| | |  |  | | | Money grows on Kenyan trees | Re-planting a depleted local forest isn’t just about environmental conservation for a Kenyan community group – the effort also offers members a valuable source of income.
For two years, the ‘Ex-Lewis Self Help Group’ has been re-establishing trees on 20 acres of barren scrub at Eburra Forest in Gilgil, and just this year planted more than 30,000 mixed seedlings they had reared in local nurseries.
| |
|
|  | | | Women's group emerges from ethnic violence | The members of Mwireri Women’s Group in Kenya tell a similar story- of destroyed homes, crops burned and property lost during the ugly political violence that marred Kenya’s national elections nearly three years ago.
Most of the 31 Mwireri women spent nearly two years in Government refugee camps set up to protect communities affected by ethnic clashes.
When calm was restored they moved to ‘transitional camps’ from where they could travel daily back to their homesteads, and begin repairs and replanting, and start to rebuild their homes and past lives again.
The Mwireri Women’s Group began working with Self Help Africa in Spring 2010. The group was assisted with the establishment of a ‘revolving fund’ savings scheme that allowed them to buy household essentials, and begin new crop production on their land.
Seed and fertilizer was provided to support a one acres crop of seed potato, and also the planting of garden peas on their land.
They are optimistic that their new project will both meet the need locally for good quality seed, and also provide a valuable source of income for their members. |
|
| Tree planting programme |  | | | Communities in Kenya’s Rift Valley province are being mobilized to support an innovative new environmental project that aims to re-establish commercial forestry in the region.
Under the scheme four multi-purpose tree nurseries are being set up, a further eight school-based school tree nurseries are being established, while 4,000 small-holder farmers in Naivasha region are being supported to replant forestry on sections of their land.
Four farmers associations in the Elementaita and Gilgil districts are being supported with training in a range of tree planting and forestry techniques, and will be charged with oversight and longer term management of the forestry work under the scheme, which is being undertaken by Self Help Africa in collaboration with the Eburru Community Forest Association (ECOFA).
In recent decades it is estimated that forest cover in Kenya has fallen to under 2%, as a growing rural population depletes existing woodlands. A new Forestry Act that was introduced in 2005 set out plans to redress that, and the Self Help Africa project, which has received funding support from the US Aid backed PACT Kenya programme. The work will allow for the scaling up of market led natural resource management work, with communities encouraged to undertake commercially focused forestry planting, of fruit trees and mixed woodlots. |
|
| Bulking programme pays off | | The establishment of a bulking programme for sweet potatoes has paid off, with more than 220 farm families accessing vines and beginning to produce sweet potatoes themselves in Gilgil. Sweet potatoes are a valuable staple in many parts of Kenya, and there is considerable market demand, and marketing potential for the crop across the Rift Valley Province. |
|
|
| Support for HIV | Simon and Mary Nderu from Njoro illustrate how HIV/AIDS need not prevent rural Africans from leading a fulfilling, productive life.
Members of the Ushindi Support Group that is being supported by Self Help Africa for the past two years in Rift Valley Province, both Simon and Mary are HIV-positive. Aged 50 and 42 years old respectively, the couple were both widowed when they married three years ago.They are rearing five children.
Members of the 30 strong Ushindi Support Group, Simon and Mary Nderu are involved in a Self Help Africa supported food and livelihood scheme that has given training in kitchen garden horticulture, in drought tolerant crop production, and small livestock rearing to people living with HIV/AIDS.
The APHIA (AIDS Health Integrated Assistance) programme has allowed the Nderu family to begin dairy goat-keeping, to rear poultry, grow fruit, and produce sweet potato and other vegetables to support their family and earn a small income. |
|
| | Kenya Annual Report 2008 | | Download a copy of the 2008 Annual Report of Self Help Africa-Kenya here. | | | |
|
|
|
| Rehabilitated animal dip is re-opened | Extensive refurbishments to a community owned livestock dip were completed in the Ngeteti area of Gilgil recently, with the formal re-opening of a facility that had fallen into disrepair.
Ngeteti Public Cattle Dip was constructed in the 1950s by a white settler who was the former owner of Ngeteti farm. The community members who bought the land from the settler started managing the dip until 2007 when the facility fell into disuse. Following the renovation works facilitated by Self Help Africa (SHA), the dip now serves the livestock of around 100 households living within the local catchment. |
|
| | Sunflower seed sale | Self Help Africa has assisted a group of farm families producing sunflowers to access a valuable new market for their produce.
Four farmers associations based in the Gilgil Project area have been supported in negotiations to sell their sunflower seed, under a deal that they have signed with the country's Bidco Oil Refinery company. Bidco are one of the largest producers and distributors of edible oil and hygiene products, including soap, in East and Central Africa.
Elsewhere in the Gilgil project area a further 116 farmers were supported to begin producing sunflowers, during the second half of 2008. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | Support for localising Millennium Goals
| Self Help Africa is involved in a programme to localise the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) amongst the rural poor in Kenya, under a programme that is being supported by the United Nations.
UNDP are backing the project, under which Self Help Africa is engaging with local communities and sensitising them on the aims and objectives of the MDGs.
The project will also support local community mobilisation, the facilitation of meetings, donor liaison, and advocacy work amongst local communities. |
|
|  |  | One of the drip irrigation units in operation |
| Drip irrigation scheme launched | Australia's High Commissioner to Kenya was amongst the guests at the formal launch of Self Help Africa's new drip irrigation initiative.
The project, which received €33,000 in funding support from Aus Aid, has been supporting small-scale farmers in Gilgil area to become involved in irrigated horticultural activities.
Close to 20,000 farmers are set to take part in the project, which will allow them to produce onions and other market orientated vegetables using available water in a highly efficient way. | | | New water supply for Mitimingi | The construction of a borehole, to provide clean water to more than 11,000 people living in the Kiptanwanyi district of Mitimingi is well underway, and is scheduled for completion in 2009.
Alongside work on the drilling of the actual well, on a site selected following an hydrological survey of the area, the project will provide a pumping system and network of reservoir tanks to distribute clean water across a wide area of Mitimingi. The project is being supported with funding support provided by the Irish NGO Gorta. | | | Farmers dairy manual published | Self Help Africa has collaborated with Australian Aid on the production of a training manual for small-holder Kenyan farmers who are interested in developing dairy farming enterprises.
The document provides farmers with advice and support on all aspects of dairy animal husbandry, including animal housing, feed, and the treatment of diseases, and also advises farmers on key areas relating to the care and the maintenance of dairy herds.
The publication will be launched this Summer, and will be made available as a helpful guide book to farmers who are interested in keeping animals for dairy production.
Self Help Africa country director Duncan Ochieng Onduu said that the publication should be a useful resource, and has been produced at a time when there are great openings for farmers in Kenya to get into dairy production. |
|
| News from our African programmes : | | | | | | | |
|
| Safety nets for people with HIV | Self Help Africa is being supported in Kenya by the US-based Family Health International (FHI) organisation with a programme to strengthen the livelihoods of vulnerable households in Nakuru, Njoro and Naivasha districts. The organisation is to receive more than $US 140,000 from FHI over a two years period, to support a programme of works including farmer training, promotion of drought resistant crops, goat rearing, beekeeping, and other activities.
The primary focus of the project is to strengthen the safety nets of food and livelihood security of individuals and families made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS in Kenya. |
|
|
|
| | | | Self Help Africa - UK
Second Floor, Westgate House,Dickens Court,
Hills Lane, Shrewsbury, SY1 1QU
Tel. +44 (0) 1743 277170 |
| Self Help Africa - Ireland
Kingsbridge House, 17-22 Parkgate Street,
Dublin 8, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Tel. +353 (0)1 6778880 |
| Self Help Africa Inc.
41 Union Square West, Suite 631
New York, NY 10003, USA
Tel. +1 212 206 0847 |
|
| | Self Help Africa is an international charity registered in Ireland and the United Kingdom Registered charity number: 6663 (Ireland), and 298830 (UK)
Self Help Africa is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organisation in the United States. | | | | | | Powered by go2web
|
|
|
|
|
