TEAM TENDO, THE TOTO GARI AND HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN by Churchill 

I always had a hint as to what social innovation could mean even before I took a brief course on the same earlier on this year. And as I would discover during the inaugural East African Social Innovation Safari in April, I wasn’t so far from the meaning. What I was far from even guessing right is how the process unfolds and the challenges that come with attempting to innovate a solution to a challenge at a personal, group, communal, organizational or societal level. Five months down the line after the Safari, my problem solving methods have changed a lot and the way I also interact with people generally has transformed. I decided to adopt and use some insight I got from the ten day training and as a result I can confidently say that things are more interesting this way.

And so when I received an email from Peace and Collaborative Development Network two and a half months ago about a free online course on Human Centered Design facilitated by +ACUMEN and IDEO.ORG I didn’t hesitate to click on the discussion link to see how I could participate in it. It would turn out in the page that opened on the next tab on my browser that the course wouldn’t take a lot of time, had a few weekly assignments (ideal considering my already tight schedule), was to be done in teams and would be rewarded by a certificate of completion at the end of the course after the submission of all assignments. What mattered to me most was the fact that I am actually really passionate about change-making and getting insight on how I could do this through this course would really be something I’d not mind doing. As the course required, I had to form a team of not less than three people before we could get started on October 24^th. Wallace Odiwuor, Elizabeth Muthama, Susan Kalekye Muia and Maureen Okuto (all fourth year students) would be the four other members of Team Tendo as I decided to name it. Globally, the course had more than 16,000 participants and the last time I checked, the other teams in Kenya were just in Nairobi.

Team Tendo members, Left To Right : Churchill, Kalekye, Liz and Maureen.

Businesses, social entrepreneurs, and other innovators have used human-centered design for decades to create solutions for many different types of challenges. This course introduced us to the concepts of human-centered design to help make us more effective, innovative problem solvers.  According to the course organizers, the three major phases of the human-centered design process are Inspiration, Ideation, and Implementation.

In the Inspiration phase, you learn directly from the people you’re designing for as you immerse yourself in their lives and come to deeply understand their needs and aspirations. The Inspiration phase is about learning on the fly, opening yourself up to creative possibilities, and trusting that as long as you remain grounded in desires of the people you’re designing for, your ideas will evolve into the right solution. As part of the course, during the inspiration phase we had to choose a design challenge from a list of three challenges that had been identified by the course facilitators. To choose a design challenge we had to collect our thoughts around one challenge that we chose through voting then followed that with a review of what we already knew, defined what we didn’t know then reviewed the constraints or barriers to taking on that challenge. That was followed by planning our research method where we defined our audience with the challenge we chose, planned the logistics of going to the field, came up with recruitment tools and established how to create a trusted atmosphere with those we were designing for and those we had to talk to while designing.

We had to learn from experts, immerse ourselves in the context of the problem we were designing a solution for and selected an analogous inspiration that could help us understand our challenge more. At this point we were introduced to a case study, VROOM, a human-centered take on early childhood development. In this case, The IDEO.org team undertook a highly immersive inspiration phase, visiting low-income communities in California, New York, and Pennsylvania to conduct interviews with parents and to observe existing programs aimed at improving child development outcomes. The team learned that many of the parents they met had had very tough upbringings. These parents didn’t feel fully equipped to engage with their children, because their own parents didn’t engage with them. At the end of this phase we settled on challenge three where we had To Design A Solution That Would Help Parents In Low-Income Communities Ensure Children Thrive In Their First Five Years. We interacted with the community around Mabungo and Nyawita areas as part of our immersion process and also talked to child care experts around the university. This challenge had been selected as one of the #zerotofivechallenges by AMPLIFY that was also collaborating with +ACUMEN in this course. This meant that if our idea was to be shortlisted upon completion of the course, we could continue participating on the AMPLIFY platform to refine our idea based on the Refinement Phase. If our idea gets all the way to the final stage, we could be in the running for funding and design support from IDEO.org!

Wallace, Liz and Kalekye integrating findings after field research

The Ideation phase transformed our research into meaningful and actionable insights that became the foundation of our design. We begun by making sense of what we learned from our design research. These themes and insights helped us define opportunities for design that were differentiated and generative. We then brainstormed lots of new ideas and set out building prototypes to test these concepts. Continuing to test and iterate on our ideas helped shape a more innovative, effective solution. In the design process, searching for meaning in the nitty gritties you find in the field is really critical to getting down to the beat that could give you the rhythm to the solution you desire. We listened to each other and adopted a YES AND approach in place of a more common YES BUT approach that usually excludes most people ideas.  While brainstorming we had really wild ideas and encouraged each of us to generate as many as possible. We also deferred judgment, went for quantity and illustrated ideas visually. After selecting the most promising idea, we determined what to prototype and designed for them. Upon getting feedback after prototyping and prioritizing it, we had to integrate them in our next iteration. At this advanced stage, we studied Moneythink Mobile, an innovation where human-centered designers were designing digital tools to build financial literacy. Another case study was where IDEO.org partnered with Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor to design a new pit latrine emptying business in Zambia. The team designed a service called Pump Away.

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We had a mock pitching session and as you see Liz was strict!

The Implementation phase is about understanding how to bring your solution to life, and to market in the real world. In the end, you’ll know that your solution will be a success because you’ve kept the very people you’re looking to serve at the heart of the process. In this case, we learned the tools necessary to consider how we could build partnerships, refine our business (or non-profit) model, pilot our idea, and eventually get our idea out there — all these is if we were to truly

implement our idea, which is dependent on how our idea will be rated by the course facilitators.

Well if you would like to get the final presentation of our idea, The TOTO GARI, kindly mail us at bamumaseno@gmail.com and we will be very glad to mail you the power point presentation. Alternatively, comment below with your e-mail address and we will mail it to you. We are sharing it on this platform to get your feedback on places you think we might have not explored well or ignored totally. I decided to share it as the last part of this article after having taken you through the design process. Feel free to leave your questions, insight and views in the comments section. Also, wish us luck!

The Toto Gari will be something close to this

#MYDRESSMYCHOICE

When we said we were taking a good number of photos of ladies in dresses to show our solidarity with the #MyDressMyChoice movement some people called it a bluff. Well we weren’t, here you go!

WHY YOU SHOULD EMBRACE ARGUING PLUS OTHER THINGS YOU ALREADY KNOW

At BAMU have been reworking the models of our recruitment and Ongea sessions since this semester we’ve had a very different membership compared to last semester when things were more meetings and articles driven. When we started, one of our goals was to be a go to platform for intellectual conversations on an array of topics that we thought the students would relate to. We also intended to remodel and redesign how bloggers here can come up with content for their blogs. 

And so this week, to usher in our three new members, we decided to have an Ongea session where we sought to discuss matters of one’s own perspective versus the conventions in society. Churchill started the session by inviting the members to share how they view conflict and disagreements plus how they usually tackle this. Rama, Liz, Fred, Clare, Simon and Mary all had beautiful answers to this as you’d expect. Oh agree to disagree, give up if the other party isn’t ready to listen to you, don’t let emotions get the best of you. Such. 

Left to right : Clara, Mary and Liz

 

What followed was a question posed to the group that elicited mixed reactions and before they knew it, guys were disagreeing all over the place. As to if they did what they prescribed earlier on, you’d have to attend one Ongea session to see how stuff goes down there. At the end of the session everyone was tasked with writing approximately 50 words of whichever topic they preferred based on the arguments we had during the session and what we learnt. And this, as Clara, Fred, Rama and Mary were told, is one easy way of generating content. Conversations and the arguments that ensue while we have them are one easy way of creating new content. Not that being persistently argumentative is good though.  So, here goes! Mary knits by the way. More about that soon.

MARY GITAU: Disagreements as A Learning Avenue

Have you ever found yourself in a heated conversation where you find yourself disagreeing? Is it wrong to disagree? Opinions do differ between people. A good example is that part of my friends think disagreeing is a good way of showing one is of a different opinion. It is also a good way of sharing and getting to learn from others. On the other hand, some find disagreeing being primitive, reason being that it may end up in fists when parties involved fail to come to a conclusion or rather an agreement. This then breeds the fact that the subject matter will have to apply and presentation of facts in a respectful and mature way. To sum up, disagreeing is a good platform to get to learn more and at the same time expands ones thinking capacities. It all depends how you to take it to be and the end.

CLARE JUMA: Religion, Believing and Breaking Away

Now I believe we all have that particular ' thing ‘or force  or belief or reason that drives us to be who we are-that  motivates our daily actions and shapes our  behavior and way of thinking. When certain doctrines and protocols spell out some part of our lives, especially when we are born to find them in existence, it’s only natural for us to follow  and become part of them and later when we are older maybe decide to break out and follow our own beliefs. Just like in religion. Nobody knows for sure whether what religion we believe in is real. We are either trained to believe, or decide to believe, or choose not to believe at all. So to sum it all up, being religious is a matter of choice. And whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Atheist, at the back of our minds, we all know and are free to decide who or what it is we truly believe in.

FRED MUMBI: If The Mind Is So Powerful, Why Is It Easily Coerced?

So we ended up arguing on how powerful the brain really is. Who said we ought to adopt the belief structures we found in place? Such concepts as religion, origin of existence and evolution that we have adopted, were a creation of people’s brains. Aren’t our minds powerful enough to come up with such belief structures of their own to adopt and abide them? The answer is yes, the brain is capable of such and more. Yet if the mind is so powerful, why is it easily coerced? 

Fred

SIMON WARIOKO: What Defines Success?
I wish success was a land; like the promised land where 'all our tears would be wiped out, where we would find joy and peace and where there would be no troubles any more'. But that is only a wish, and what more, do I really NEED to succeed? Our parents and the people of our society tell us to 'go to school, study hard, so that we can find a good job, and eventually have a good family.' And that is to them what I think is a road-map to success. It is a phrase that could arguably be a summary of what society has for all its existence been habitually inclined to live by. And its factual reasons not-withstanding, it is the department through which all part of society has been made, from law-making, medical care, construction to merchandizing, agriculture and artistry endeavors (which preserves all society).

Narrowing it down to an individualistic perspective, I think every human being with a sound mind at some point needs to have something in there lives. We are brought up not equal but in need. And one only knows the need only when one needs it. It therefore goes that first the individual has to have a goal. A definite major goal. A goal which they so desire to achieve that everything less is subservient. 

Liz, Rama and Simon

Some people want money, others fame, others want names say in their professionalism and still others want love, sex or romance, career success and/or self-fulfillment. These goals mentioned are all positive, not to insinuate there are no negative goals. These come along in the name of getting what is positive. Men have lied in order to gain love, yet others have killed and in search for sexual fulfillment, done things that only lowered them down to the level of a beast. This all in the name of success. But here comes a question, is there really success in doing what hurts other people in order to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve? And is there a way in which you can really get what you need without as much an effort?

IT’S PUNGULU PANGALA by Elizabeth Muthama

His name is John Diang’a a humble 68 year man old and a former tutor at Kagumo and Kisii teachers’ college:  but his neighbours simply refer to him as the ‘mad man’, he is the man who in his home in Maseno has endeavoured to bring nature, drawings, models, arts and carvings together at a sanctuary he named ‘Pungulu Pangala’ Culinary Arts Centre. Pungulu pangala is located 20 kilometres from Kisumu along the Kisumu Busia road and is a 20minutes walk from Maseno University.

John Diang’a standing next to one his most recent works in pungulu pangala

I recently got an opportunity to visit pungulu pangala with ‘Spoken Heart’ a BCG (Behavioural Change Group) in Maseno University and witnessed decades of work by the talented African artist. Pungulu pangala is not the place you drive to, because to get there you have to leave the main road and walk as there are no paths for vehicles, you then have to cross a railway line and a stream to get there.

Wonderful sculptures, well-tended flower beds and trees invite you in the art centre, a step further reveals ponds where fish swim lively, and birds chirp building nests on the trees that provide cool shades. Then there are more art exhibition of works Mr Diang’a displayed in every corner in the compound, in one of the huts also are traditional pendants that he sells. In the same hut, on one wall hangs evidence of his greatness in the form of newspaper cuttings of stories that journalists have written about the ‘mad man’ bearing headings such as ‘Grand Warrior Of Kenya With A Passion For Art’, ‘Mad Maseno Artist Is A Hit’: the oldest and the most recent articles being in 1968 and 2014 respectively.

John Diang’a has transformed his compound into a quiet art sanctuary where artists can come in for inspiration, groups can cook and dine and families can visit for a get-away. At a fee people interested in cooking are provided with a jiko, utensils and charcoal.His exquisite works have also been displayed in buildings across the country and the world. His warm heart and kindness keeps people going to pungulu pangala and his willingness to share his wisdom with young artists has made him a darling among artist in Maseno. Dianga’s story is a truly inspiring one, set a date to go experience it first-hand.

P.S: I was inspired to write this story while at Pungulu Pangala: thank you Mr Diang’a for the inspiration.