KISUMU, SET ON THE SHORES OF BEAUTIFUL LAKE VICTORIA, IS THE THIRD LARGEST CITY IN KENYA .
KISUMU IS ALSO A CITY RAVAGED BY THE HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC IN WHICH 48% OF THE POPULATION LIVE WITHIN THE ABSOLUTE POVERTY BRACKET AND 30% ARE UNEMPLOYED.
Voices is currently partnered with Abila Creative Center , a community-based organization and community center in the Mamboleo area of Kisumu devoted to working primarily with youth and women in the community.
Through voices and Abila, the young people of Kisumu, Kenya were given basic training in video and photography and invited to use the media in creative ways to communicate the issues they face as seen through their own eyes. Using donated video and still camera equipment, these young people were given the opportunity to use media to voice their thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences. With the belief that communication leads to social change, voices has exhibited these projects to audiences in Kisumu and beyond.
..Voices and Abila have worked together to create a cross-cultural exchange between youth in the Kisumu area and students at Oakwood School in Los Angeles, CA through internet and postal mail. The goal of this program is to give young people the opportunity to learn and share ideas in an effort to build community across borders.
Voices and Abila are in the process of networking a number of women's groups in the Kisumu area in an effort to develop viable and sustainable income generating projects to assist them in providing livelihood for both their families and orphans in the community.
Voices and Abila worked with the Columbia University Partnership for International Development (CUPID) to facilitate an internship program through which a multidisciplinary team of six Columbia University students traveled to Kisumu and worked closely with community members at Abila Creative Center for six weeks in the summer of 2007.
Voices has no formal funding and exists through the generosity of friends and family. We would like to thank those who have supported us since we began this work in 2006. Without your overwhelming generosity, none of this would be possible.
Voices is in the process of incorporating and becoming a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Abila Creative Center is registered with the Kenayn Ministry of Gender, Sports & Social Services, Department of Culture as a Community Based Organization (Registration number: PAD/127/04, Serial No DC. I/2: 00217)