KIBERA SLAM NAIROBI

Today thanks to 2 Italian volunteers, Fiorenza and Pietro, and to the kindness and profound knowledge of the slam-life of Jaibe Alberto Franco Uribe from the instituto de misiones extranjeras de Yarumal, I had the opportunity to visit the Kibera slam of Nairobi.

My feelings tonight are mixed. On one side I am sad about the extreme poverty I saw today in the slam, on the other hand I am completely fascinated by Jaibe Alberto Franco Uribe and its people work on their Micro Credit project.

I will meet Jaibe Alberto Franco Uribe  in the next weeks for some meetings, he as well kindly agreed to be interviewed. Jabe work is impressive..and I want to get to know more and more and write about it.

For the time being I just publish some of the very few pictures we could take in the slam today. I am stongly hoping that those picture provide you at least with an idea of the slam condition.

 

 

L’ODORE DELLA SOFFERENZA

Una cosa che mi soprende ogni volta che viaggio nel Sud del mondo in zone povere é l’odore della sofferenza. È un odore che senti in India, come nel Laos. Nelle periferie di Mexico DF come anche nel nord del Kenya. Un odore forte che a volte mi fa venire conati di vomito. Conati che neppure riesco a controllare. Mi sorprende questo odore, questa puzza, perché pur essendo questi paesi molto diversi fra loro, l’odore é quello. Certo con sfumature di curry o di fagioli bolliti…ma pur sempre quello. L’odore del dolore e spesso della rassegnazione e della convivenza che diventa accettazione.

Le mie foto non rendono mai l’idea, sono senza odore.

24 NOVEMBER 2013

BOGOTA: Soldiers killed 10 militants from Colombia’s leftist ELN rebel group and wounded two others in clashes near the border with Venezuela, President Juan Manuel Santos said Sunday.

“Strike to ELN: 12 of its members neutralized in (the province of) Arauca. Congratulations to the army. The offensive will continue to bring peace,”  Santos wrote on his Twitter account.

Soldiers took the two injured rebels into custody.

The ELN, Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group, has about 2,500  fighters.

In August, the government said it was ready to start negotiating with the  group, nearly a year after talks began with the larger FARC rebel force,  potentially broadening the peace process aimed at ending Latin America’s oldest  insurgency.

A Colombian soldier stands guard next to the bodies of members of Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla killed in Tame Arauca department on November 24, 2013. Colombian soldiers killed 10 rebels from the country’s second-biggest guerrilla group, the (ELN), during clashes, Army Chief General Leonardo Barrero said. Pix by AFP PHOTO

FROM OUTCOME TO IMPACT

During my 3 years humanitarian assignment in Colombia I strongly aim to to take care not only of the outcome but also on the impact of my work and living there to avoid as much as possible negative consequences.

Outcomes are the more immediate and tangible results of program activities that can be observed, monitored, measured, and evaluated in the short to mid term of a project and can be intended or unintended.
Measuring outcomes helps a project answer the following questions:
• Has there been a tangible change in the behavior or attitudes of project participants?
• What skills or knowledge have participants acquired that they did not have before?
• Are they better able to perform their jobs? Has the ability of the partner agency to deliver public services improved or not?
• Have targeted institutions adopted better practices or function more efficiently?

“Impact” often refers to the high level effects that are attributable to a program in the medium or long term. Impact indicators seek to demonstrate how the project has affected the big picture issues, problems, or challenges that the intervention was designed to ameliorate.
According to the DOS Glossary of Evaluation Terms, an impact evaluation is a systematic study of changes that can be attributed to a particular intervention, such as a project, program or policy; and typically involve the collection of baseline data for both an intervention group and a comparison or control group, as well as a second round of data collection after the intervention, sometimes years later. In other words, impact evaluations look at the difference a project has or has not made by researching what happens in the context using a ‘with the project’ versus a ‘without the project’ analysis.

Impact evaluations seek to answer these types of questions:
• What has happened as a result of the project or program?
• Did the project improve the situation, make it worse, or have no impact at all?
• What high level changes in the context can be attributed to the project?
• What real difference has the project made to the people served by counterpart institutions?
• How many people have been affected by these changes?
• Did it affect their daily lives? And if so, were these impacts positive or negative?

MEINE SCHWESTER SANDRA

Sandra reist im Januar 2014 nach Honduras und wird dort als Agronomin arbeiten. Wir haben uns im interteam Ausreisekurs kennengelernt. Sofort spürten wir eine vertraute Nähe. Gestern über Mittag hat sie mir gesagt, dass sie mich wie als eine Schwester empfindet. Ich habe gesagt, dass ich keine Schwester hätte. So haben wir uns am 20. November 2013 gegenseitig adoptiert. Meine Schwester ist ein wundervoller Mensch. Sie ist jünger und ich werde auch für sie sorgen. Sie ist für mich wie eine Sonne, die mit ihren blonden Haaren und ihrer Person auf mich strahlt und mich angenehm aufwärmt. Zum Glück sind unsere Einsatzländer Colombia und Honduras relativ nah. Das heisst, wir können uns bestimmt einmal treffen.

MADRE TERESA DI CALCUTTA

Madre Teresa di Calcutta (Skopje, 26 agosto 1910 – Calcutta, 5 settembre 1997) in visita in Colombia nel 1981

BENVENUTI!

Cari amici

Questa email, che ho inviato in questi giorni ai miei a breve ex colleghi di lavoro di B-Source in Svizzera, mi sembra adatta ad inaugurare l’inizio della mia nuova vita professionale e personale. Scelta che mi porterà dalla Svizzera italiana per 3 anni in Colombia.

Dear Colleagues,

For the first part of my professional life I was working mainly for banks on international projects. The fact that I was born in Switzerland, my employers and not at least B-Source gave me a good chance to get an education, raise my children with my husband, further my studies and work as an artist.

Now my children are grown up and I feel the need to share my know-how and contribute to people that are not as fortunate as me.

So I left B-Source after 8 years and I am going to work for humanitarian projects for peace development with Interteam starting with a 3 year assignment in South America.

Everything ran so quickly that I didn’t have the chance to greet and wholeheartedly thank You. So I do that now. I warmly wish You all the best and take care of yourselves.

Big hug

Rachele

Whoever  wishes to stay in touch with me, I am at: rachelemarizanoli@gmail.com