The Mackinnon road community is found on the busy Mombasa-Nairobi highway, Mackinnon road ward, Samburu Sub County, of the larger Kwale County. With an estimated population of 8000 people, the community’s mainstay is small scale mixed farming and trading in foodstuff. Local inhabitants drawn from the Duruma and Giriama tribes of the Mijikenda community and keep indigenous cows and goats.
Being a semi-arid area that receives little rainfall in two unreliable seasons, the community struggles with several challenges that need intervention from SAWBO animated content. One major advantage in working in this area, is the rich Mijikenda culture which puts community interest ahead of personal/individual conquests. They promote the sharing of information and resources to make their lives better collectively.
It is worth noting that several youths in the community have enrolled to train as social development officers at a local college out of the necessity to drive change and make a difference. As we strive to build communities and expand networks, we intend to tap into this resource as well.
Social work and community development students from the Mackinnon community after attending a training session on “Forming Kataru & SAWBO Communities” to increase content uptake. The training organized by Kataru Concepts took place at a local church. Photo credit: Kataru Cncepts
On September 28th, 2024 we held a training session for 10 community youths who are in their final year of coursework in social work and community development. The 10 upcoming officers, who are from a larger group of 50, were recruited from the coast region. They were trained on how to install and use the SAWBO mobile app. The App users to access, download and share SAWBO animations. They were excited to have a “one-on-one” session with our team.
Our entry point in this community was the preparation of these ten social workers and equipping them with educational materials from SAWBO. They will return to their villages as volunteers sharing SAWBO content. This shall greatly complement our efforts at establishing “KATARU & SAWBO COMMUNITIES” where digital content is used in a range of practices to improve livelihoods.
There was excitement during the group discussion session as the volunteers pointed out basic skills learned from the videos in relation to their community practices as they selected videos that they needed translated into local Mijikenda languages.
According to our social training officer Mbeyu Tao Dzombo, “SAWBO animations are rich in education and proper ways of farming to improve productivity and reduce food insecurity. There is also content that’s very good for pest and disease control in crops, birds, and general health practices.”
During the training, three groups were formed to discuss what SAWBO animations were required in the community, and how they can be translated into Giriama, Chonyi, Duruma and Swahili languages spoken by the locals. Photo credit: Kataru Concepts.
Patience Mapenzi, is a social work and community development final year student who attended the session. According to, Mapenzi “the knowledge impacted on the social workers accessing SAWBO animations, adoption of the knowledge by the Mackinnon community have the potential to assist in:
- a healthy society, free from hunger, malnutrition and diseases;
- quality farm produce for consumption and selling surplus to meet other needs;
- healthy animals and birds for rearing and consumption;
- proper grain storage free from pests and chemicals for future use; and
- farming can also create job opportunities for the unemployed, shared Patience.”
The youthful social development trainees expressed their joy and enthusiasm in accessing animations that could provide solutions for their families and neighbors. They started introducing SAWBO to the community using WhatsApp. They explained to the community members how to download videos through the SAWBO app. Next the community members watched the downloaded videos and promised to implement what they had learned plus share it with others.
