As part of the project “Working with Community leaders in Burnt Forest to promote nonviolent, gender and ethnic inclusive communities,CEEC with support from GIZ/CPS carried out farm based sensitization sessions on Gender Based Violence and Alcoholism. The sessions were conducted in eight farms within Burnt forest namelyNdungulu, Barekeiwo, Kaplalach, Chuiyat, Kamuyu, Rukuini, Lingwai and Kagongobetween 21st and 24thMarch 2016. The CEEC trained Trainers of Trainers (ToTs) and Village Elders worked together in organizing and facilitating the gender based part of these sessions with CEEC offering technical and moral support.
The alcohol and drug abuse part was facilitated by a recovering alcoholic from Re-awaken Rehabilitation Centre in Eldoret. These sessions raised awareness on the adverse social and health effects of alcohol and drug abuse. The community members got to appreciate how alcoholism is connected to some of the social problems which include gender based violence, poverty, under development, child neglect as well as general lack of peace and harmony within the community. It became clear that this vice does not only affect the person abusing alcohol and other substances but also the family and community at large. A personal testimony from the facilitator who had fallen out of an engineering course while in third year at the University of Nairobi was very powerful in bringing out the gravity of the problem. It was an eye opener for most of the community members to learn that addiction is a disease and those affected need help not condemnation. They were also shocked to learn that there is a hereditary alcoholic gene which leads to addiction once those who have it experiment with alcohol. In all the farms, the community members requested the facilitator to go back and talk to the youth who are the most affected.
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