 So let's start with, what does a community development worker do for someone who doesn't know? Okay, a community development worker tries to stand in the gap or tries to bridge the gap between the local community members and the local authorities. You stand in the gap to air out the community issues, like give our holistic approach to the solutions that the community members are facing. So that's the main thing. You just stand in a gap between the local community members and the local authorities. So when you stand in the gap, do you go and air out the issues that the community are facing to the authorities? And do you make sure that something is done about them or what exactly happens when you stand in the gap? Okay, when you stand in the gap, that means that first you have to work with the community stakeholders that are there, and they are either the leaders, and then we have the church members, and then we have also the women leaders who are in the community, and then we have the main subjects who are the community members. And in every community there is always various challenges that they're always facing. So you have to go and sit with the community members, and you try to identify the various problems that they are facing together, and then you create a platform as a community development, you try to create the best platform in which the various problems that people are facing in the communities will reach the ideal stakeholders, like maybe the government officials, the women's reps and all that, depending on the main problem that the community is facing. Okay, so what are some of the things that you have done as a community development worker standing in the gap for communities? What problems have you aired out to the stakeholders and what would you say has been done as a result? Okay, basically as Bilha, I am a community development worker. I'm also a menstrual health and hygiene champion within the rural parts of Kenya. Let me say Kenya because it's not only in Narok, because currently we are based in Narok, but it's not only like in Narok. We are always flexible to move within the entire county. So, majorly what I've done with my initiative as a community development worker, I've tried to stand in the gap in addressing the menstrual health and hygiene management challenges that are being faced in the rural parts of Narok or in the rural parts of Kenya. This means this is the lack of sanitary towers within those places and even the lack of information like the knowledge about how they can maintain their hygiene when they are on their periods. So, I've tried to work with the various local authorities like the local organizations and even the local teachers. We've worked with teachers, we've worked with different caregivers within the orphanages. So, those are the main people that at least have had out those problems and together we've tried to work towards at least achieving that safe space where they can at least come to us. We can conduct the trainings, we can get to hear their problems, not only the menstrual problems but general problems. So, you've said that some of the problems that are faced in rural Kenya especially in Narok where you've worked is that the lack sanitary towers and the lack of information on how to handle themselves. So, you have done trainings in this regard to the ladies and the women. Is this just the teenagers, is there a specific age group of girls that are going through this or is it the whole community? Okay, at first we mostly measure with a certain age group because as much as we want to help the entire community you also have to have a specific audience or a specific target. So, for me and my initiative we deal with adolescent girls and youth in general. Youth meaning even the women like the young teenage mothers are also included in that program. Okay, and what change has been registered so far? What improvement has been registered since you started the initiative? Okay, the first improvement that I can say is that at least the group that I'm working with now can have frequent access to sanitary towers and they also have enough information at least for now. They have enough information regarding their menstrual hygiene management practices that they need to include. So, at least we've been able to take that information to those extremely rural areas. They had to reach communities in specific. So, at least there is that adoption. It's hard because they are still resilient. They didn't imagine that such information was even existing in the first place. They were still deeply rooted into their cultures. So, there were certain things that they knew were the best things to use during that moment. So, maybe things like the Masaishuka but with the time when we started the training, as we started the training, at least they now tried to adapt the various information. Now they tried to shift their mindset towards at least using the disposable sanitary towers because within the areas that we work with there is no water. There is no water. Water is hardly accessible. So, it was kind of hard in the beginning to try to bring them on board in terms of that try to make them shift their mindset towards what they've been used to. But at least for now I can say the one because the places that work with there are no shops and there are no good roads. It's still extremely interior. So, these guys, especially the women and the girls, they didn't have that access, full access to sanitary towers. But I'm good, we've been able to stand in the gap and we've been supplying them with those sanitary towers and we've also been giving that information and gradually they are checking it. So, now what would you say was the hindrance to the culture, to the lack of information on how to use the sanitary towers. You said that one of it was using the Maasai Shuka during their periods. So, what would happen during this time, take us through that Jenny, what would happen to them during this time and why is this now better for their lives? Okay, before, I think with the rate also of illiteracy in that place because majority of the women and girls didn't get the opportunity to go to school. So, they don't have that knowledge. They don't have that know-how of how to even, they don't even have that know-how of things like sanitary, possible sanitary towers, those are things that are new to them. And I think also the main thing that made them to be deeply rooted into their culture is because of maybe the stigma, they still don't openly talk about menstruation. Menstruation is just like sex topics. It's something that is still laid under the carpet for them. So, certain things needed someone who maybe will boldly tell them about those things. So, for them they were still using the Maasai, maybe Shuka or other things, maybe just taking the Shuka and trying around their ways to prevent menstruation because that one was the main thing that they could afford at that moment. Yeah, because they have markets which are very far, very many kilometers from where they live, but they only get the chance to go to this market once a week, which is always on when it is days. And as we know, every family always have a certain budget within a certain time frame. So, you get that, and it's also that majority of these women or girls are not given the opportunity to go to the market even during those market days because they are meant to stay at home, look after the cattle and take care of the homestead in general. So, you find that majority of the men what the people were going to the market and it's also shameful to tell your husband to go Go and buy me a tiny towel. It's something even he himself doesn't know about. So, you find that there is certain homesteads that have even like seven girls and plus the mam so they are eight and they are all maybe menstruating because menstruation is not something that is unavoidable. Once you reach a certain age, you reach adolescent, you have to go through it. So, you find that these ones are the things that not getting that space, that space to at least air out the grievances to the husband or to the people who are in charge even the local authorities who are there. So, those ones are the main challenges. And so, does it prevent the young girls from going to school when they are going through the menstruation? Yeah, it does Stephanie because once we find that girls are on their periods and you find that even the school setup itself is not that safe. It's not a safe space where they can trust like there is that stigma within the schools. You find that they are even hard, it is even hard for them not only to go to school but also to participate in school activities because one you are using now maybe that cloth and as we know that menstruation there are those people who experience it differently there are those who have it heavy and then there are those who have it lightly but in any way the bottom line remains that you have to use healthy materials like the disposable sanitary towels. So, when you are using something like a cloth even within the 30 minutes frame you have to experience leakages. So, those things are the things that were making them not to attend school and the percentage of girls or women were not attending school within those such setups is very high. Yeah, it's very high. So now with the training and the mentorship that you are undertaking or you have undertaken in those areas has it helped? Do you even speak to the men in the community because now you've said they're the ones who go to the market on Wednesdays and their family, the women and children are afraid to send them sanitary towels so have you talked to them as you also just creating the awareness around menstrual hygiene? Yeah, actually it's an inclusive thing because in order to achieve safe community menstruation or good quality of awareness you have to incorporate even the men and the men's role in community menstruation is very vital. So, the main thing that we've been doing and we've seen actually the results at the beginning it was hard especially for the men to actually come to those trainings because they wanted to see the main reason why they need to attend it. They have various things to do they can give you a list of things. So you need to give them a good reason? Yeah, you had to give them a good reason but I'm glad that at least there are women who always attend those trainings gradually talked to them and they also started seeing the change at least they could take the sanitary towels home they could tell them about the things that they've at least gotten during the training so gradually they at least started to accept coming to the trainings but that one is different in various communities because there are communities that we go especially in churches where men take the forefront in even calling their girls come and let's go they actually encourage them to come because you have someone who is almost your age so you will be able to open up the person will be able to talk to you in depth about various things that themselves they can't talk with their girls or their women so they always tell them just go even if they don't come to the trainings but the people are always encouraging them ensure you go to those trainings and for those who are always coming to the trainings after we've done the trainings and we are distributing the sanitary towels they are always telling them don't actually shy away we give them the sanitary towels and they are the first people to hide them or they hide them in their bags the men always tell them no just stand there take a good pic take your time hold that thing with courage be bold be bold about it it's not something to be shameful about nowadays would you say this is key to actually the education being embraced in the communities men taking up the lead to empower their women it gives the women the confidence they deserve in maybe seeing that in normalizing this menstruation thing because once they get they go ahead they get the support they always know that at least the men have their back so they get even the courage to ask even more questions on how they can better themselves in terms of what else can they do how can they work within the community to at least do something that will help the girls so you find that they sit down and they discuss and they are like we need you more regularly to come and speak to our girls because the main thing is that they lack information they lack a role model within these setups and that's why maybe they they even get to mess maybe they get pregnant and get out of school because the parent they are not they have not reached that level of openly discussing such issues with their teenage okay and now the issue of supply because this is in the rural setup and I believe not everyone can afford the sanitary towels I speak of a family that has seven girls and they have to buy it and I know that you also do the supplying so do you do it regularly or how are they able to keep up with sanitary towels every month for the whole family for the seven ladies in the home okay that's a good question first I'm not only dealing with the rural they had to reach communities because Narok is big and we can't only put our perception that it's only the rural people who cannot afford the sanitary products even that within the town setup we have people who maybe live in slums or nowadays because of the hard economic times Stefan we find that even people were in town even the middle age people can't even afford the sanitary towel it's not a priority to them because now someone will tell you that okay I have to buy Unga in me panda and that one is what my priority is it's not in such such products but so to them that this is not priority it's not a necessity yeah it's not a priority but to answer your question the most interior places that I'm always going I've told you that the roads they are not even like they are not developed those people are still in a state where you wonder are they still in Kenya are they still part of us they are in their own world and surprisingly they have their leaders not even like they have their leaders but I don't know actually what their leaders are doing in terms of their situation so one it's always hard I don't like give them regularly that often but I always ensure that once I visit the communities because we use motorbikes affording a taxi to that place you will have to it is costly so we always use motorbike because in such areas the only things that can be easily accessed is motorbikes they'll take you up to where you have you want to go so the main thing that we always do is that once we plan our visit we always ensure that we give them maybe the sanitary towels for like 3 months that will at least push them sustain them for that 3 months before at least we can embark on our journey to go and see them but we always ensure that we are in continuous communication with the women leaders who are always in charge of those groups but we can't say at this moment we are not in a position to regularly visit them because we also have different other places that we always work with within the town setup we have other orphanages we have other schools that we always visit and even outside Narok we have other schools that look up to us so in this other areas you also do the supplying once the training is done we do the training and then after the training we engage maybe in different talks whereby the men go with the people, the volunteer men that we always have the girls and the women remain with the girls so that we can have at least a girl talk then they can also have their own boy talk so where do you get the funding the funding for now it's based on in kind donations from friends, from family members that's how at least we get to sustain it that's why I told you previously that for now I'm not in a position to regularly visit these communities regularly promise them that every month you will always see sanitary towels coming to your place but I always prioritize certain areas like they had to reach places so I always try my best once we get the donations from friends, from family members and from the well wishers we organize for the training and then we go with the sanitary it's not only the sanitary towels because menstrual health, hygiene, management requires other compliments not just sanitary towels so we have the soaps and then you have also to get something for the men because you want put them in a room to do the training and then after that you just let them go and then they see the girls being given the sanitary towels they are always like what about us so what are the men given what about us, you have to at least get something for them even if it's just the inawares or maybe something like a vest or even books or even pens something that will also motivate them something that will make them to at least continue with this journey together with you guys so that it's teamwork now being a community development worker you said you are the bridge you stand in the gap the rights stakeholders with the community now because you can't do it on your own have you tried to engage the authority or the government that the leaders that are there to do something about the situation especially for those that are in the outskirts of Narok Town okay accessing the main challenge is accessing the national maybe we can say national government leaders or officials but you always have to start somewhere you don't like if they are not accessible at this point you have to work with those ones who are available at the the local places so the ones that we always work with personally is one the volunteers from the university the university students because they are also part of they also facilitate this goal they will also help you in terms of activities and all that and even besides them as being the volunteers we always work with the local organizations and those ones are the directors and the community education leaders who are also there and then even the government officials those that you can easily access like maybe the ministry of education you go and get like one woman one man working there so we've always worked with the people who we can reach at our as per now like the church leaders the pastor we also include them so what would you say needs to be done for maybe someone who's watching and would want to assist maybe a government official that is in Narok Town or any other town that is there or rural area that should help so what needs to be done to bring the change to these communities okay for now with the just ended elections we've seen women getting so like many seats both as governors and both as MPs and we have the women reps so my outcry is just for these leaders especially the government the national government leaders they need to know actually what is happening on the ground and because they can't like oftenly be physically present in those places to know what is going on we are the people who are standing in that gap to air out these issues to them so my outcry to the officials is that they need to incorporate us in these policies that they are doing they need to work hand in hand with us so that at least we can be their eye on the ground at the grassroots level they need to have more youth engaged in various fields not only in community development because there are so many issues there are so many contemporary issues that need to be addressed within the community level so they need to incorporate us so they need to incorporate you so how did you now back to you how did you get into community development and this initiative for mental health hygiene management okay that's interesting okay first I've told you Stephanie I did community development I'm a community development graduate from Masaimara University and then it's something that I'm trying to put in practice what I learned at the university level but it's also something that I grew up seeing I'm just extending I'm just an extension of what my mother has been doing I grew up in a family where I saw my mother helping literally like not only the orphans but literally anyone who needed her help at that moment so I think it's also just an extension of what I grew up seeing and then it's also something that I'm always passionate about because of not only the space that I've found myself in but my life has been full of grace if I can say and I'm always willing to extend that grace to any lady especially the youths who are out there because you find that majority of us we always want to start but due to various vulnerabilities we are not always able to even take a step because we always think maybe we are not able to do it or we always just think that let just the idea stay in our mind we don't have to actually go out there and implement it we've always have this mentality of shortage mentality in our head so that's what personally I started from scratch and I started with barely nothing so I'm always willing to at least use myself, use my experience for as a learning platform to any youth who is out there who is like I want to start this I want to start this but I don't know how to do it, I don't know which step to take I don't know which criteria to use so I'm always there to at least mentor them, to always listen to them because a lot of youth also we find that we don't have people who are listening to us whether they are our parents, whether they are people like we look up to and getting a mentor during the time that you need them is also a problem especially for us youth and that's why for me I've used my platform to bring them in bring them on board let them ask me anything and I'll be willing to answer in a way that will benefit them and also will benefit both of us we have a passion for the youth exactly and what about the women why did you choose to help the women to support the women to start the initiative that you are going for on menstrual hygiene okay one thing it's one thing to be okay it's one thing to be a woman but it's one thing it's another thing to also be a black lady trying to get into the corporate space or just trying to be something find your purpose within that time so what made me to start actually look at women as my first priority is because one I've had first hand challenges so during okay I grew up in Kisumu but I've always been in Narok after even in graduation I found myself just remaining in Narok as work and all that you find that majority of the time you go through certain things that you need someone maybe to open up to but you don't get that person at that particular time that you are experiencing that challenge so it's been hard you find that you try to solve things personally you try to solve things individually you try to make certain decisions as an individual but when you could get that opportunity to at least air them out with your parents or with anyone at least your guardian it will be you could make a better decision that will help you so that's why amole is using myself to help these ladies because ladies go through so much vulnerabilities so it's when someone like me stand in the gap they'll be able to at least open up through what they are facing and we work towards getting the solution together as we come to a close on this particular conversation what gives you the satisfaction at the end of the day when you go to sleep what gives me the satisfaction is the impact that am using my platform to to achieve because am always more tied on or more attached to service my main theme is always service service to my fellow service to my family service to even the larger community so what gives me satisfaction is that at least at the beginning I was afraid but I did it anyway I took that step you started traveling but you started anyway yes I started anyway so that is always what gives me even the motivation to move on once you find yourself trying to reaching in a point where you want to give up you look at the why you are why why did you start at the end of the day and then you just find yourself going on you are why we will stay ahead you towards the end goal your why will stay ahead you towards the end goal amazing and finally what change do you want to see in our communities as a community development worker and maybe just your last piece of advice or your something that you want to close with that will be your camera okay thank you so much what I want to see more youths being engaged I want to see more youths coming out boldly use their voice in various in different perceptions whether you are in community development whether you are in business whether you are in any field that you are in just use your voice to get to where you want to go and to all youths also out there just know that what you are seeking is already seeking you so it will just be a matter of what are you willing to do in order to get to that place so that's my main advice to them just start just take that one step of faith and everything will be everything will be okay what can people find you on your social media handles in case someone wants to reach it am on Facebook am on Instagram am on linking am on not to it but am on Facebook and am on Instagram am also on WhatsApp and my name I think what's your handle what's the name they can get you all at Bilha Joy Bilha Joy okay alright thank you very much Bilha for coming on board and sharing your story and inspiring someone out there who's just you know was wondering who has an idea rather and has had doubts maybe on how to start and just for being a woman out there doing great things with what you have we celebrated today thank you so much and am really glad to be on this platform the number one youth station so thank you so much Stephanie for having me so that has been Bilha Joy a world who is a community development worker and also a champion for menstrual hygiene management and as she has been taking us through her journey what I have taken from this is start even if you are trembling if you are shaking just start anyway and if your youth use your voice to bring a change to the world just a little impact will go along with this has been strength of a woman we now take a short break and then Kalami Val will be back with WCW