been something to do with my accent!) I think this is the start of something very special, and with more training and development I think this project could go far, helping even more underprivileged girls to learn new skills and start to be able to support themselves.

If you have any questions about my travels or want to know more about the project please get in touch, I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

All the best

Jenny Deans