The Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK- JPC) “Leadership for Peace” traing programs for women began at the time of the Kenya General Election, in March 1997, when AOSK-JPC organized a Civic Ed. workshop at the Benedictine Centre, Thika Rd., to create awareness among AOSK members, of the need to vote in the upcoming General Elections as well as to encourage Sisters to register as poll watchers and count certifiers. It was decided, at that time, that each Sister would bring with her, to the workshop, two laywomen. This core group of women expressed great appreciation for that first leadership workshop and asked AOSK-JPC to continue to invite them to other workshops in the future.
So the beginning of Wanawake wa Amani was simple and rather unplanned. Our first group of WWA graduated in May 1998 on the feast of Pentecost having completed twelve (12) workshops, at the rate of one workshop roughy every six weeks. The timing of future workshops was later changed to two combined workshops, per term, in order to facilitate participants travelling from far away dioceses.
Following requests to train women from other parishes in Nairobi a second group of women were brought together two years later, to form WWA 2. This time we also included refugees from Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia. These women were convinced, that the challenge that Kenyan women faced was to give women recognition and scope for their skills and giftedness in order to bring about peace in Kenya. They were convinced that peace building, conflict resolution and reconciliation, should not be left to the men alone as they had done in their own countries.
An emerging focus for these first two groups was the need for women to recognize their dignity and giftedness as women and to work in partnership with men for the good of all. During the final workshop of WWA 2, all agreed that it would be good to extend the training to women in other parts of Kenya in order to include all ethnic groups in peace training. The WWA advised the AOSK-JPC to select women who were already in leadership positions, either as development co-coordinators or members of the Catholic Women Association (CWA), as they would be in strategic positions to reach out to other women in the dioceses. Our third and fourth groups of Women Peacemakers (WWA 3 & 4) therefore were selected from each of our 25 dioceses. WWA 5 members were selected for 8 dioceses of Kisumu Metropolitan while majority of WWA 6 are AOSK Justice and Peace Representatives. The group undertaking training currently is WWA 7.
Topics covered over the years were chosen according to the expressed needs of the women or the country situation at the time. Inbuilt into these workshop was an “activity” component by which the women were required to pass on their learning to other women back home and to organize an activity to celebrate Women’s Day, March 8, annually. Activities were extended later, with WWA 3 and WWA 4, to include the celebration of World Environment Day, June 5 and two years later still activities were organized around International Human Rights Day (Dec.10th). Recently, in 2008, the year of the post election Violence, the celebration of World Peace Day Sept 21 was also included. These four celebrations / campaigns are nicely spaced over the year with one celebration taking place each term and each having a different focus. The outcome of WWA activities, to date, has been very encouraging.
All seven groups of Women Peacemakers to date are drawn from both Catholic Sisters and Lay women as we found it good, right from the start, to bring both groups together to compliment each other. The Sisters, usually well known in parishes, are readily authorized to carry out activities in the area, while our laywomen bring the Sisters down to grassroots level where together they can change the life of the local community for the better.
As the number of trained WWA members grew over the years, a few members were invited to share their experiences with AOSK leaders at various AGM gatherings in order to receive AOSK approval and AOSK members were likewise invited to various WWA functions. The WWA challenge is for women to be peacemakers both in their homes as well as in the public arena itself. Today, the total number of WWA stands at 248 of which 88 are Sisters. Six of these groups have been trained to date (WWA 1-6), while WWA 7, representing together with lay women, are currently in training and are looking forward to graduating in May 2011.
International Women’s Day (IWD) March 8,
This day has become a wonderful opportunity for women to simply celebrate being women as well as providing an opportunity to highlight their concerns i.e. insecurity, poverty, descrimination and violence of all kinds. (Sexual abuse, FGM, inheritence rites and laws, evictions, trafficing, forced and early child marraiges etc). In March 2008 WWA members mobilized over 13,000 people to try to stop the violence in various parts of the country and to assist IDPs.
Compiled by Sr. Masicha Carolyne, SSND (Gender Equity Program Officer)
