OPPORTUNITY TO VOLUNTEER IN KENYA (KANYAWEGI VILLAGE, KISUMU KENYA)

Canadian organizers
The program is run jointly by the University of British Columbia (UBC) Students and a community based organization in Kenya - Kanyawegi Support for Orphans and Widows (KASOW), which has a branch here in Vancouver, Canada as a registered organization under the society Act of BC. KASOW-Canada has inspired, encouraged and supported many Canadians to provide personal services and expertise to the people of Kanyawegi to reduce the impact of poverty among orphaned and impoverished children, widows, the needy and destitute in Kanyawegi village, Kenya. In addition, KASOW-Canada is:

· Helping Canadians, youth and students create positive change in Africa through service learning and volunteering.
· Motivating many Canadian youth and community members to be aware of challenges facing developing countries.
· Inspiring and supporting many Canadian students to become personally involved in international projects and to experience Global citizenship.
· Providing effective leadership and mentor to many Canadian, and students undertaking or aspiring to undertake international projects.
· Establishing a wide range of fruitful collaborative, social justice projects and programs with various departments at the university of BC.
· Spurring the interests of Kenyans in diaspora to address the poverty related challenges and development efforts in their own villages back home

Volunteer Period
1. January to April
2) May to August
3) September to December
We have only 5 opening remaining for September to December placement – 3 months placement, but you can do less depending on your availability. So hurry to avoid missing this great opportunity. Currently we have 18 volunteers on the ground in Kanyawegi, 13 from UBC and 5 from Simon Fraser University (SFU) for the May – August placement running various projects.

Fees
There are no fees charged, which is great, you only pay for your plane ticket, room and board. Three meals are provided in a village home stay setting. You will experience the local culture and enjoy the hospitality of the Africa people.

Personality:
We are looking for people who are enthusiastic and passionate about helping out. Cultural sensitivity is important and more importantly, students with ability to adapt easily to new cultures. Volunteers MUST be 18yrs or older, male or female. We are looking for mature and responsible people. Because village living can be challenging, older volunteers are preferred. Generally people with interest in community health and development and who specializes in agriculture, engineering, health, education, social work and commerce

Skills:
Team player, self-motivated, creative and outgoing! People with technical skills in various fields are particularly encouraged to apply.

Type of placement:
Working with community members, especially women groups, school children, children with
special needs in a variety of sectors including education, health, agriculture, environment, business and social work. Specific ongoing community health and development projects are namely;
· Computer training: In Elementary and High school
· School reconstruction project
· Goat keeping and tailoring cooperative projects
· HIV/AIDS awareness project (teaching in schools, VCT and wellness center)
· Health, food and nutrition (sustainable agriculture and food security)
· Water, environment and sanitation projects
· Small business and micro-finance project
· Fishing and poultry projects

Placement Location:
Kanyawegi is about 6-8hrs drive from the capital city, Nairobi, depending on the condition of the road. It takes only 45 min to fly into Kisumu by plane and 30min drive from Kisumu town centre to the village. There is no reliable public transport in the village, but the common transport system is operated by “boda boda”, which is basically a bicycle propelled by energetic male youth. However, other places within the village can only be accessed by foot, so you will be doing some walking, or you may call it hiking.

Area information and Tourism:
A trip to Kenya will be a memorable adventure; Kenya is truly a tourist destination and is a home to one of the world’s most cherished safaris. A visit to Kenya will take you to the lavish Massai mara national park (one of the world’s best), Tsavo, and Amboseli game reserves, Mt. Kenya and the Great Rift Valley. Besides, you will have the opportunity for a vacation extravaganza at the Kenyan costal city of Mombassa and lie in the unforgettable beaches along Malindi and Lamu. Kanyawegi is a rural community in western Kenya, comprises five villages with a population of 15,000 people. The community is predominantly Christians, and local language “Dholuo” is commonly used. However, official language is English while Swahili is the national language. Most people speak all the three languages. The village is located in the suburbs just outside of the lake town Kisumu, which is situated along the equator by nature. Wouldn’t it be nice to stand right at the center of the world? Kisumu city is overlooking the spectacular lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the world and the source of river Nile. The region is a home to many legendary and mysterious igneous rocks, animals, birds and fantastic landscape. The proximity of Kisumu and Kanyawegi in particular to Uganda and Tanzania gives every visitor to this community a chance to visit the three east Africa countries in less than a day. A weekend trip to the neighboring Tanzania will not only provides a rare glimpse of the Seregeti national park but also a chance to climb the famous Mt. Kilimanjaro situated along the Tanzania/Kenya border. Uganda too is a place you don’t want to miss. Besides its undisputable beauty, Uganda is where river Nile begins its flow to the Mediterranean Sea. Be sure that you will not only enjoy the animals and sceneries, but the best part of your stay in Kenya will be your interaction with the warm loving and kind people of this great country. Therefore, any reason to visit Kenya and volunteer in Kanyawegi is a good reason!

Host Organization: Kanyawegi Support for Orphans and Widows (KASOW)
Is a community-based organization (CBO) specializing in community health and development. Our mandate is community empowerment via sustainable income generating and development projects, passionately pursuing a novel approach to combating HIV/AIDS pandemic and aggressively aiming at helping the United Nations (UN) fulfil one of its very important millennium development goals; education for all school going children. We are operating at the grass root level, in the deep rural villages commonly ignored by big charity organizations. We identify with the community’s problems because all of our members have lived experiences having been born and raised in these communities.

Our Vision
To create vibrant and sustainable community income-generating projects through the mobilization of local resources with the view of promoting self-reliance and sustainability, in order to reduce the poverty and HIV infection rate, increase food security, living standards and most of all create a hope for the future.

Our mission
One of the root causes of poverty is lack of basic education. At the same time, poverty is a major determinant of health, responsible for a host of ills, which plague rural communities such as the high rate of infant mortality, malnutrition, poor sanitation, diseases, illiteracy, and unplanned and large ill-fed families. KASOW believes that to reduce poverty and all of these negative aspects, which tend to degrade humanity, we must address poverty related issues and empower women, men and children to become economically independent. We envision building a sustainable agriculture to ensure food security, a profit based village economies through small business driven by micro-credit loans, sustainable health care & sanitation and the provision of quality and affordable education to the young children especially the marginalized like the girl child. We aim at reduce extreme poverty and equally important, eliminating poverty vicious cycle.

Training
· There will be one week orientation period, which will be provided by KASOW to ensure volunteers smooth transition into the community
· Training will be provided for all volunteer teachers on teaching methods in Kenya. The head teachers of the respective schools will assign a mentor to the volunteer teachers. He/she will guide the volunteer in the beginning on understanding the curriculum and on cultural sensitivities
· Training will be provided for those who will have interest in duties related to other community development project, e.g. childcare.
· If a volunteer require more training after or if the volunteer require special training unique to themselves or to their project areas, he or she will be required to inform KASOW office

Training will be mandatory for all volunteers. It is meant to help volunteer navigate the teaching duties and other assignments easily and effectively

Accommodation
We offer only one type of accommodation, i.e., village home stay! In Village home you will stay with local community member in their home. Food will be provided, three meals a day, (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Lunch may be in the form of packed food depending on how far the host home is from your work place. Please note that the food will generally be a combination of western & local dish and taken in a group as volunteers.

Village home stay:
· Private bedroom with lockable door and storage facilities
· Shared living room, washroom (outdoor pit latrine) and bathroom (no running water, must learn how to use water in bucket to take a shower)
· Common kitchen, incase you want to make a special meal for the family
· There are no laundry facilities available; washing is by hand, will train you

For more info read about the 2006 project report and watch & listen to 2006 project video http://www.thekenyaproject.com

A blog from a girl currently working in Kanyawegi

Hey guys,
Check this out. It's a blog from a girl currently working in Kanyawegi. It's a good indication of how things are progressing and life as a volunteer.
Also, we reached our goal of 100 votes. We should be able to accept donations shortly. Second, John has found a partner organization so we have a charity reg #!!!! Nice nice.
Some serious momentum going on here. So exciting.

http://www.getjealous.com/bunny_heather

One Village at a time

Vision

To create vibrant and sustainable community income projects through the mobilization of local resources with the view of promoting self- reliance and sustainability, in order to reduce the poverty and HIV infection rate, increase food security, living standards and most of all create a hope for the future.

WHY

Because the state of poverty is responsible for a host of ills, which plague rural communities such as the high rate of maternal and infant mortality, malnutrition, diseases and the children orphaned by them, low education, unplanned and large ill-fed families. To reduce poverty and all of these negative aspects, which tend to degrade humanity, Project Kenya believes it must critically address women's issues and make a concentrated effort to empower the community through income generating and farming activities.

Current Projects

1. Oyiengo School Reconstruction Project

Oylengo primary school was established in 1982. It has eight mud- walled classrooms, which are in a pathetic condition. The school lacks educational and learning facilities, and is in desperate need for help. The classrooms built from mud and grass twenty years ago with minor and major renovation pose a very high risk to students. The school’s state of affairs has a demoralizing effect to students and teachers. This has a negative effect on teachers’ productivity and students’ academic performance, and contributes significantly to drop out rate, poverty and spread of HIV/AIDS. Support towards the construction of permanent classrooms and provision of teaching and learning facilities will benefit the school’s 506 students and the community. This will improve academic results, and reduce students drop out rate and related consequences (teen pregnancies, child labour and prostitution, drug abuse and trafficking) by 95%. It will also promote literacy, alleviate poverty and enhance the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in the community. These expected strategic sustainable development outcomes are consistent with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and Canadian International Development agency (CIDA) development policies for Africa. The full text of the project proposal for Oyiengo Primary School is on file in the EPLT office. These are very serious needs expressed in this proposal; to this end Dr. Yvonne Brown Manager of International Initiatives, External Programs and Learning Technologies have worked with John and Mr. Ongoro the principal of Oyiengo School to come up with a list of school supplies and relative cost per item. The list of school supplies indicates where individuals can donate money for supplies that each can afford.

The project will have a positive impact on socio-economic status of the beneficiary community and Kenya at large. The enrollment and retention rates of both boys and girls will be increased. The students (both poor and HIV/AIDS orphans) will have access to quality education. They will be motivated to put more efforts in their academic work, which will result in good examination results. With good education, girls will compete favourably with boys for employment opportunities thus improving their living standards. Therefore, poverty vicious cycle will be put under check and control.

The number of illiterates, who engage in criminal activities, will be reduced. There will be an increased awareness of HIV/AIDS pandemic. The community will have human resource and career professionals who will contribute positively towards her economic recovery and development.

2. Goat Keeping Project

About 8 women-self-help groups will be assisted financially to acquire and keep local breed goats on a sustainable method. Each group will consist of 10 members and will be allocated 5 goats thus establishing a total of 40 goats as the mother stock farms. The animals will be fed from local resources such as pastures, fodder trees, and crop residues. Members will share the profit (off-springs) and they will also use goat meat and milk to ensure balanced diet. Since water is one of the major problems in rural communities, village ponds will be constructed to harvest and conserve water as part of the goat-keeping project. The water will be used by the animals and also for small-scale irrigation in the community farm, which is described next. KASOW project coordinator in consultation with members of the community conducted the planning and design of the project at the project site in Kisumu, Kenya on February 2005, which constituted the first phase. The second phase will involve the purchase of local breed goats in May 2005. There are two advantages with starting the project in May. First the prices of the goats are cheap, and second the region experience long rains providing vegetation that will be used as animal feeds. During this long rain period, water will be harvested and conserved through the construction of village ponds to be used by the animals and possibly for small-scale irrigation. The third phase will see the students and faculty visit the project site either through volunteer services opportunities or through practicum and research activities. This project with the exception of community pond is underway and five groups have been set up and three more groups are yet to receive their goats.

3. Bursary Scheme and child sponsorship Project

Most kinds from this community, and who attend Oyiengo School are orphans; they have lost either both or one of the parents due to HIV/AIDS pandemic. The devastation and poverty that this disease has brought to this community cannot be overemphasized. Even though primary education is free and compulsory in Kenya, parents are still required to provide learning materials such as uniforms, books and pens. High school education however is not free and in addition to the costly learning materials that the parents must provide, they have to pay the expensive tuition fees. This has created a precedent where only kids who have parents have access higher education. This has made it difficult to terminate poverty’s vicious cycle witnessed in these less fortunate homes. On the contrary though, the history has always shown that kids from poor homes are bright, concentrate in school and have the willing and passion to further their school to the highest level possible. The only draw back is the financial support that they desperately need to fulfill their dreams. This project focuses in empowering the youth through offering financial aid. This can be achieved though sponsoring a child or contributing money to the bursary scheme account.

1. Tailoring Cooperative Project
In Kenya, tuition is paid for high school education making it very expensive for most parents. Kids from poor families often drop out after grade eight. Traditionally boys are favoured over girls when choices are made about their schooling beyond primary school. In as much as KASOW try to sponsor or supplement the education of these qualified marginalized girls, we recognize that we cannot help every case. Therefore this project targets girl child who are unable to pursue secondary education, and is being implemented by Dr Yvonne Brown of faculty of education UBC. Dr Brown herself a tailor and designer has identified a group of women in Oyiengo community with tailoring skills. The idea is to purchase locally sewing machines; tools and fabrics to get the women started at renting working space in a business centre and begin to sew for people to earn income. It will also serve as a training centre for the young girls who desperately need these skills. By engaging these girls in some kind of activity, the project hopes to protect girls from early marriages, sexual exploitation, and teenage pregnancies. In addition, when they eventually get married, the skills that they will have acquired will help them contribute meaningfully in their family essentially reducing over dependence on the support from their husbands that has subordinated most African mothers.

Future Projects

1.  Clean Water and Sanitation Project

Majority of Kenyans living in rural villages do not have access to clean water supply. Water for domestic use is often drawn from contaminated sources such surface run offs, rivers and lakes without treatment. Most diseases that have killed thousands of children and adults can be traced to the use of contaminated waters. In some communities, especially the ones that experience long spelt of droughts suffer severely, when they lack water to drink, cook or give to their animals. This project aims at reducing the acute water shortage; save the girl child time spent walking long distance in search f water instead reading. Already a local NGO; Kenya Water for Health Organization (KWAHO), has agreed to help the women groups with the construction of a borehole equipped with a manual pump like the one seen here at a reduced fees. These women are poor and cannot even afford this reduced fee, which is why they are asking for your help. In addition, this project will solve the frequent waterborne health crisis such as cholera witnessed in this region. The need for water purification using basic and simple purification technology is urgently needed before a permanent well or borehole is constructed.

2. Community Farm Project

Nearly about 80% of Kenyan population live in rural villages. One precious privilege that these rural folks enjoy is the ownership of land, which is passed on from generation to generation; the government does not own any land except lands reserved for schools, hospitals etc. The Soil here is very fertile and the region enjoys reliable rainfall patterns. Both cash crops such as cotton and a variety of food crops do well under these conditions. The biggest problem facing farming activities here is lack of farm machinery, which has led to underutilization of farmlands. People rely on human labour, which has been affected by diseases and HIV/AIDS pandemic. Lack of mechanization has reduced these folks to subsistence farming, which in itself not enough due to human limitation. Introducing some sort of mechanization using local resources, stocking high quality seeds (seed bank), controlling crop pests & disease and crop rotation will not only generate more food production and better nutrition, but will also ensure surplus, which can be sold to supplement health care costs and education for children. The project intends to purchase and allocate local breed oxen and a locally made mouldboard plough to the women groups, which they can use to prepare their lands. It will also stock local high quality seeds and provide basic education on modern faring practices to boost yield and productivity. To ensure sustainability, the oxen and the plough will be rented out to generate income for maintenance and other use.

3. Women in Fishing Project

This project aims at actively involving women in the male dominated fishing industry in Kisumu District. Kisumu is one of the Districts of Nyanza Province, which borders the shores of Lake Victoria; the World's second larges freshwater lake and source of river Nile. The lake has about 270 endemic fish species; though some fish depleted or extirpated after the introduction of Nile perch. Fishing is an important industry in this community but women’s role has been reduced to mere fish mongering, which has exposed then to sexual exploitation from men. In general this fishing community face a number of fishing related problems, contributing to high-level poverty and poor health. Only the rich own fishing boats and nets; poor common man especially women does not share the benefit of the rich resources found in the lake. The fishmongers sell their fish at low prices to middlemen from cities and towns due to lack of fish storage and processing facilities. The project will put women into the core fishing activities where they will among other things, own fishing boats and nets, cold storage facilities, market and sell their produce at a fair and competitive price without going through the middle men. The projects will for the very first time train women how to fish and do it for themselves.

4. Forestry Wood/lumber Project

Approximately 90% of rural Kenya population have no access to electricity. Energy supply for domestic use is mainly from wood. Demand for firewood, and timber for building houses and for making furniture, has increased with the fast growing rural population. Over dependence on natural forest to meet these demand has caused serious environmental degradation, pollution and soil erosion. Natural forest is depleting fast, and in order to meet high demand for wood products, and to protect environment, there is an urgent need for a well-organized community annual tree planting campaign. The project intends to establish a tree nursery that will supply tree seedling to farmers, home and land owners. And enviromental education of the local people about the dangers of deforestation and the importance of trees to offset carbon dioxide, thus protecting the environment. The project site (Kisumu district) lies along the equator and is a home to tropical rain forest both softwood and hardwood. The weather is hot and dry, and the region enjoys long rains between April and July and short rains between September and December, which are the planting periods. This project intends to work with the local administrators to lobby for and to distribute tree seedlings to peasant farmers to plant the trees alongside crops during planting times.

5. Small Business and Technology

a. Small Business

b. Computer Technology

Most young people lack the basic technology skills they need to get business jobs. They need to go to bigger cities to get these skills. As well, many young people leave to community to gain artisan/ trade skills to become Jua Kali workers (translates to “Hot Sun” because most work as metal workers, mechanics etc under the shade of a tree). Why do they leave the community to gain these skills? The first challenge is there was no electricity in the community until recently so they simply had to. Now the challenge is there are no computers, no trade resources, and no one to teach those skills. The obvious result is the youth leave the community to get these skills and never return to the community, but stay in the bigger centres and take jobs there.

All of these community members need technology and business skills. Children need them to easily transition into the workforce. Young adults need them to get jobs or develop their own business (Jua Kali or other), or find funders etc. Older members of the community need these skills to document their businesses, as they become profit focused and to find local funders. The business and technology training does not discriminate by age or sex.

The projects that have been proposed (some of which have been implemented) have paved the way to focus on basic business and computer skills. The next step is how to get people skilled in these areas into the community to teach the skills. The community is supportive of this project and there is housing for volunteers. There are also 2 workshops with electricity that can house the computers etc.

This project proposal focuses on training skilled volunteers to teach their skills to a community. The other project components noted here require training. Volunteers will need to determine the community needs on arrival and document the current community situation (skills that exist, community opinion). As well, they will need to develop a curriculum. The other important factor is to ensure there is an easy transition from one group of volunteers to another. Finally volunteers will need to monitor the success of the skills training.