Of World Bank, Destiny and The Power of the Arts .1

Me, second left, Tendo and Held fourth and fifth (left) with other writers/bloggers from Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Madagascar, and Rwanda.

Mary Helda Akongo, Namata Tendo and I travelled to Washington DC for the World Bank Spring Meetings, little in my wildest dreams did I imagine that my passion for the Arts would be jetting me to the World Bank head office in Washington DC.

When the call came through asking youths in East Africa to write about what our different countries can do to end gender based Violence, of course i wrote about what I know best. Because I have personally experienced the power of art to get people thinking about things, question their decisions and views about life and change their mindset thus, I knew and understood that if we are to address issues around Gender Based Violence (GBV) then the arts and their strength in the visual would meet an effective cause of sensitisation.

With other African Youth and Winners of #Blog4Dev 2018. In the background the World Bank Group Offices

My blog, which was puablished in the World Bank website and Kenyan platform Nasikiliza tackles how using the arts an involving stake holders; decision makers, social workers and health practitioners, police and government can share social impact stories, and encourage victims and survivors of GBV to speak up and thus channel advocacy against GBV.

Read the Blog here: https://blogs.worldbank.org/nasikiliza/uganda-can-use-the-arts-to-end-gender-based-violence.

Helda and Tendo could attest to this power if art. Each of us having personal experiences with GBV, understand the negative impact it has on economic development, social welfare and personal growth, that once we got to talking about how to end GBV, they were also optimistically interested in using arts programming within the work they are doing for this cause.