The Talking Trees Project - 2016 - 2017
Project Background
In 2016-2017, the “Talking Trees Project” - 'A public health research and forum addressing maternal deaths prevalent among pastoralists’ communities of Kenya’ was launched and implemented in Narok, and Kajiado Counties of Kenya, by The Enduring Voices Foundation. The ‘Talking Trees Project” was organized around the following modules: Maternal healthcare, FGM/C, alternative rites of passage, women’s health (sexuality, pregnancy management, HIV/Aids and death), human rights, child development and early child-marriage. The ultimate goal of the programme was to mobilize indigenous pastoralists’ communities to participate in open public health debates and forums, which led to voluntary open public declarations on the abandonment of harmful traditional practices like: FGM/C, child marriage and Samburu girl-beading.
The ‘Talking Trees Project’ was introduced in the: Magadi, Namanga, Ngong, Kiserian, Kajiado, Kule, Narok, Jerusalem, Olkeri, Oljororok, Ntilal, Naijile Oltinga, Naadadapo, Sarara 1, Sere Olipi, Lauragi 2, Lengarde/ Leshunyai, Lenchekut, Lorian and Sionta 2 villages in several participatory phases including through dialogue, identification and selection of participants, and implementation of the program itself.
The ‘Talking Trees Project’ set a number of criteria for village selection, having to do primarily with the village leaders’ willingness to feed and accommodate selected indigenous community facilitators/staff, prepare lists of program participants and beneficiaries, and construct makeshift under-tree program facilities. Some informants mentioned the abandonment of FGM/C as a condition for being accepted within the program but this has been reported as marginal. In general, the communities themselves contributed significantly to the introduction and implementation of the program in the aforementioned villages.
After delivery of the program, numerous changes took place in the villages. Informants reported that the program improved knowledge of human rights, maternal healthcare education, personal health responsibilities, attitude and behavioral change against FGM among both participating and non-participating women, particularly with respect to the place and role of women in the community.
The organization of public declarations evolved significantly over time, even as early as the beginning of the program in 2016-2017. The idea of a public declaration was initially suggested by ‘The Talking Trees Project’ and acted upon later by the women of Naadadapo and Sarara 1, the first villages where this process took place. However, changes occurred later in the process of organizing the public declarations.
In Naijile Oltinga, another village that participated in a subsequent program, several other parties played an active role in the public declaration and mobilization efforts to abandon FGM/C..
This change was guided by recognition that the implementation of the decisions announced at the public declaration required the involvement of several social groups in the villages. Information from the interviews indicates that collective determination on the part of the pastoralists’ communities to honour these commitments, along with the support of leaders, committees and women, influenced how effective the declaration would ultimately be. However, type B villages were not truly associated with the public declarations. Some people in these villages simply heard that forums, debates and festivals were being held in a neighbouring village, so a few representatives decided to attend. They learned of the public declaration to abandon FGM/C only after their arrival.
Although the dangers of early marriage were not clearly grasped in all the villages, those villages that received the full ‘Talking Trees Projects’ maternal healthcare education program had a greater awareness of the dangers of FGM/C. This prompted the communities to call for attitude/behavioral change against FGM and a public declaration to abandon these practices, which was perceived as the ultimate objective of the ‘Talking Trees Project’ programme. The information gathered from the communities indicates that many did end the practice following a public declaration, although residual resistance does exist in some villages. Some respondents indicated that early marriages are less frequent now, but the factors influencing this decline cannot be attributed solely to the ‘Talking Trees Project’.
Village committees were formed in the villages prior to implementing the ‘Talking Trees Project’. In some areas, public declarations seem to have played a role in bolstering these groups’ efforts to monitor the enforcement of decisions taken at the declarations. However, at the time of the evaluation 12 months later, a few groups and committees have ceased to exist. The lack of systematic follow-up by selected project community facilitators and basic infrastructure (i.e. communication, road networks) in the villages is preventing the populations from making full use of their new capacities and is a significant barrier hindering their ability to apply the knowledge gained from the ‘Talking Trees Project’ programme.
The ‘Talking Trees Project’ was introduced in the: Magadi, Namanga, Ngong, Kiserian, Kajiado, Kule, Narok, Jerusalem, Olkeri, Oljororok, Ntilal, Naijile Oltinga, Naadadapo, Sarara 1, Sere Olipi, Lauragi 2, Lengarde/ Leshunyai, Lenchekut, Lorian and Sionta 2 villages in several participatory phases including through dialogue, identification and selection of participants, and implementation of the program itself.
The ‘Talking Trees Project’ set a number of criteria for village selection, having to do primarily with the village leaders’ willingness to feed and accommodate selected indigenous community facilitators/staff, prepare lists of program participants and beneficiaries, and construct makeshift under-tree program facilities. Some informants mentioned the abandonment of FGM/C as a condition for being accepted within the program but this has been reported as marginal. In general, the communities themselves contributed significantly to the introduction and implementation of the program in the aforementioned villages.
After delivery of the program, numerous changes took place in the villages. Informants reported that the program improved knowledge of human rights, maternal healthcare education, personal health responsibilities, attitude and behavioral change against FGM among both participating and non-participating women, particularly with respect to the place and role of women in the community.
The organization of public declarations evolved significantly over time, even as early as the beginning of the program in 2016-2017. The idea of a public declaration was initially suggested by ‘The Talking Trees Project’ and acted upon later by the women of Naadadapo and Sarara 1, the first villages where this process took place. However, changes occurred later in the process of organizing the public declarations.
In Naijile Oltinga, another village that participated in a subsequent program, several other parties played an active role in the public declaration and mobilization efforts to abandon FGM/C..
This change was guided by recognition that the implementation of the decisions announced at the public declaration required the involvement of several social groups in the villages. Information from the interviews indicates that collective determination on the part of the pastoralists’ communities to honour these commitments, along with the support of leaders, committees and women, influenced how effective the declaration would ultimately be. However, type B villages were not truly associated with the public declarations. Some people in these villages simply heard that forums, debates and festivals were being held in a neighbouring village, so a few representatives decided to attend. They learned of the public declaration to abandon FGM/C only after their arrival.
Although the dangers of early marriage were not clearly grasped in all the villages, those villages that received the full ‘Talking Trees Projects’ maternal healthcare education program had a greater awareness of the dangers of FGM/C. This prompted the communities to call for attitude/behavioral change against FGM and a public declaration to abandon these practices, which was perceived as the ultimate objective of the ‘Talking Trees Project’ programme. The information gathered from the communities indicates that many did end the practice following a public declaration, although residual resistance does exist in some villages. Some respondents indicated that early marriages are less frequent now, but the factors influencing this decline cannot be attributed solely to the ‘Talking Trees Project’.
Village committees were formed in the villages prior to implementing the ‘Talking Trees Project’. In some areas, public declarations seem to have played a role in bolstering these groups’ efforts to monitor the enforcement of decisions taken at the declarations. However, at the time of the evaluation 12 months later, a few groups and committees have ceased to exist. The lack of systematic follow-up by selected project community facilitators and basic infrastructure (i.e. communication, road networks) in the villages is preventing the populations from making full use of their new capacities and is a significant barrier hindering their ability to apply the knowledge gained from the ‘Talking Trees Project’ programme.
The purpose of the ‘Talking Trees’ project was to:
- Engage the pastoralists’ communities, indigenous women, village elders and Masaai Morans, who are the custodians of their own cultures through an all inclusive participatory health forum and dialogue designed to enlighten and change the attitude of the pastoralists’ people against FGM in order to embrace alternative rites of passage.
- Bring together a multidisciplinary team of experts and indigenous pastoralists communities to discuss and develop an understanding of the discrepancies between modern science and traditional practices that would help the researchers to understand the causes and ways through which Maternal deaths prevalent among the pastoralists’ communities of Kenya could be prevented and hence drastically reduced.
- This project also aims to develop appropriate information materials in indigenous languages that will actively contribute to community outreach work and in raising awareness on FGM, thus contribute to building of trust and understanding between scientists, researchers and the pastoralists, by communicating modern medicine and science using indigenous languages to solve severe health concerns facing Kenya’s pastoralists’ communities.
- Based on this analysis, the project team will assess the cultural and linguistic dynamics for pastoralists’ people who possess relevant expertise, and identify current challenges and support gaps in research dissemination to the general public. They will also compile an inventory of existing indigenous health care training and capacity building activities relevant to management and sharing of public health research data to the target groups, to improve research collaborations and share findings in research institutions in ways that have the potential to accelerate progress in public health.
- For this project, Narok and Kajiado Counties were selected as the study area where the FGM prevalence stood at 95% and was primarily performed on girls aged 4-11 and is affecting 80% of women thus eliciting “The Talking Trees” open public health research forum’s interest.
- Research, both through primary interviews and through secondary research of existing literature, will also contribute to our understanding. Our interviewees will be categorized and selected as follows: Gynecologists, FGM practitioners, Scientists, Researchers, Pastoralists’ women, Community elders, Policy makers.
The objectives of this project were to:
- Awaken the interest of pastoralists’ communities and intensifying their participation in future community health research and project implementation.
- Raise awareness on the dangers of FGM and to advocate for behavioural/ attitude change towards the practice of FGM.
- Develop community health research infrastructure and improve pastoralists’ communities’ livelihoods- through project workshops and seminars.
- Create/forge stronger project collaborations among the researchers, gynecologists and the pastoralist communities.
- Strengthen capacity for future collaborations in quality public engagement work locally, regionally and globally
- Involve and engage the pastoral communities of Kajiado and Narok Counties in participatory health forums meant to deepen their understanding, to impact their social dynamics and behavioural change around harmful practices like FGM/C.
- Develop strategies for galvanizing positive social change, in order to influence policies that support the development and promotion of alternative rites of passage through scientific research, tested and proven approaches proven approaches for programs that promote best practices in abandoning FGM practices..
Project Methodology:
I. The 1st stage of the “Talking Trees” maternal-health-forum and research project methodology addressed fundamental questions in the understanding of FGM. This enabled the project team and partners to steer clear of the medium and long-term project objectives, in order to achieve full participation and orientation of the pastoralists’ communities in the project. In this regard:
III. The Project Leader, the entire research team and collaborators also used new sophisticated documentation gadgets i.e.: modern video recorders to record and document the project procedures including the wishes of the pastoralists’ communities.
- The PI and the project team sought and obtained prior permission from the pastoralist’s communities through their tribal elders and representatives in order to be engaged in the “Talking Trees” project and public health research forum.
- The project team also issued participants with a Free Prior and Informed Consent Forms to seek permission to collect, analyze or use personal data and photos of indigenous people, their traditional attires, surroundings, environment, landscape and places deemed sacred.
- The project team worked with pastoralists’ community leaders, church elders, FGM practitioners and survivors and pastoralists’ organizations in collaboration with researchers, scientists, policy makers and academic institutions to facilitate and involve respective pastoralists’ community members in discussing and developing understanding of the discrepancies between traditional practices, public health and modern science.
- The researcher also used ‘Crowd-sourcing-mechanism’ to obtain the much needed structural content for the project. The Project team solicited historical Anti-FGM contributions from local FGM Activists, church leaders, traditionalists, area chiefs, teachers and women groups.
- Data for the “Talking Trees” maternal-health-forum and research project was collected by using semi-structured interviews for Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with traditional circumcisers, Masaai elders, Morans, religious leaders, public health officers, and sampled men, women and children in the study area.
- The pastoralists’ communities have been/are still being involved throughout this project, thereby educating new generations of indigenous people to undertake and steer their own communities’ health research.
- Through the application of participatory methods, the project team are building the capacity of pastoralists’ communities to take responsibilities in their health investigation and promotion of best practices in indigenous health. It is anticipated that by the end of this project, the local communities will be empowered to value and defer to local knowledge suitable in conducting their own health research.
- The Principal Investigator (PI) employed the use of ‘Questionnaire and Interview’ as Data-Gathering Tools.
- They also used Radio programmes to gather the valuable traditional data from FGM practitioners and survivors across Kajiado and Narok Counties.
III. The Project Leader, the entire research team and collaborators also used new sophisticated documentation gadgets i.e.: modern video recorders to record and document the project procedures including the wishes of the pastoralists’ communities.
Project Outcomes and Milestones:
The “Talking Trees” project raised and addressed fundamental questions, taking project weaknesses into consideration, in order to provide the multidisciplinary project team with more relevant information for better understanding of FGM. This enabled the project team and partners to work towards meeting the medium and long-term project objectives, and see to it that the target communities were oriented and their full Participation was achieved.
Since “Talking Trees” project was/is the first of its kind to take place involving the pastoralists communities in an open heath research forum, the activities planned for this project were authentic enough for to put the pastoralists’ communities’ through instantaneous purpose and results. In this regard, the “Talking Trees” project impact is already being felt through:
Since “Talking Trees” project was/is the first of its kind to take place involving the pastoralists communities in an open heath research forum, the activities planned for this project were authentic enough for to put the pastoralists’ communities’ through instantaneous purpose and results. In this regard, the “Talking Trees” project impact is already being felt through:
- Awakened interest of pastoralists’ communities in their community-based-research.
- Increased awareness of the pastoralists’ peoples on the short-term and long-term effects of FGM.
- Increased change of attitudes towards the practice of FGM.
- Intensified participation of Pastoralists’ project implementation.
- Development of the much needed community health research infrastructure.
- Improvement of pastoralists’ communities’ livelihoods- through project workshops and seminars.
- New project collaborations among researchers, gynecologists, public health providers and the pastoralist communities.
- Strengthened capacity for future collaboration in quality engagement work locally, regionally and globally.
Project evaluation:
The monitoring and evaluation of the proposed “Talking Trees” project was guided by both internal and external project Evaluation experts and consultants.
The Enduring Voices Foundation (EVF) carried out the project evaluation through specific internal instruments and partner involvement, through elaborative baseline and progress reports, where EVF developed and reviewed specific indicators for the importance of the learning gained by the target indigenous group, designed to identify stages of progress and project compliance.
EVF also provided technical support in the project implementation deemed suitable for strengthening of pastoralists’ communities’ collaboration with researchers, scientists and academia in the facilitation of similar public health-research projects in the future. In this regard, the ‘Talking Trees’ project achieved success and results by:
External Project Evaluation:
The overall responsibility of the ‘Talking Trees Project’ Evaluation was given to Africa Health International Consultants. The East Africa Population Research Council (EAPRC) implemented the quantitative component, while the Community Research Group (CRG) implemented the qualitative component.
The Enduring Voices Foundation (EVF) carried out the project evaluation through specific internal instruments and partner involvement, through elaborative baseline and progress reports, where EVF developed and reviewed specific indicators for the importance of the learning gained by the target indigenous group, designed to identify stages of progress and project compliance.
EVF also provided technical support in the project implementation deemed suitable for strengthening of pastoralists’ communities’ collaboration with researchers, scientists and academia in the facilitation of similar public health-research projects in the future. In this regard, the ‘Talking Trees’ project achieved success and results by:
- Pioneering the use of performance and visual/multi-media to drive across the message, without associating FGM with one single ethnic group.
- This project developed the much needed public health engagement infrastructure and even improved Pastoralists’ community livelihoods- through project workshops and seminars.
- With this analysis, the PI felt that the intended objectives of this project were met.
External Project Evaluation:
The overall responsibility of the ‘Talking Trees Project’ Evaluation was given to Africa Health International Consultants. The East Africa Population Research Council (EAPRC) implemented the quantitative component, while the Community Research Group (CRG) implemented the qualitative component.
Project successes/results:
To achieve success in this project team designed and adopted a ‘Do No Harm’ ethical principle to underpin the ‘Talking Trees Project’ research, health and social programming, shielding researchers and the multidisciplinary project team from causing intentional harm to the pastoralists’ communities.
This was invented to mitigate the risk of advocating for social change interventions inadvertently creating societal divisions, particularly in contexts of conflict and fragility or unforeseen and unintended negative effects. Thus, far the types of harm that the project team avoided included:
This was invented to mitigate the risk of advocating for social change interventions inadvertently creating societal divisions, particularly in contexts of conflict and fragility or unforeseen and unintended negative effects. Thus, far the types of harm that the project team avoided included:
- Reinforcing support for the practice of FGM.
- Cultural insensitivity evoking backlash and denial which could set back efforts to end FGM.
- Undermining local efforts and leadership to end FGM by reinventing the wheel rather than building on existing work.
- Fragmenting efforts or causing divisions among actors working to end FGM.
- Rigid donor-led approaches which may be out of sync with local realities.
- Putting activists, survivors, young people or other potentially vulnerable people at risk.
- Stigmatizing or causing emotional distress to those who have undergone FGM.
- Replacing the most severe forms of FGM with so-called minor forms.
- Increasing corruption through project implementation.
Project Beneficiaries:
- The “Talking Trees” - 'A public health research forum addressing high maternal deaths among pastoralists’ communities of Kenya’ benefited the Masaai and Samburu Pastoralists’ communities, especially those found in Narok and Kajiado Counties of Kenya.
- It benefited the Masaai Youth – who have found new ways of expressing their feelings and stance on FGM and other harmful cultural practices.
- The project also benefited Nosim FM Radio – through increased radio listeners, who currently participate in “Talking Trees Project’ - Public Health Programmes – by calling in when the programmes are on Air.
- The project has also become a greater access and reference point for the general public and Masaai cultural and FGM researchers at large.
- It also benefited the Project Team – who gained unprecedented knowledge and experience during the first project phase and made enduring friendships with the Pastoralists communities and their representatives.
The Project Impact:
The broader impact of this project is being felt through:
- The creation of multimedia materials - which will further be disseminated by the respective Counties.
- Project materials’ - which is contributing to knowledge and increasing awareness on maternal health care and enlightenment of pastoralists’ communities on shunning outdated practices like FGM.
- Further collaborative research - as an increased effort by researchers in providing new research data and findings to enhance the ‘up-to-recently-none-existent-public-health-research-data’ on FGM and maternal deaths, for comparison with other experts across the region.
- The training of pastoralists’ communities in their own community health research, data collection and dissemination - thereby contributing to their quest to self-determination, increased awareness and knowledge.
- Advanced socio-cultural knowledge, discourse patterns and research data on FGM.
- Contribution to a greater realization of the pastoralists’ women’s rights to a dignified life.
- Development of a project website with materials which will be accessible both electronically and in print by the pastoralists’ communities and FGM researchers in accordance with the pastoralists’ communities’ approval.
Project Collaborations:
- The ‘Talking Trees’ project led to new collaborations with four high schools – in Pastoral communities in Narok and Kajiado Counties. Whereby it was decided and agreed upon that the PI and the Girls High Schools will continue working together through projects of common interest in educating girls on the dangers of FGM and its effects on their future Maternal Health.
- The project led to a new collaboration with the Nosim FM- a Maa Youth Community Radio found in Kajiado County. – The Nosim-Radio will continue hosting FGM know-how programmes and girls/women’s programmes meant to enhance the knowledge on the dangers of FGM.
- The project also led to a new collaboration with ‘The Girl Generation programme -UK’, the National Anti FGM Board, Ministry of Health, Naijile Oltinga Boys High School and Masaai Girls High Schools, P.C.E.A Enchoro Emuny Church, Narok Catholic Church and the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Services among others.