MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Thinking of how to make a difference in my community forces me to realize one downside of education, especially for those of us who have to travel to the capital cities, away from our communities-the places where our contributions are much needed. We move to town centers and the members of our communities look at us with suspicion. They resist any ideas that we might have in the pretense that we have been absent therefore had no knowledge of the problems and challenges they have endured in the community-village. This reminds me of an incident that occurred late last year- in November. I and my colleagues-class mates- were travelling back to Nairobi from Mombasa where we had been engaged in field work research in oral literature. We made a stop at a place called Makindu, some 40 kilometers from my home village. At this time of the year- the rain season is well under way with most parts of the country having received enough rain. For some reason my home area had received very little rains. A colleague asked me why I do not advise my people to use drought resistant seedlings, so that they can harvest something instead of relying on government relief food. Before I could answer, a man –a passer-by interjected, “she cannot tell us what to do,” “who is she to tell us what we should plant?”
For some reason his comment s did not surprise me. Within that statement lay all the challenges that a visionary woman will encounter in an attempt to bring change to the community. My society is riddled with patriarchal male chauvinistic attitudes. To them a woman cannot bring any change because they have already assigned a place for her- the back seat where she will not be involved in any decision making that will eventually affect her life!
As an educated woman, I have big dreams for my community- having grown there and experienced the hardships, lack of clean water, food. I believe that Information communication through social networking is the only possible solution to the above challenge-disseminate information that women can lead and bring change in the community. I belief I have taken the first steps at world pulse- and I will continue writing whenever I have the opportunity.