STORY: Kenyan program empowers slum women through crafts, psychosocial support
SHOOTING TIME: Feb. 3, 2025
DATELINE: Feb. 4, 2025
LENGTH: 00:03:18
LOCATION: Nairobi
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Kibera slum
2. various of women in the Kibera slum
3. various of Pamela and beading women
4. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): PAMELA OTIENO, Founder of KHASI
5. various of the products made by the women
6. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): PAMELA OTIENO, Founder of KHASI
7. various of Cynthia beading
8. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): CYNTHIA VUGUTZA, Local resident
9. various of the products

STORYLINE:

Pamela Otieno, 54, founded the Kibera HIV/AIDS and Support Initiative Program (KHASIP) in 2005.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): PAMELA OTIENO, Founder of KHASI
"I am the founder of KHASIP. So my main aim for founding KHASIP was to bring in single mothers and women who are living with chronic diseases like HIV/AIDS, cancer, and also non-communicable diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes. The main aim of KHASIP was psychosocial support. If you look into it so deeply, psychosocial support is very broad, it entails so many things. As time went by, we could meet, and I came to realize that there was a gap or a challenge somewhere as we moved on. Some of them could tell me, 'Pamela, look, I am going home. I don't have anything to eat. Yes, we have gotten the psychosocial support aspect of it, but now I'm going to sleep hungry with the kids.'"

Since 2017, Otieno began training women in Kenya's Kibera slum to craft key rings, sandals, and pen holders.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): PAMELA OTIENO, Founder of KHASIP
"So when the issue of income generating came up in my mind, I was like, 'What can I do with these women that can generate income?' See? Like these ones, these are key rings. And this work has been done by a trainee, the lady who has just come in and she is interested, she is gifted in beadwork." 

KHASIP has empowered hundreds of women in Kibera, helping them gain financial independence and improve their quality of life.

Currently, their creations are sold locally and online. A single necklace fetches up to KES 2,500 (20 U.S. dollars) - triple the daily wage of a domestic worker.

Cynthia Vugutza, who was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2018, embodies this change.

SOUNDBITE 3 (English): CYNTHIA VUGUTZA, Local resident
"What made me lose hope in life was that disease. So when I met her, she introduced me to these skills. Apart from making something, there is encouragement, counseling, so I felt like I am somebody."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Nairobi.
(XHTV)