“Mary, how did you come to know about Jaslika?” My story changes as soon as you ask me this single question.
In Physics, we say an object stays at rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force. When that force acts, everything changes, leading to a speed up, slow down, a change in direction. This is how new possibilities are created.
My trajectory shifted when I met a researcher and associate of Jaslika, Elizabeth Njuguna. Our paths crossed at home one evening during my school-long holiday in November 2017, when she interviewed me as part of Jaslika’s study on Positive Deviance. It was my first time hearing about Jaslika. I remember sitting outside our house and sharing my experience. Elizabeth, through Jaslika, was my external force. She walked with me through a journey of friendship, support, and mentoring and exposed me to a world beyond what I was used to. This new path eventually led me to meet Dr. Sheila Wamahiu, the director of Jaslika, shortly after I graduated. She was my other external force, only this time this force increased my speed as I took my steps as a young researcher.
Fast forward to November 2021, I got called in to join the Jaslika team and participate as a junior researcher in the data collection phase of the Intergenerational Perspectives on Building Education Better post-COVID-19 project. We were taken through a series of online orientation and training sessions, where we got introduced to qualitative and quantitative research methods, learning about the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of research ethics, confidentiality and consent, building rapport during key informant interviews, and focused group discussions. These were all new terms to me at the time. My STEM degree felt miles away from the research, training, and conversations I was now having. No more solving differential equations or analysing laws in Physics to understand how systems work. Instead of just understanding how the world works, I was learning how to change it by changing mindsets, values, and attitudes.
Soon after, I joined the team travelling to Nyeri County, specifically Tetu and Kieni, for a ten-day data collection exercise. I had never physically met the team nor had I been to Nyeri county for such a long time before and I was looking forward to practicing what I had learnt. Bonus? I would get to use the famous “Wakia Maitu” and “Wakia Baba” forms of greeting elders, unique to Nyeri, different from how we do it in Murang’a, my home county. When we got to conducting interviews, I worked alongside my fellow young researchers, Jasmine Wangari and Maya Onyango shadowing the senior researchers we had travelled with: Dr. Naom Ondicho, Sam Mukundi, Dr. Sheila Wamahiu and Wangui Ng’ang’a. I got to support, work in a team and observe how different senior researchers approached and built a rapport with key informants, and their way of conducting the interviews. Later I was equally nervous and excited as I interviewed young girls and got their experiences going to school with their babies. Born from this experience, one component of research that always strikes a personal chord is the experiences and stories shared by individuals coming from diverse backgrounds and communities. They have taught me many lessons about our intersecting identities and resilience (mostly resilience!) in the face of challenging situations.
Throughout the project, as we documented experiences and views from younger and older generations, it felt that people, especially young people like myself needed help to get listened to. It was the principle of the project that everyone’s voices needed to be heard regardless of whether they were young or old; with or without ‘expert’ knowledge. “There are no wrong answers!” as we would say. To me, having an opinion had to be the first step. As I sat in during discussions and interactions, I would look back on my life and realise that much of my experience involved either telling or being told what I should do. I rarely formed my own opinion. So what could I possibly contribute to this conversation? I had no idea where I stood. I hadn’t considered the possibility for me as a young person to question or have an opinion on a lot of important issues affecting me and others in my life. For example, I had not considered probing deeper to understand my childhood experiences, whether I was getting all or enough aspects of child development or not. I was simply, just the recipient. If someone asks, “What has the Intergen project taught you?”. I will proudly say a major part of what I have gained is developing views, learning and unlearning mindsets on various issues; and having the courage to take a stance and not just ‘sitting on the fence’ (a term I also learned during one of the evening after-work engagements with the team). I like the guiding question, “What would you have done if roles were reversed and you were the…?”
Among the many activities I have participated in, one that stands out to me was a community dialogue we held in Tetu Sub County, Nyeri, during the early stages of the Intergen initiatives in Phase 1. I was part of a skit where I acted as the headteacher, addressing a situation where a learner used chang’aa to campaign for a school leadership position, and how the headteacher resolved the issue to help the learner. In this theatre for change, we performed it in the local language, Kikuyu, unlike the previous skits we had done in Kiswahili and English. This opened the door to an intense and productive dialogue among community members, both young and old, with conversations on stories and proposed solutions shared and acted out. After the community dialogue session, I remember a community member, who appeared older, approaching me saying: “You were such a good teacher and handled the situation with that child very well.” He must have taken the skit literally, and though I was not a headteacher, it felt awesome nonetheless! We then talked for a while about how drug abuse is a challenge and thoughts on why some solutions did not seem to work. The fact that he approached me, someone younger, to talk more about the issue was so wholesome, I couldn’t stop talking about it for weeks even after the trip ended.
Another similar yet different experience that was one of a kind to me happened when we were preparing for the Intergenerational Policy Dialogue. In this case, I was not alone. We were a group of eight representing young people from Nyeri, Nairobi and Jaslika supported by the Jaslika team in a dialogue with policy experts. This opportunity made us feel important and valued knowing we had the chance to represent other young people's voices and commitment to making an impact in Whole Child Development advocacy. Now, if you are anything like me, even after presenting many times, I still get nervous speaking to people. It’s not every day that I get an opportunity to tell policy experts what is important not just to me but to other young people too (Talk about the stakes being high!!) When it was my turn to speak during the online meeting, I unmuted my microphone and had the floor. I was nervous, but I reminded myself that this was a conversation with policy experts who were patiently listening to us and responding to the questions we had. I used my time to share the research findings, the experiences shared by various informants, and my own based on what I had seen growing up. It was one of many transformative experiences that Jaslika has helped put together for me.
Looking back, it is hard to believe the years in Jaslika have led to such a change in the way I see and interact in conversations and life. But it did. Moving forward, I have a lot to learn, but I’m not alone. I now have friends of different ages and expertise from more than six counties in Kenya and have found my voice as a young woman.
As I concluded my story, I paused to ask myself: Have I been that external force for someone else, just as these two forces were for me? I have many experiences and moments that are still ongoing and cannot all fit into a single story. Yet, I am happy that this is just the beginning, and I look forward to how my journey ahead continues to answer this question.