KASFOOC Field Tour

February 2, 2009

We met Matano and Jackson (Secretary and Chairman of Kakamega Supporting Families of Orphaned Children Self Help Group – KASFOOC) at the KASFOOC office at 10:00am on Sunday. Everyone was on time. We had been told that the Africans have little regard for time, but this has not been our experience. Matano told us that it is only for us, visitors, that they are keeping time. Visitors are very highly regarded in Kenya , perhaps for our large wallets, I’m not sure. My first instinct is to trust everyone, so I find myself in constant internal conflict having been warned by so many Canadians here that the Kenyans simply cannot tell the truth; it is not in their nature. They always follow with, “not to say that there aren’t many good people and legitimate organizations,” which I know must be the truth since every Mizungu we have met is here for their umpteenth year in a row doing good work. Kenya gets into your heart and, in my opinion, that can only happen through love of the people.

Jackson Boge Ominde is the Founder, Chairman and eldest member of the group. And, oh my, he is adorable. He was dressed up in a baseball cap, suit jacket, bright orange dress shirt and a red tie with snowflakes and Santa’s reindeers on it. Beyond the cuteness is a dedicated and passionate man with a heart for the people of his community.

We climbed into a tiny matatu, hired as a town car for the day and headed to visit one of the widows’ shambra (farm in Swahili) down some of the most brutal roads yet. I was amazed this little mini van could make it. Usually they would walk, but for our sake they hired a car. It is hard knowing that the little available resources are being spent on us, but that is their way… no point in arguing. At least we haven’t actually DONE anything yet to warrant a gift, like a goat or eggs or chairs as some of our friends with projects have received.

Just to clarify, a child is considered an orphan when one parent dies. So, the orphans in this program, for the most part still have their mother, thankfully. KASFOOC currently supports 9 widows and one guardian (to children who have lost both parents) with a total of 30 orphans. Their main objective is sustainable food. The program started 4 years ago. The widows are all landowners and yet they and their children were starving and had no money for school fees, uniforms and other daily necessities. KASFOOC provided education on how to use the land for personal food security as well as commercial to provide money to meet other needs.

The farms we visited ranged in size from ½ an acre to 2 acres and all were producing very well. They have trained them to plant a balanced diet – fruits, sweet potatoes, cassava, cow peas (you can eat the greens and make a porridge from the seeds, also used to treat HIV), sukum (local kale) and sugar cane. Bananas have been the mainstay of the program. KASFOOC would like to expand adding poultry and fish farms (poultry where there is no river access).

Being a Sunday, one couldn’t help but notice all the churches. We even saw a Pentecostal parade down the main street. Matano said this is another huge problem here – there are churches everywhere, but no access to medical clinics, clean water or even communications. Only two of the widows have cell phones. But, of course, none of them have electricity, so it means a long journey into town to have the phone charged. The churches all pass a basket, but it is the bishops that benefit the most. I say that knowing that many churches do good work too. Canon Ndunga told us that “a dog cannot give a bone to another dog.” Makes sense.

We were able to meet all but one of the widows who lives some distance away. They each introduced themselves and told us how KASFOOC had helped them. They each started their greeting with, “Praise the Lord and Praise the Lord again.” They talked about how they had nothing, their land was dormant and their children were hungry. Now their children are in school and they don’t even know the cost of food anymore because they grow their own. The only thing they need to buy now is meat. They meet every week and also have a Merry Go Round micro lending program – this one I am just beginning to understand, so I’ll write more later as I learn more.

Another inspiring day.


FORGOT TO MENTION A FEW THINGS...


The meeting at Margaret's shamba was at the head of her husbands
grave. KASFOOC originally was going to require the death certificate
as proof that the children were in fact orphans, but such records are
not always easy to attain here. So the gravesite serves as record
enough.

There is also talk of drought here, though since we have arrived it
has rained every night. There is some rain harvesting, but usually
only enough to last a day or two, so even a week without rain is
considered a drought.

Yesterday afternoon, on our way into town, we ran into two of our
Mizungu friends – Sandra who is here for her fourth or fifth year
teaching at the university (she has been with a different project each
time) and Kirstie from Finland who is with Save the Children – we
joined them on the walk into town on a new route, down a trial, across
a creek and up and over a hill. The scenery was gorgeous and we
passed groups of children, some playing in the creek and others
rolling bicycle tires with sticks as we have seen in so many movies.
We passed a pretty seedy part of town where there are still remnants
from last years violence. We passed one building complex that was
burned in the violence and down the path a bit was another building,
this one Kukuyu that was burned down in retaliation. Many people are
wearing t-shirts that say Amani Kenya (amani being Swahili for Peace).

Today is the first day the schools are back on after the strike and it
is wonderful seeing all the kids in their uniforms. Now that the
strike is over, the headlines have switched to two tragedies in the
last couple of days. The Nakumat (Kenyas version of Walmart) in
Nairobi burnt down, with over 100 people dead and close to 200
hospitalized. And then the next day there was a tanker explosion in
Nakuru. The tanker trunk crashed and locals rushed to the scene to
try and scoop up the expensive petrol. The story is that someone was
annoyed and lit a match, though that has not been confirmed. Many
lives were taken.