By Eunice Racheal Agbyendazi

The Giving for Change (GfC) Alliance gathered in the beautiful Kenyan city of Kisumu in August for its annual gathering.

The annual gathering is an important calendar event. It is the one platform that brings together all eight countries, across Africa, Asia, Southern America, and the Netherlands to exchange experiences in the quest to introduce and embed community philanthropy as a critical approach and tool for sustaining civil society and promoting civic space.

GfC Alliance getting ready for a field trip

This year, 2023, marked the mid-point in the five-year initiative, and so, the gathering was not only to celebrate the progress made but also to reflect, and re-strategize for the next two and a half years.

I and my colleague, Feruzah represented STAR-Ghana Foundation. Join us as we recount our experiences and reflections from the gathering.

We arrived in Kisumu on Sunday, August 20, 2023. We did not feel alone on our journey! We traveled with other participants including Samar from Dalia Association in Palestine, Jonathas from the Comua Network in Brazil, and Sawadago from the ABF, Burkina Faso. Our first reaction as we exited the airport was “What a beautiful city”! It was sunny with a cool breeze. Kisumu in many ways reminded me of my recent trip to the Rwandan capital Kigali. As soon as we sat in the car that picked us up at the airport, the driver asked us to put on our seat belts. He introduced himself after which he listened politely as we introduced ourselves.

Now, to our European friends, it sounds strange to be reminded to wear your seat belts, right? Well, in Ghana, it is not commonplace to have every driver and passenger wear their seat belts although required by law. In fact, for most people, the only motivation to wear seat belts is the presence of the police on the road. Similarly in Kigali, the vehicle would not move until everyone put their seat belts on. Also, the streets looked clean, and because it was a Sunday the roads were quiet. That evening I missed the group trip to the sunset beach where they enjoyed fresh tilapia from the popular Lake Victoria. I later learned that in Kisumu, tilapia is served in two ways-wet tilapia, which comes in tomato sauce and dry tilapia, which is without tomato sauce!

Our host, the Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF), did well by giving us the chance to familiarize with their work. On Monday, we had field trips concurrently to KCDF GfC partners in Kisumu. I went to Nyalenda and Feruzah to the Kisumu Community of Practice (CoP). In Nyalenda, we participated in the Nyalenda Young Turks community dialogue on sexual gender-based violence. The Nyalenda Young Turks is a budding community-based organisation made up of young people in the area who are committed to creating a Nyalenda where girls and women are safe and thriving.