Our Projects
Community Conversations
We currently work in communities bordering conservation areas - where the pressures on the natural world are most evident and the communities still have a sense of connectedness with nature. Our conversations are launched through partners who are familiar with the areas and communities where we work, connecting us to community groups, where we are able to share our bank of stories, theater, and music to spark important conversations.
ECO-FAITH CONVERSATIONS
Youth Champions
We engage youth who are active in their communities to launch The Population Conversation in their life and work, by inviting them to join our Population Conversation Champion programme. Youth attend 4-day residential trainings in a community centre where they begin the process of reconnecting with nature. Over the course of 3 experiential trainings, the peer educators feel empowered and emboldened to be Population Conversation “Champions” using the games, facilitation tools, photos and skits from the toolbox to carefully and respectfully launch these critical conversations in their communities.
Research and Policy (PHED)
The Research, Monitoring & Learning programme provides the evidence base that guides our work and tracks progress across all programmes. It supports reflection, accountability, and contribution to wider conversations on population dynamics, sexual and reproductive health, and conservation.
Without evidence of our impact, we cannot scale our work or secure future funding. We know our methods work, and so we want to provide the evidence. As a young organisation, we are prioritizing research and collaborating with research institutes to support this work and publish our findings in peer-reviewed journals, so others can learn from and adopt our approach.
With Population Matters providing technical support, we are launching a longitudinal study in 2026 while maintaining our MEL.
Partnerships
As an association, we focus on partnerships and memberships. We offer to train the teams of our partner organisations. As an association, we are non-proprietorial. We partner to strengthen the reach of our unique approach, amplify our partners' messages, and build deliberate collaborations with organisations and institutions working in sexual and reproductive health, conservation, culture, education, and research, so that youth have access to pipelines of support and recognition. These relationships allow us to learn, share responsibility, and work at a scale that no single organisation can achieve alone.
Transformation Theatre
Founded in part on the work of Augusto Boal, adapted for Kenya's context and youth, our unique form of Transformational Theatre sits at the heart of Critical Conversations. We use storytelling, the catalysing power of arts, performance, games, and embodied nature-immersed learning to unlock difficult, often avoided conversations about ecological limits, sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and the future facing young people. Our work fundamentally shifts social norms and invites youth to reflect and engage in dialogue. Theatre creates a safe space where the youth can see themselves, question assumptions, and imagine different paths forward. By engaging the brain and the heart, we write plays and stories that can shift the beliefs of actors and spectators. We focus on creating theatre opportunities for the youth living in conservancies, and we build their confidence, emotional resilience and leadership so they can ultimately protect their land, heritage and communities for generations to come.
"In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught." (Baba Dioum, 1968.)
Origins of the Critical Conversations Association
In March 2022, the first Population Conversation Symposium was launched in Kilifi, Kenya. This key event, organised by WellSense Consultancy and supported by Population Matters, brought together diverse stakeholders to discuss the wide-ranging impacts of rapid population growth and to identify the actions needed to mainstream the crucial ‘population conversation’. This was and is an initiative arising from and generated in Africa by Africans. Streams of presentations were woven together by artistic and musical reflections and interventions, delivered by the team, including founding members Wendo Assed, Job Makayo, John Mushomi and Carolyne Ouko, Monique Oliff and Lizzie Jago and her Youth Theatre Kenya collaborations. The Conversation was truly grounded in Africa, with all participants camping under the stars, and the presentations taking place under the thatched roof. Please see the story of the Association’s founding, below: