Community: Real Life

Out of Africa


Ivy Maina was born and educated in Kenya. She is currently on ActionAid's 'Get on Board' epic bus journey from Johannesburg to Scotland. Collecting messages from African people to take to the G8 summit in Edinburgh in July, Ivy reports back to TheSite on her experiences along the way.
Entry: 5

The African leg of the journey is over and Ivy is preparing to take the thoughts and aspirations of Africas poor to the leaders of the G8.

It's been about a week now since we finished the African leg of our journey. After two months and 10,000 km of long drives, interviews, writing stories and collecting messages, I'm still trying to recover.

Though we're 2,000 km away from our final destination-the G8 Summit in Scotland-I already feel that we've already done something remarkable.

In a incredibly short space of time, the team on the bus and the various ActionAid country programs got together to ask, listen and document what real poor people in Africa want. I know this is the work that ActionAid does every single day, but before I set out in this journey, I never really knew or understood the simplicity of just asking the question 'what do you want?'

During one of my last visits to Kenya, I met a girl called Sophie. She was 13 and had lost both her parents. She lives with her aunt and cousins and hadn't seen any other members of her immediate family for years. Sophie is made to feel like an outsider in her aunt's home. She is not allowed to sit at the table at mealtimes. Instead she is given her food and told to sit on the floor away from the table.  

From South Africa to Kenya the story was the same. People want to live a life of dignity where they have access to basics like clean water, shelter, health care and education.

Sophie is only happy when she is at school. it is the only good thing that she feels she has left in life. Sophie is a strong, intelligent girl who has the simple wish to better herself.

From South Africa to Kenya the story was the same. People want to live a life of dignity where they have access to basics like clean water, shelter, health care and education.

Sophie is entitled to a life of dignity. My remit is to make that possible by calling on the G8 leaders and asking people to put pressure on them so they deliver on their commitments.

If I continue to do what I'm doing and you start to mobilise then the prospect of more aid; full debt cancellation, trade justice and a radical reform of the World Trade Organization for the benefit of African agricultural economies, won't seem that insurmountable. Just listen to their stories and realise that you can change their lives.


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