Indigenous Information Network (IIN): Kenya

The IIN engages in research on the ground, the results of which are used to create trainings and workshops for grassroots community-based organisations. In these outreach programmes, techniques for income generation, cultural preservation, and sound environmental management are promoted, and methods of achieving gender equality and improving community health are discussed. Concrete action plans are formulated and subsequently implemented. In urban areas, advocacy and lobbying are done at meetings, conferences. and other forums where interests of indigenous and minority peoples are being discussed.

IIN also engages in networking and information sharing between the indigenous peoples of Africa and worldwide via electronic and print media, including their bi-annual magazine, Nomadic News. These efforts include indigenous journalists' training. Nomadic News focuses on the struggles of Indigenous Peoples in Africa and makes connections between grassroots, national. and international politics.

Partnering with MADRE, the IIN holds trainings on sexual and reproductive health, including HIV/AIDS, specifically for women, as well as on forced female genital mutilation. In order to reach as many people as possible, IIN holds trainings in schools and in homes in Maasai, Samburu, Rendille, Turkana, and other Indigenous communities. IIN offers special trainings for health workers on proper care for HIV/AIDS patients. MADRE and the IIN work to provide Indigenous girls in Kenya with access to quality secondary education and to deliver safe drinking water for young girls who attend the Kilgoris Girls' School. The school is seen as a safe haven for girls who are at risk for forced marriage and genital mutilation.

In the International Indigenous movement, the IIN has played an advocacy role in United Nations conferences and forums, including the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the World Conference Against Racism.

Rights, HIV/AIDS, Gender, Education.

The underlying issue that motivated the founding members of IIN is that Indigenous and Minority Peoples have been marginalised from mainstream development agenda, particularly due to their ways of life (nomadic pastoralists and hunters and gatherers). IIN recognises that the way Indigenous Peoples live is sustainable and worth supporting. This belief has been supported by the organisation through the activities it has undertaken since its initiation. The organisation’s main thrust is the creation of awareness of the status quo of Indigenous groups and initiation of activities that address bottlenecks hindering advancement of the systems in place.