If there is one thing that all delegates at the Commonwealth People’s Forum agree on when its comes to transforming people’s lives, is the power of partnerships.

It is partnership that has resulted in the incredible successes being made in the areas of poverty reduction, human rights, humanitarian activities, and gender empowerment. Civil societies have shown great leadership by going beyond religious, creed, ethnicity, and cultural differences to bring positive changes in people’s lives.

‘‘Make a big circle,’’ teacher Catherine Munyau calls out, amid the tangle of little arms, legs and eyes curiously sizing up the visitors, among them Dr Helen D.Gayle, the president and CEO of CARE USA.

Six years ago when Gilbert Atsiaya, armed with a bucket and a jembe started to grow vegetables on a piece of land condemned as unproductive, the neighbours laughed him off. Even the village young men who wasted much of their valuable time sitting on bus-stops waiting to carry luggage for people or beg for handouts from people arriving from towns, dismissed his efforts as a non-starter.

The recent visit by Ban Ki-moon, the new UN Secretary General to Kibera- Africa’s largest slum where over 800,000 people live in squalor and abject poverty might have looked ordinary to most people, but for Margaret Achieng, this visit signaled hope.

Achieng a resident of the sprawling Kibera slum was glad that, Bi-moon’s first visit to Kenya included this epic detour to Kibera. This action in many ways demonstrated his solidarity with them and helped to bring the world’s attention on the life they live in the slums. 

Entry into the market by foreign producers and marketers has affected trade and production sectors in poor nations.

Kenya World Social Forum

The conference brought together activists, social movements, networks, coalitions, civil societies and other progressive forces from Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, North America, Europe and Africa whose interests are central to policy making with an aim to reduce social inequalities in the world.

Most of them come from poor families where education is regarded as an extra cost that can be done away with.

The fact that the World Social Forum is being held in Kenya during an election year has acted as a reconnection point for them to deal with issues that were being swept under the table.