"Sauti Sanaa"-Voice of Arts

The Amazon Theatrix Ensemble is a county based organization with a peoples mandate to educate, entertain, inform and involve the public in decision making and development through participatory Educational theatre and Screening of Advocacy Films for Community Dialogue. The organization has, over the years since inception played a catalytical and vanguard role in mobilizing citizens and Civil Society in providing leadership in the Constitution Making process in Kenya. In the course of this work, it is Amazons Theatrix Ensemble learning experience that a trend in which citizens and especially youth and women are excluded from the mainstream of leadership, governance and decision making endures in Kenya to date.

Again, the promulgation of the constitution on 27th October, 2010 did mark the commencement of the most difficult phase of cultivating, nurturing and defending constitutionalism for it is well established that it is challenging to write a constitution but it is overly daunting to uphold, internalize, nurture and live up to constitutional values and principles. This is further compounded by the glaring disconnect between the policy priorities of citizens at the local level and policy dialogue and formulation processes at the national level. The latter applies in equal measure to national developmental processes.

This Project Proposal therefore seeks to proactively respond to the trend where, from the time of independence, the Kenyan political elite have adopted a conscious social engineering process which marginalizes citizens particularly women and youth from participating in mainstream leadership, politics, governance, policy dialogue and developmental processes. It is therefore the Amazon Theatrix Ensemble belief that citizens’ awareness and their popular participation in society affairs including electoral politics and governance processes is a requisite part of reforming Kenya’s political infrastructure and reconstructing the state.

After many years of campaign for comprehensive constitutional review by Kenyans, The Constitution of Kenya was promulgated on 27th August 2010. The Constitution of Kenya has set two levels of governance (devolved and national) and entrenches citizens’ participation as a key pillar of governance. Majority of Kenyans still do not understand the structure and functions of devolved government as well as their responsibilities in governance process. Women and youth by reason of their numerical factors are the most affected. Devolution to date has suffered marauding attacks and confusion from the political elites and therefore has been misconstrued to mean so many things particularly given high levels of illiteracy arising from lack of proper political education. Systematic distortions based on myopic political calculations especially in the succession politics continue to present serious challenges and therefore pose serious threats to the realization of good leadership and democratic governance. It is important to note that impunity thrives best in a state of confusion. Acknowledging these facts, it’s paramount to have deliberate actions to mobilize the citizenry particularly the youth and women so as to educate citizens and also empower them with advocacy skills that will enable them engage in local/devolved governance process hence provide the citizen with the requisite capacity to make informed decisions.

 All this will be achieved through the use of Community Radio Theatre/Talk Shows and Short Film Production for screening in the Community Halls to Stir Dialogue and Conversation on youth and women participation in Democracy and Governance Process.

The general population residing in the target areas will be reached.  Special interest will however be put on reaching out to youth, women, and people living with disabilities. Shifting the mindset of the leadership and the citizenry entails constructive mobilization and sensitization of the citizenry particularly local administrators and policy implementers. Stakeholder participation will include civil society, development partners, constitutional commissions, line ministries, legislative and judicial organs mandated with institutional and programmatic transformation. Local/devolved government leaders will be specifically targeted to be part of the project due to role they play in policy formulation and implementation.

Women: The socio-economic marginalization of women due to culture puts them in a very precarious situation. In the selected constituencies the situation for women is worse since they have no access to economic power and control of the resources and further no access to political participation due to cultural beliefs thus many policies formulated do not address special needs of women. Women participation in devolved government is important and therefore the need to enhance their capacity to make informed decisions, proper management so as to ward off the tendency of impunity to manipulate, deceive, blackmail and ultimately decimate the democratic gains through poor decision making and related myopia..

Youth: Majority of youth are not empowered thus they play minimum role in leadership process. Empowerment of youth for them to lobby for formulation of youth friendly policies and accordingly participate meaningfully in electoral politics will no doubt reduce cases of violence and crime in the community. Empowered youth population will play a greater role in county governance process especially given their numerical strength, freshness of knowledge, vitality and longevity of life. It is important to note that an empowered youth is a productive, progressive youth and by reflection matures into a peaceful society given the well established fact that youth constitute a commanding majority, locally, nationally, regionally and even globally.

Physically Disadvantaged & People Infected/affected by HIV/AIDS: They are discriminated against due to lack of sensitivity to their special needs.  Policies put in place are not in favor of special needs. Leveraging capacities through education and affirmative interventions of this crucial segment of society will no doubt enable society to facilitate the realization of the constitutional gains as well enable the sector to affirm their rights since disability is not inability?

Others: Beneficiaries such as; opinion leaders are decisions makers in communities and also act as an entry point, local/devolved government is the policy/law making organ, while community based organizations have functional socio-economic structures and direct interventions at the ground. Reaching out to them will make the project effective and sustainable hence facilitate the realization of a generation of responsible citizens.

The predominant approach to interventions during the implementation period shall be inclusive and participatory. During activity sessions participatory methodologies such as ;Film Screening and Radio Theatre Listening, role plays, dramatizations, problem solving activities among others will be applied since they help the participants to retain the issues. Amazon Theatrix Ensemble has a wealth of experience and best practice in delivering non-partisan adult learning in its interventions. The community groups shall be part and parcel in the project planning and implementation process by undertaking planning, and mobilization for activities, evaluation and reaching out to other community members. This will make them feel they are part of the project, support it and thus own the project.

Equal participation by men and women in activities and decision-making will be encouraged; Promotion of use of gender friendly language; Promotion of gender mainstreaming and institutionalization; promoting the development of gender policies among beneficiaries; Taking affirmative action where necessary; and, identifying gender specific concerns in the intervention and addressing them. Parity in the number of women and men reached and/or interacted with the program; Gender sensitive policies implemented; Gender friendly language used in verbal interaction and IEC material; Specific gender needs identified and being addressed; Changed attitudes towards gender relations and social governance; Affirmative action being undertaken at the community level; Women participating in previously male dominated sphere and vice versa.

We have already a pool of trained personnel who are potential Community Change Agents who in turn will directly engage community through community sensitization forums and local/devolved government monitoring. We plan to work towards intensifying community organizing to ensure that we have strong community groups on the ground who will work with their constituencies advocating for issues originating from their needs and proposed activities. The other purpose of community organizing is to ensure there is collaboration, linkages developed and networks of CBOs working in the same region strengthened. 

These methods will allow for direct engagement with community members. Amazon Theatrix Ensemble as the implementing organization will engage directly with CBOs and other stakeholders and at the same time allow for grassroots to grassroots engagement (communities engaging at their level sharing and exchanging ideas and information).   

Amazon Theatrix Ensemble (A.T.E) is a community Youth-Led Organization for Awareness Creation and advocacy to Communities through Performing arts and media on matters relating to Community Development and Empowerment. We employ performing arts (Spoken Word and Theater) in championing for the voices of Communities in relation to Social Issues on Democracy and Governance, Peace and Security, Mental Health and Child Protection,

A.T.E prioritized arts as a social tool for advocacy embracing it as a professional platform where members could earn a living as they focus on communal sensitization and enabling through performance in the quest of building their self-Esteem and socio-economic gain A.T.E envisions a society that is informed offering a platform for Artists to relay messages to the community revolving around Social Behavior Change as we believe that performing arts is a powerful tool for activism as it houses components of both Educating and Informing influencing mindset on how people view things triggering dialogue at the grassroot level for change and development towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals In Kisumu County and Beyond

Networking and Collaboration is part of Individual or Organizational Growth since it provides platform for Learning, Sharing of ideas and Recommendations to other Like minded Partners in line with the work of Advocacy to Communities. This platform  will provide to us such opportunities to capacity Build Ourselves to be more resilient in Employing the use Of Performing Arts and Media in Sensitizing Communities on Social Related issues .

Performing Arts and Media is one of the Innovative and Creative Tools of Advocacy that is capable of Influencing Dialogue and Desition making at the Communkty Level since it have bothe Components of Educative and Entertaining with the quest of of providing a holistic approch of Learning in a more participatory Manner.This approach will Engage Communties in Radio Theatre Listening and Film Screening that will give an impact of audio-Visual Mixture bringing the happenings and the stroes inreal life situations to Stir Conversation among Participants.The Productions will be done in Local Indeginouse Language with English sub-Titles to relay the messeges to the particpants on their Civic Engagment role towards Influencung Chnage and Deveopment targeting youths and Women to help them in intalizing the Eectral Process and The Constitution of Kenya that gives them Sovereignbity of Power to put Duty Bearers into check towards a community that is empowered and Developed through Active Attending Of Public Participation Process.

To ensure that community owns, participate in and practices good governance and constitutionalism, a number of actions shall be undertaken as follows:

• Building capacity of community leaders through trainings and community organizing. We envisage that the trained Community Change Agents will continue sensitizing community;
• Development of culture of being proactive, innovative, volunteering and an attitude of giving back to community especially among individuals and communities who will benefit from the project;
• Consolidating strategic Community Based Organization (CBOs) networks and linkages that will work towards enriching activities on governance, organizing and participation in electoral politics
• Strengthening of institutional capacity and community based information centres are pivotal in enhancing community confidence in institutional programmes especially helping communities understand where they can learn and get more information and also share the same with the neighboring communities.

Continuous monitoring is an established culture in Project implementation. Documentation is important as data storage for future reference. Indeed monitoring is critical in the implementation of the constitution especially in providing the requisite oversight, audit and insight into the implementation of the project. A Monitoring and Evaluation Plan will be developed for systematic and informed monitoring and evaluation. The activity will ensure that set Project objectives and timelines are adhered to and where in-progress variation is necessary the same is effected on a timely basis to shield the Project from disruptions.

Monitoring, reporting and evaluation will involve: -

a) Mid - term Evaluation:  Amazon Theatrix Ensemble will hold mid-term evaluation meeting in the sixth month of the project with the Community Change Agents Change Agents for Strategic Interventions and sampled Resource Persons to assess the work done; challenges faced and through learning identify interventions to improve on the quality of their work and the project implementation process.

b) End of project evaluation.

The end of project evaluation is intended to establish the extent to which the project attained its set objectives, identify the gaps, isolate best practices and make recommendations on how not to approach future interventions and appropriate responses to identified challenges.

• External Programme Evaluation

This an independent and expert driven programme evaluation so as to establish the viability or not of the project as well as make the requisite recommendations for enhanced project results into the future.

Youths and Women Sensitization on Kenya Electoral Process and Constitutionalism through Performing Ars and Media will empower them on how to make informed choices of Electing Leaders that will Instill Develoment Among Them. This will Make them Understand the Role of Political seats and to Instill value for them to also contest on the seats to Influence Change since they are the majority in number and constitute a larger population that can come together to have influence on the change that they want at the Grassroot Level.

Storytelling for advocacy through Audio-Visual works because our brain is wired to remember narrations and is equipped to experience them as being told. According to psychologist, a human brain remembers stories 22 times more than facts. It’s the oldest and most powerful tool to affect change in society. And personal stories detailing the challenges one faces are easier to connect with and bring out our ability to empathize with the storyteller. In this way, stories can influence people and help bring about change whereas we will employ the modern use of Radio Theatre and Film Screening to Create Dialogue and Pass Information to Communities on Kenya's Electoral Process and Constitutionalism.

Equal participation by men and women in activities and decision-making will be encouraged; Promotion of use of gender friendly language; Promotion of gender mainstreaming and institutionalization; promoting the development of gender policies among beneficiaries; Taking affirmative action where necessary; and, identifying gender specific concerns in the intervention and addressing them. Parity in the number of women and men reached and/or interacted with the program; Gender sensitive policies implemented; Gender friendly language used in verbal interaction and IEC material; Specific gender needs identified and being addressed; Changed attitudes towards gender relations and social governance; Affirmative action being undertaken at the community level; Women participating in previously male dominated sphere and vice versa.

Research and Script Writing-Story Develoment(Pre-Production)

Production-Realization of the Ideas,Its Implemetation,Writing of Reports, Screening, Client Delivery

Post Production-Marketing, Evaluation

Amazon Theatrix Ensemble through Continues Resource Mobilization and Networking will seek for the relevant proposal writings to help in sustaining the initiative.

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