Hosted by The Constellation, the festival was held from the 24th to the 27th of July 2023, bringing together 45 delegates from 10 multi country projects in Africa, implemented by grantees of Voice (Albinism Umbrella; Chepkitale Indigenous People Development Project (CIPDP); Coalition On Violence Against Women (COVAW); Data4Change; Karagwe Community Based Rehabilitation Programme (KCBRP); Kenyan Paraplegic Organisation; Kids & Teens Resource Centre; Pollicy; Temedt Mali Association; Tournons La Page, and implementing partners: ARCAD Santé PLUS; Kenya Female Advisory Organisation -Kefeado; LEHA Kenya), counterparts from Asia through video conference, and representatives of Voice and The Constellation.
On the wall, the Link & Learn journey’s highlights to date at project level and at joint, global level, including building a common dream for an inclusive society, establishing 9 Communities of Practice to reach the dream, on site and online learning visits, and telling community stories in Visual Journeys.
Shopping for Knowledge
Highlight in the Learning Festivals facilitated by The Constellation is the “Marketplace” where participants visit each other’s stand to learn from each other. Even though they work on very different topics, participants realise that they have a lot in common and a lot to learn from each other.
Visits to 6 communities and organisations in Nairobi
The participants visited communities and organisations in Nairobi. Take-home messages include: ‘people are fighting their struggles, just like us’ and ‘Learn Visits should become part of our programme’.
Meeting Go Girl Kenya’s young facilitation team at L’Afrikana. The girls shared how coming together and sharing their stories was healing for them. It gave them the strength to now reach out to families and groups in the neighbourhood to bring the issue of teenage pregnancy to the table. It is important for them to also include men, boys, and the police in their conversations.
Communities of Practice
Before the festival, with the joint dream of an inclusive society as a compass, the projects established their practices and they started to exchange their experiences around those practices. The Nairobi festival provided an opportunity to continue this conversation and reflect on what is important to put in place to make Communities of Practice a safe and enjoyable place for effective exchange and action.
Discussing the practice “We promote collaboration & partnership across our diversity, to optimise sharing of expertise”. (The phone enabled participation by videoconference.)
On the last day of the festival, colleagues in each Voice grantee project presented what they learnt from their peers and how they would apply this new knowledge. Further learning visits between projects, developing visual journeys, and measuring progress are on the agenda.
The Constellation team getting ready to facilitate the Festival. From left to right, Mwandaza Eddy Aksanti, Samanthary Oguda Embukane, Autry Haynes, Eunice Musubika Meble Birengo, Marlou de Rouw, Lord Zablon Margaret Musumbi, Loli Rey Novoa, Arthur Namara Araali, Anthony Peter, Clement Chacha Mungaho, and Seydou Diarra.
