- Title:
- A people who have been given too much : Canadian efforts & development strategies at the Gatina Self-Help Education Centre, Kenya 1972-1975
- Creator:
- Kijewski, Amanda Jean Talbot
- Date Created:
- 2010
- Degree Awarded:
- Master of Arts
- Subjects:
- Social structure Community development Human Growth
- Geographical Focus:
- Africa Kenya Nairobi
- Supporting Materials:
- n/a
- Description:
- In January 1972, Canadian Topsy Ford initiated a small educational program aimed at the improvement of maternal and child health in Nairobi’s Gatina slum community. In eventual funding applications to the Canadian International Development Agency and the Canadian Hunger Foundation, Ford conceived of her small project growing into a multiple service center, facilitating women’s access to basic education, a medical clinic, and other welfare services, to be sustained in the long-run by community self-help. Skillfully, she applied the principles of the Women in Development model to her project, demonstrating a keen awareness of important development discourse changes to affect women throughout the 1970s. Ultimately however, Ford’s project failed to reach its self- sustainability goals. This study considers the dominant paradigm shift in development discourse during the 1970s that recognized women as strong potential agents of their own development and how this was misappropriated in Gatina as a result of important implications in colonial and development rhetoric. It also makes a case for the utility of history in development studies as it considers the contemporary incarnation of Ford’s project in The Gatina Primary School, a project currently supported by the Amsha Africa organization.
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- Kijewski, Amanda Jean Talbot. 2010. "A people who have been given too much : Canadian efforts & development strategies at the Gatina Self-Help Education Centre, Kenya 1972-1975", Department of History, Carleton University
- Link to this page:
- https://cuhistory.github.io/grads/items/hist_118.html
Rights
- Rights:
- Copyright the author, all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.