A community-based organisation has installed Talking Boxes at primary schools in Africa’s largest informal settlement, Kibera, in Kenya, to encourage schoolgirls to speak out about their problems.
Talking Boxes were initiated by Polycom’s founding director, Jane Anyango, who realised that in sexual harassment and gender-based violence discussions, some girls had trouble expressing themselves in the presence of their peers. Jane initiated one-on-one meetings, but these were time consuming. This lead to the creation of Talking Boxes. In collaboration with UNFPA, the boxes offer girls a platform where they can share their deepest and most painful secrets through anonymous notes dropped into locked boxes mounted in their various schools. The notes are then collected and collated, and the individual issues raised are responded to through speak-out forums, one-on-one counselling and referrals, depending on the weight of the issues.
One such note, written by a pupil and dropped into a box, reads: “I need help, I cannot control myself, I have high sexual urge that I cannot say no to any man. I had sex with my friend’s father and he gave me 100/=. A teacher in my school started touching me when I took my homework to his office. We were alone, so we ended up having sex. I have had sex with three of my boyfriend’s friends and they do not know. I am scared that I will get pregnant, I need help on how I can control myself.”