Symbols

The first IFTIN Self Help Group Training module was completed today in Eastleigh as our team of community facilitators prepare for a busy fall of community mobilization and group formation. On Monday, the group was encouraged by several special guests including both the Kenyan and the Rwandan national self help group coordinators who joined the women in field visits in the Mathare Valley Slum. From The Sharing Way, Ruth Minyau and Bruno Soucey also dropped by to encourage the women and to see some of the activities happening through the development program.

On Friday, we learned about the role of the community facilitators and about governance within the Self Help Group approach. During this day, Aaron also talked about the importance of communicating the purpose of SHG and about forming group identity. One exercise that the group did was the creation of a unique symbol for the Iftin Self Help Group initiative. Together we discussed what it meant to be a part of a women's empowerment program, and how we were trying to build a peoples institution, or movement, that empowered vulnerable women within our community. With our Iftin motto of "Women helping women for a brighter future" we began to think about how each woman contributes to bringing light into places of hopelessness. Before long, we began to picture an image of women coming together and forming a burst of light.

This is the symbol that we decided on as a group.

Like the eight Somali and Oromo women who sat around our table, the eight women in this picture have joined together for the good of others. But they are only able to lift up their arms and make a great impact through faith in God's presence and compassion, through unity and cooperation with their sisters, and through personal sacrifice and commitment.

Each of the eight "Somali women" in the Symbol will be different colours: each colour representing an aspect of the story of Iftin. After some thought and discussion, the ladies decided on the following eight colours:

Black for "Where we have come from"

Blue for "Faith"

Pink for "Sisterhood"

Brown for "Our hands and hard work"

Green for "Prosperity"

Red for "Love"

Gold for "Empowerment"

White for "Peace"

Of course, the symbol is only a reminder to all of us of the realities behind who we are as we come together to serve our neighbours.