 Kenya's Crest Swahili word of the week: Harambee. Harambee, is the national motto of Kenya and literally means pull together or oneness. Symbolically, it speaks to the 43 tribes of Kenya coming together for one purpose, to create a unified country. This week I was able to go on many adventures. Wednesday, I spent the day with Fredah, the Orphan and Vulnerable Children Director at OGRA Foundation. Fredah is a passionate woman, who uses her resources to help orphaned children get the nutrition, health, and education they need to be successful in life. It is amazing what she accomplishes with the resources she has. Many children in Kisumu District are lucky to eat 1 meal a day, own a pair of shoes, and have a school uniform, let alone school books and supplies. Many are regularly sick at home because of diarrhea, worms and TB- all diseases with simple solutions, if you can get the resources to the children. We began the day at a Migingo Primary School about 45 minutes outside of Kisumu. The school was well kept, with good teachers, and very disciplined children. Unfortunately, many of the children were barefoot and in ragged second-hand uniforms. Depending on the area, between 1/4-3/4 of the children are half or full orphans. The classrooms are made with stick and mud walls, mud floors, a few desks, and a couple had chalkboards. Toilet facilities are a major issue at the school. Migingo School has pit toilets, but because of the poor soil quality, the cement pit toilets sink into the earth every rainy season, making them both unsanitary and unsafe. The school has a total of 8 pit toilets for its over 800 students, but only 4 of them are in usable conditions. This issue is an even a bigger problem for girls entering puberty, who leave school early because they do not have the privacy necessary to care for their specific sanitary needs. The good news is that the school has recently installed hand washing stations, which are regularly used by the children. Also, the facilities they do have are clean and well maintained. OGRA Foundation is in the process of beginning a project called Health Start. The purpose of this project is to remove the health and nutrition barriers that prevent children from being able to gain the education they need in order to learn and succeed in life. Adequate sanitation facilities, food, and parent involvement are all components of this project. Part of the reason we visited the school is because Fredah is looking for schools that are a good fit to pilot this initiative. The second part of our day was spent at OGRA's Omen Feeding Center in Ombeyi. The Omen Center feeds and cares for over 75 orphans each and every day. To qualify, each orphan must have a family in the village who serves as their guardian and provides a roof over their head, speaks for their rights and cares for them when they are ill. Unfortunately, Ombeyi is so impoverished that parents have a difficult time feeding their own children, let alone a niece, nephew or grandchild. The purpose of the Omen Center is to give these families relief and support, provide their orphans with two meals a day, and ensure each child becomes an educated, self-sufficient, successful adult. This includes helping them find a school uniform and the basic supplies they need for school, ensure their rights are protected, and let them know they are loved. Visiting the orphans at the Omen Feeding Center was inspiring. Ava, the director of Omen, gave me a tour of the dining room, kitchen, pantry, greenhouse and garden. Walking a short distance from the school, the children began arriving around noon. After about 20 or so children arrived, they began singing, on their own, in unison- for me. It was a very sweet gesture. The 75 of them are a family; they look out for each other. I was blown away by the children’s discipline: they know the rules, they lined up to wash their hands, and then lined up for a meal of ugali, everyone made sure their neighbor got their fair share, and the little ones were looked after. In the end, everyone helped clean. Although all of the children were in rags, and most of them barefoot, they were all clean, there was no fighting or bickering, and they all took responsibility for each other, knowing which children were home ill, and which children needed additional attention. About 45 minutes after the children arrive, they began heading out of the building and onto the road, going back to finish their studies for the day. The Omen Feeding Center can only afford to accept one orphan per family into their program. In reality, Ombeyi probably has 450-600 orphaned children in its small community. And orphaned children aren’t the only ones that need meals, and uniforms, shoes, and school supplies; almost all children in Ombeyi are vulnerable. If this is what is happening in the small village of Ombeyi, just image how many orphaned children there are throughout the district. Unfortunately, the Omen Feeding Center has a sustainability problem. They have a garden and poultry center used to feed the children and generate income, but they are time and labor intensive, and do not provide enough income to pay for uniforms, schools supplies, and other necessities. The other issue I saw visiting Omen, is that their food pantry is almost bare. It is the end of the month, and the government food supplies are low - they cannot provide Omen with more food until the end of the first week of March. The Omen Center, the only place orphans in Ombeyi can go to get care for their basic needs, does not know how it will survive each year. I am considering making my Case Study for school focus on sustainability of OGRA’s Orphan and Vulnerable Children programs. If we are able to help children gain the skills and access the resources they need to be successful adults, they won’t need aid as adults. I was a tourist this weekend. I spent Saturday afternoon with John, the night guard at my apartment complex. He showed me his home, and introduced me to his neighbors. (Who were very excited to see I own a digital camera, and we ended up having an impromptu model shoot.) From there, John and I headed to Kiboko Bay for a boat ride to see the hippos. At the beginning, I thought our very talkative guide had a speech impediment, and was grateful he was so enthusiastically taking pictures of the trip with my camera. We had a beautiful trip, saw many birds, some beautiful houses, and a couple of hippo’s pop their heads up out of the water. When we returned, the tour guide insisted that he and I take a picture together. It was at that moment, standing so close to him, that I realized our tour guide did not have a speech impediment, but was in fact very, VERY drunk. I am including a couple of pictures he took of our trip as evidence. Thank goodness he wasn’t the boat captain! I also had the opportunity to visit Kisumu's Masai Market, where tourists purchase trinkets before returning home. Although I didn’t purchase anything today, I came across 2 really interesting stalls. At Masai Market, the first stall on the left belongs to Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a self-proclaimed jewelry artist. She employs women in villages to make her designs and sells them at Masai Market. Elizabeth’s stall also includes handbags, Kenyan cloth, bowls, and a whole variety of Kenyan handicrafts. The reason I really like Elizabeth, is because she “doesn’t see color.” She gives mzungu’s the same fair price she gives Kenyans. As someone who is exhausted by all of the bargaining, I will be purchasing my souvenirs from Elizabeth. The second interesting stall I visited today is called Jarida Crafts, run by a man named Willis. The items in his stall are all made of recycled materials, by Kenyan youth who are paid fair wages. The whole purpose of his business to provide good paying jobs for youth, help the environment, and make money- it sounds exactly like the Business Models for Environmental Sustainability class I took last semester with Professor Zarsky. Willis sells his products in the U.S. and Germany. I will definitely be purchasing some items from his stall in the future. Hezron has insisted that I take a 3-day weekend, and so I will continue being a tourist tomorrow. My plan is to begin the day with a pedicure and getting my hair fixed (I had my hair cut on Friday, and should have been much more suspicious instead of amazed when it only took the hairstylist 12 snips to give me a bob.) From there, I will be picking up my new skirt, visiting the Swan Center (I have no idea what it is), getting some freshly fried tilapia at a café beachside to Lake Victoria, and visiting either the Kisumu Museum or Impala Park. |  Migingo Primary School  Where children at Migingo line-up in the morning  Migingo Students  Hand-washing station at Migingo  Working pit-toilet at Mgingo  Sinking pit-toilet to the left, sunken pit-toilet to the right  OGRA Foundation Omen Feeding Center  Omen's lunch-lady, making ugali  Omen's lunch-ladies making hot kale  Omen's greenhouse  Omen's Poultry Project  Omen's children spontaneously singing  Omen's children  Ava, showing the children where I am from  Lining up to wash hands  Lunch is ready  Here is my 1 for 1: Tom's Shoes  Omen Lunch Time  3 or 4 year old girl, getting lunch at the Omen Center  Children heading back to school after lunch   John's neighbor's rabbits  John's neighbors  John's neighbors  Serena and John's Epic Hippo Tour  Sample picture taken by drunk tour guide (there are at least 20 of these)  There are two hippo's in there, somewhere.  Pictures taken by the tour guide, insisting he capture every step we take out of the boat, in film. (He took at least 5)  Serena realizing that the tour guide isn't neurotic with a speech impediment, but is in fact, very drunk. |
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