Life & Work

Candid chat with defender of the boy child

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Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF) chief executive officer Janet Mawiyoo. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA

In 1997, KCDF was founded to promote sustainable development of communities for social justice, through local institutional building, policy influencing and resource mobilisation.

Janet Mawiyoo has been in the development sector with non-profit organisations for over 30 years, having spent 14 years with ActionAid International in both Kenya and Tanzania.

She has a Masters degree in Development Administration and Management from University of Manchester and a post-graduate diploma in Organisation Development Consultancy from the Swiss Institute of Applied Psychology in Switzerland.

We met at her office on Ngong Road and talked about the fate of the boy child.
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What’s the one thing you’ve learnt, being in an NGO for all those years?

There’s nothing as satisfying as seeing people really rising up, taking charge and moving on with their lives. Being empowered; where empowerment means understanding what they’re dealing with and really being on the driver’s seat. People not being dependent and working in a way that doesn’t make people dependent, which is one of the illnesses we have in the aid industry.

There’s been talk that there’s so much focus on the girl child previously, but now the girl child has become so strong at the expense of the boy child. Is that a correct assessment?

I don’t know if I can say its at the expense. The trouble with the way we do a lot of things is that we move from one extreme to the other. I wish we could find the balance. It’s true, girls are extremely disadvantaged and that is something I witness every day. It’s just that we have this little island called Nairobi and a few spots in the country where maybe you have cases of girls being empowered. Like here, we are struggling to find male candidates.
The chances that the women candidates would do better than men is pretty high and lately we’ve had to work hard to identify men to work with us rather than to find women because they tend to do better. And it’s not uncommon.

When you look at the profile of staff in non-profit organisations, you see many women. That would make somebody think “what’s going on?” It’s just that in these islands you see a lot of women doing many things but actually out there, some women are extremely disadvantaged and girls are really exploited.

The unfortunate thing is that in the process of trying to deal with that, we’ve actually ignored or not given attention to the boys and now we’re suffering. That is real.

Do you think that affects the relationship between men and women?

Of course! It’s happening even in America. That’s why we have a lot of violence in some families because the women have gone overboard. In the process of empowering them, they’ve also lacked better ways of communication or I don’t know if to call it respect. We need to bring up our boy child so that he is respectful.

That doesn’t mean we don’t give the girls an equal chance, we should do the best to bring them up where they are disadvantaged, but we shouldn’t do it at the expense of boys. Boys also need to be mentored.

You have a boy and girl, right?

He is going to be 28 soon and she is turning 31.

How have you empowered these two? Apart from education?

Unfortunately, when you have two children, there’s a natural tendency for the girl to be very close to the father and the boy to the mother. We’ve tried to have a very fair play in our house in terms of anyone can cook and anyone should cook.

Anyone can do whatever needs to be done. I often go to my farm with my son. There’s a natural strength that a boy has, When I need a pickup to be driven or a hard job done, it’s my son.

You daughter is a poet. Have you come to embrace her career, which we can agree to call an alternative career?

Our family was fortunate that when our kids were younger, we became part of a group of couples who decided we were going to help each other with raising the children. The issue of how you allow children to make their pick rather than push them arose. We realised that we have to be open. Our issue has been how to make sure that both our children can make money because I know the challenges of a woman without money.

Many homes end up being balanced because women have that little income. For the men who have ignored that, it has been to their peril. You know, not encouraging their wives to thrive. Fortunately, my husband encouraged me to pursue my career, do what I want. That’s how I ended up going to Tanzania to work.

It wasn’t him who had the permanent job, it was me. But he was willing unlike other traditional men to allow me to go for it and do whatever needs to be done.

For him to say, you know what, go to Tanzania and do what you have to do. Was that attitude a direct product of how you treated him as a man or was that inherently the person he is as a man?

(Laughs) You need to ask him. We learnt how to give space to one another so that everybody thrives. Everybody is accountable to God at the end of the day. You don’t want a slave in your house, you want a partner. How do you create a partner? You create a partner by also being supportive of what they are doing.

He’s a pastor?

Yes. He’s now retired but he has been a pastor for many years.

What’s your calling?

My calling is to serve people. Which is exactly what I do!

And that’s your passion as well?

Yes.

All those years you’ve been coming in contact with disadvantaged people, has that changed you?

You become better informed. I don’t just go there with my heart, I go with my mind and with understanding. I’ve seen a lot of people make a lot of mistakes because they go there with their hearts, but they actually don’t understand what they’re dealing with. For me it’s not about being charitable, it’s about helping someone take charge of their lives.

I get the feeling that you’re very spiritual. You live in faith.

I live in faith, yes.

When was the last time you failed God?

I fail God every day. Unfortunately, in all my efforts to try and do what I should, I am just a human being. I sometimes have the wrong attitudes towards people or maybe judge people, all those are sins. It’s not just stealing or corruption. Speaking badly is something that I’m sure God is not amused with.

Have you judged me today since I came here? You can be honest, I won’t feel bad.

(Laughs) I had no reason to judge you. You are just a pleasant young man.

Apart from what you do, because you said this is your passion as well, if you want to let your hair down, what do you do? Do you travel, paint, watch TV?

I garden. I love my compound which is very green. I walk around and see what needs to be changed. I just did that last evening. You know when you just sit out and enjoy the fresh air thank God, not everybody can do that.

When did you have the most fun in your life?

(Long pause) I need to think through that. I’m not sure. Because I wanted to reflect a bit to see which time that was. (Pause). Can I think about that some more?

What are you struggling with right now?

One of the most challenging things is dealing with human beings who don’t have values. Those not driven by anything that is solid. You can see we’re suffering from valueless communities. For me dishonesty is a big thing. Because I feel if we sort this, we can end up with credible doctors, teachers and politicians who are doing a good job, who are not exploiting.

So what do you stand for?

I do my best to stand for being an honest person, a person who does her best. One of the things that I’m actually passionate about is pushing for accountability because we non-profits are very good at hitting out at the government and other people, but very often we are not very keen on being open about what we are doing, where we put money, the money we receive or the difference we are making.

These are not conversations people are keen on.