Dr Karambu Ringera

Whilst out walking today I began thinking of topics of interest to blog about.  I can't always write about me. And though it's nice, I also can't focus solely on the generosity of others... both are easy to write about, both are warm fuzzy topics, but I strongly believe, if this journey is going to have impact this blog must be balanced with the reality of what all this is in aid of.

So I began to dig a little deeper.  I wanted to see the broader picture of what I will face when I arrive in Nakuru.  I needed to know what the people of Nakuru have been facing on a daily basis since the general elections saw violence erupt around them in 2008, and how if any their situation has improved or changed in the last four years.  And to be honest I didn't like what I read, and for the first time since all of this began, I felt a little nervous.

Dr Karambu Ringera

I googled "Nakuru IDP camp" and instantly was provided with in excess of 41,000 results, and so my research began.   Many of these websites were news articles dating back to the start of the recent civil unrest.  With tribal clashes and land disputes giving rise to these IDP camps.  Soon my mind became awash with too many facts, figures, dates, times, places and names, all that were alien to me until a few months ago and still are not that much clearer.  But what soon became apparent, as with any form of civil unrest since the beginning of time, and the world over, those that suffer the most are the innocent, the mothers and their children.

As I continued to scour various websites I began to read of the horrific stories of violence, rape and assault on the woman and children.  These attacks were not always by their perceived enemy, these attacks often borne out of desperation and limited security were also taking place within the confines of the IDP camp itself.  The place these woman and children had resorted to calling 'home'

Below is an excerpt by Dr Karambu Ringera aka "Dr K" dated May 2012, I have copied it from the website www.globalroomforwoman.com

In the Camps

"When I arrived at the IDP camp at Nakuru at the end of January nothing prepared me for the sight of the effects of war in my beloved Kenya. As I walked about to survey the violence, I watched as a woman sold her tomatoes, unbothered by the presence of a dead body near her stand. There was so much death throughout the streets. I am shocked at what we have become as a nation—we are so removed from our humanity, we are failing to see that the "other" we are butchering are Kenyans.In the camps, my heart bled for the women and children I met. For food, they have a mug of porridge in the morning, no lunch, and a dinner so little "it is meant to keep the soul alive," as one old woman told me. Mothers have to share their food to feed their children. Girls in the camp are known to exchange food for sex.  Rapes occur regularly; women are told to watch over their girls, to not go to the toilets at night. At night the men scream, and as the women run away in panic, they chase the women and girls and rape them."

Already this journey has morphed from the simple fulfillment of a 25 year dream to work with children in Africa, to the realisation that the problems are so much deeper than I could have ever imagined and how do I help?

Be it the heartbreaking images of the Gioto Garbage Slum, or the disease and ravaging effects of AIDs HIV on entire communities, to the horrific stories of abuse against entire ethnic groups, or the internal violence against their own woman and children within the IDP camps.  My need to "go" has grown tenfold, but how can I help facilitate such change? I'm not sure I have such skills, but I do know I simply can not stand back and ignore.