African Adventure – Kenya 2011

Phew!  Having just got back from Kenya, I feel I have been through every emotion possible.  It is not often you get the opportunity to do something really different and worthwhile but I think my recent trip to Kenya certainly fits the bill.

I went as part of Amani UK, a charity supporting poor communities in and around Oyugis in rural western Kenya.  Money raised goes directly to the project and is monitored from the UK.  Visitors (paying their own fares) go out several times a year so a careful watch is kept on how the money raised is spent.

We visited many nursery and primary schools, all needing help. Many of the classrooms had no proper flooring or cemented walls – without cemented flooring ‘jiggers’ (burrowing worms) infest the feet of the children with no shoes.  Apart from desks and chairs there were rarely any other facilities – not even a blackboard, books or pencils.  Some schools were linked to UK schools and as a result had received gifts of books and uniforms, improving their resources and motivation.  The boxes of  pencils donated by Aston Hearing were received with much joy – they would be given to the orphans.

We also visited widows, often in their twenties, struggling to feed their children.  Their homes were so impoverished – but what really broke my heart was the child led families;  boys or girls in their mid teens trying to bring up their brothers and sisters with very little food and no money.

The most encouraging part of the visit was seeing the 3 project teams in action and learning about their various initiatives.  The issues are complex but are tackled at different levels and in different ways.  They are trying to avoid communities  becoming reliant on aid and actively encourage women’s and youth groups to develop micro  businesses.   The ‘Buy and Gift’ scheme gives a huge boost to starting these businesses.  For example, by receiving a bee hive they can produce good quality honey and can sell all they make.  The profit enables them to buy more hives and helps lift them out of poverty.   They are trying to foster sustainable development., eg better horticultural practices – rotational and alternative cropping, chicken rearing (for both meat and eggs), basket and jewellery making, solar powered electricity, etc.  They also have micro-economic loans – small loans made to a group who guarantee each others’ payments.  The loan is used to set up a business and once it’s paid back more money is loaned for another business.

Education about Aids is tackled on several fronts – at clinics, where advice and drugs are given; via football matches, where players are encouraged to be circumcised – you stand a 60% less chance of developing Aids if you have been circumcised!  And via health manuals given to schools, clinics and local community groups.

Project leaders are keen to ensure that successful groups share their success by helping others – maybe by taking a new widow into the group, digging a shamba (plot of land) ready for planting, etc.  If a group is not reaching out to others not so fortunate as itself, then support by the project is withdrawn.   In this way a group is actively encouraged to look beyond itself and into the local community.

It is a very humbling experience to witness the poverty and problems of this area, but their faith is enormous, They get huge encouragement from visitors from the UK, so if you’re thinking of going to visit Kenya, all I can say is ‘go for it’  – you will be blessing those you meet and you yourself will be blessed in so many ways.

Rhoda Reilly

www.amaniuk.org.uk

This entry was posted on Friday, April 15th, 2011 at 10:12 am and is filed under AHS COMMUNITY, AHS NEWS, TWITTER. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.