From Outreach to Impact: Supporting Training Programs at Mazingira Institute

For the past two weeks, I worked with the Mazingira team to prepare for the two upcoming trainings. The first is a two-day urban agriculture training at Waithaka Vocational Training Centre (VTC) scheduled for July 1st and July 2nd. For this training, I contacted the VTC principals and staff who attended the meeting at Waithaka in May and asked them to nominate students from their schools. I maintained communication with the principals, providing specific instructions for selecting and mobilizing students. This activity helped strengthen my oral communication abilities, especially when making calls to authority figures. It also helped me improve my time management skills, as we had a tighter timeline for this training, and I was responsible for ensuring the principals mobilized the trainees. These skills are beneficial to the project as I will need to communicate with different stakeholders and manage multiple assignments in the future. The outputs from this activity included a spreadsheet listing the students nominated for training and a communications blog post. The second, is the seven-day Gender, Urban Agriculture and Food System (GUAFS) Training, scheduled for late July and August. This event is a recurring cycle at Mazingira Institute that aims to teach young farmers about urban agriculture. I joined the Mazingira team in interviewing applicants at the office, further developing my oral communication. This skill is essential for effectively communicating with project participants and partners. In addition to in-person interviews, I conducted phone interviews to assess applicants, which improved my judgment skills. The outputs of this activity included the tutorial videos for The Nairobi Farmer app and Urban Agriculture and Food System (UAFS) Database. These videos will help trainees navigate the app and database more independently. This is important for collecting data to be uploaded to the database. This information will support the project during its reporting process. 

I met with the NEFSALF Women’s Hub during their scheduled meeting at Mazingira’s office. The members all participated in the GUAFS Training and have stayed closely connected to the organization. The Women’s Hub frequently collaborates with Mazingira and was recently the subject of its documentary case study. The project has impacted the members by allowing them to enhance their farming activities and expand their networks. This impact is significant, as it brings the Hub closer to its goal of collectively owning land and expanding activities. There has also been a ripple effect within the community and Mazingira’s network. Members of the Women’s Hub have served as mentors to young female farmers, sharing their knowledge of urban agriculture. One notable example of this is Esther Maina, the group’s secretary who once mentored young women in peanut butter processing. 

Over the past few weeks, I developed some key skills and gained first-hand experience in recruiting for Mazingira Institute’s training events. Overall, I will continue strengthening both my communication and project management skills in the future.