Kenya
Pounds of Prevention: Focus on Kenya
Storage tanks for rainwater collected from terraced slopes in Makueni District, Kenya. Photo credit : Rebecca Semmes/USAID
I am really happy to share with you the second installment in USAID’s Pounds of Prevention series where we take a closer look at how disaster risk reduction work helps keep people safe from harm. This particular example from Kenya is near and dear to my heart. Since I first started work at USAID twelve years ago, I worked on many drought responses, traveling to villages throughout the Horn of Africa and particularly in Kenya and witnessed the devastating impact that a lack of clean water can have on children, families, and communities.
With very modest investments, USAID is helping communities in Kenya not only improve their quality of life today, but also bolster their ability to withstand severe drought conditions. Through water collection, conservation, and storage, people can feel more secure that even though the rains may fail, their families will have enough water to see them through. In the last few years, I have had the opportunity to visit some of these same villages again, many of which have benefited from these programs. Many of these communities are now not only meeting their water needs, but those of neighboring communities. Parents comment that their children are sick less often. In the past, drought often meant disaster. With the introduction of these rain harvesting schemes, it no longer does.
Kibera’s Wonder Woman, Jane Akinyi
Lynn Adrian is the Director of the Office of Population and Health, USAID/Kenya.
Jane Akinyi shows her product. Photo credit: Michael Gebremedhin, USAID.
Nairobi, November 16, 2011. Today we visited Jane, a woman we’d met three years ago. A single mother of two, Jane is HIV positive and lives in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa located in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2006 she fell seriously ill and was so close to death that her parents sold her slum dwelling to pay for a coffin. Somehow, she survived. But she had nothing.
A USAID project (called HEART) which helps women like Jane, found her, got her on anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), and started teaching her and 10 other women business enterprise skills. In 2010 Jane graduated from the program and set out to start her business.
“At first I learned from market women who were farther ahead of me,” Jane reminds us. Slowly, she was mentored and eventually started selling dried fish in quantities measured by an old coffee can, 20 cents worth.
Jane Akinyi serves a customer. Photo credit: Michael Gebremedhin, USAID.
Today, she is healthy and sells omena – small fish from Lake Victoria – wholesale to Kenya’s largest grocery store chain, Nakumatt. Managing impressive transactions, she’s now considering taking on a partner. Her two children are in good schools, the eldest in her first year of university studying, what else, commerce. Last month Jane bought a piece of land where she’ll eventually build a home for her family. As the chairperson of a women’s cooperative, Jane’s group is saving to buy a truck to better transport their fish to market 500 miles away in Nairobi.
Jane Akinyi speaks to a customer on her mobile phone. Photo credit: Michael Gebremedhin, USAID.
The Jane we meet today is a successful working woman and an inspiration to other women who find themselves in the dark days of HIV. Speaking as a HEART alumnae, Jane inspired this year’s class of 34 small business graduates – women who are facing poverty, discrimination, and poor health, as Jane once did.
Jane is not defined by her HIV status. As we chat, her cell phone rings. “You don’t mind if I take this?” she asks politely. Of course not, we reply. After all, she has a business to run.
50 Years of Partnership with Kenya – Part 3 of 4
USAID’s health and population program is a top priority for USAID’s mission in Kenya. USAID works with partners in Kenya to bring health workers directly to the communities. These health workers provide information and care about HIV/AIDS and malaria programs, as well as work with community religious leaders to discuss family planning. USAID supports HIV/AIDS programs in each Kenyan province, has provided millions of treated mosquito nets to communities throughout the country, and has led a successful program that shows family planning is possible without violating religious or cultural beliefs.
From the Field
In Nicaragua, we joined the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Nicaragua to celebrate World Food Day. Three important USAID food security programs will be highlighted in the celebration.
In Kenya, we will launch the first of a series of county youth forums to engage Kenyan youth. After doing thousands of village forums, these county forums are the first to cover a larger area and will be pilots that hopefully become models for such activities countrywide.
In Vietnam, we will sponsor a wildlife pathology workshop. Technical and financial support will be provided by the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian’s Department of Animal Health (DAH) and Pathology (DOP) will deliver basic training highlighting field necropsy techniques and disease pathology for Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) to local staff and affiliates working ‘on the ground’. Vietnam is the first country that the Smithsonian has ever visited under the EPT program.
50 Years of Partnership with Kenya – Part 2 of 4
USAID and Kenyan partners created the Northern Rangelands Trust, or NRT, which is an umbrella organization that oversees local conservancies owned and managed by local communities. The roles of NRT include building capacity, ensuring financial transparency, and improving local security for both pastoralists and tourists. NRT also provides a means for granting microfinance loans – just one of the many ways that this program has encouraged women’s empowerment. In the past five years, USAID has helped NRT maintain its presence and gain momentum in Kenya.
In the coming weeks, we will highlight 2 more videos celebrating 50 years of partnership with Kenya.
USAID in the News
Weekly Briefing (10/2/2011 – 10/7/2011)
October 3: Foreign Policy’s “The Cable” blog reports that USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah is traveling to Ethiopia and Kenya this week to visit areas affected by the drought. Administrator Shah will be visiting heads of state and senior leadership, as well as pulling together the humanitarian and NGO communities, to assess progress on the challenges that the drought has brought to the Horn of Africa.
October 3: In a blog posted on ABC News’ website, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah calls on readers to take the Million Moms Challenge, which aims to help mothers and newborns around the world who are at high-risk of complications and death during the first 48-hours of childbirth.
October 4: The Associated Press and Voice of America reports that while visiting Ethiopia this week, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah pledged an additional $127 million in aid on behalf of the American people. The three new aid grants, including a major food security program, will help reach 1.5 million Ethiopians who are suffering from chronic hunger conditions.
October 4: In an op-ed published in The Huffington Post, singer-songwriter and actress Mandy Moore writes of her work as an Ambassador for PSI, a global health organization that works closely with USAID. Moore writes, “When our country invests in global health, we are doing the right thing. When USAID succeeds, we all benefit. We invest less than 1% of the federal budget in strengthening the health and economic development in other countries, and we get incredible results.”
October 5: The Associated Press reports that countless lives have been saved as a result of interventions to stop famine spreading throughout the Horn of Africa. During his visit to the region, USAID Administrator Dr. Rajiv Shah explained that nearly 4.5 million people have been able to withstand the drought as a result of inoculating their livestock against diseases. While in the region, Administrator Shah also encouraged the governments of Ethiopia and Kenya to make reforms in their agricultural sectors to boost agricultural growth and food self-sufficiency over time.
50 Years of Partnership with Kenya – Part 1 of 4
Agriculture is the largest single employer in Kenya and counts for one fourth of the country’s GDP, but the current agricultural production methods in Kenya are inefficient, causing economic stagnation and poverty. USAID and partners on the ground in Kenya have developed competitive programs for maize, dairy, passion fruit, and small hold farmers to help improve productivity. These initiatives – like USAID’s Feed the Future – have transformed lives, promoted sustainable agricultural development, and improved the nutritional options for many of Kenya’s people.
In the coming weeks, we will highlight 4 videos celebrating USAID’s partnership with Kenya. The first video in this series shows the variety of agriculture programs and activities that have occurred over the past 50 years and the impact that they have had on the people of Kenya.
New Program Educates Health Sector Executives in Kenya
Kate Steger, MA, MPH is a Communications and Knowledge Exchange Coordinator for the Kenya Leadership, Management and Sustainability Program at Management Sciences for Health
Earlier this year, USAID supported the launch of the Leading High-Performing Healthcare Organizations program (LeHHO) for senior health leaders in Kenya. Offered at Nairobi’s Strathmore Business School, the program is the result of a successful partnership between Strathmore and USAID’s Leadership, Management and Sustainability (LMS) project in Kenya.
Kenyatta National Hospital Chief Nurse Philomena Maina (center) receives her LeHHO certificate from Strathmore Business School Dean Edward Mungai (left) and Academic Director Joan Mansour of MSH (right). Photo Credit: MSH
A leadership development specialist from Management Sciences for Health, which implements the LMS project, worked with Strathmore Business School faculty to integrate key components of leadership development for the health sector with Strathmore’s business education model. The result: an ongoing six-month course that combines executive health systems education with applied leadership training, offered exclusively to the health sector’s most senior leaders.
Program participants expand the depth and breadth of their knowledge with modules on the healthcare environment, improving organizational performance, healthcare systems management, and managing change. At the same time, they are asked to choose a specific current challenge in their organization and set a goal for overcoming that challenge. At the recent graduation ceremony for the first cohort, participants boasted accomplishments that promise to have widespread and lasting effects on the health of Kenyans. (more…)
Peeling Potatoes With Grace
Recently, a group of 10 bloggers traveled with ONE to Kenya. This trip was the first step in cultivating the amazing energy of thousands of American moms who have the power to help save millions of lives through simple actions they can take from right where they are.
Cross-posted from Coming Alive
Imagine being a mom standing on a small farm in Elburgon, Nakuru County in the country of Kenya on the continent of Africa learning about Irish potatoes. You are welcomed with celebration and surrounded by the most beautiful countryside. There is so much to take in that at times it can be overwhelming. Then the farmer begins to demonstrate how she peels her potatoes and you discover that she does it EXACTLY like you! That is where I found myself today and I was invited to peel potatoes with Grace.
Grace is a member of the Mastima Potato Growers Self Help Group started in Septermber 2010 with the aim of marketing Irish potatoes. The Irish potato is the second most important food crop in Kenya and has the potential to yield over 80 tons per acre, which would dramatically increase food security, farm income, and nutrition. Located far from markets and without the availability of planting materials (seeds) their ability to even feed their family can be difficult. Programs like Feed the Future provide these farmers with the tools needed to feed themselves. The Feed the Future initiative ran under USAID takes a holistic approach and incorporates in; agriculture research, access to finance, farm inputs, natural-resource management, market development, and advocacy for farmer-friendly policies. It is important to know that these farmers have big aspirations. During our welcoming presentation the committee chair was aware of the crisis happening in north-eastern Kenya and not only was the goal of their cooperative to feed their community, but they have in their long-term plan to feed their entire country!
On World Humanitarian Day, 100 Ways You Can Help Victims of the East Africa Drought
Today is World Humanitarian Day. Reaching out to those suffering from crisis and disaster is a fundamental human impulse and a deeply enshrined American value. It is a value we share with people around the globe. It is the silver lining of any crisis, when the best of who we are as people emerges just when things are the bleakest.
Today is an opportunity to honor the humanitarian impulse in all of us and to applaud all the ways in which people mobilize to help others, even when they have little to spare. I saw it in Tunisia in March, when people, already reeling from an economic plunge, spontaneously organized to take in Libyan refugees who needed help. We are seeing it with the Kenyans for Kenya campaign, a growing movement in Kenya to raise funds through a text campaign to help their neighbors suffering from a brutal drought. And I saw it when I visited Somali-American communities in the Midwest who are washing cars, having bake sales and canvassing local businesses to raise funds for those struggling to survive famine in Somalia.
Today is an opportunity to salute those humanitarian workers who spend their lives providing service, often at great personal risk. World Humanitarian Day was established in 2003 in honor of the humanitarian workers who lost their lives in the tragic bombing at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2010, 242 aid workers were killed, injured, or kidnapped, according to the United Nations. As of April of this year, 12 aid workers have been killed and 10 been kidnapped. So today is a reminder of the daily risks aid workers face, and an opportunity to honor those who continue to spend their careers and lives devoted to humanitarian work. Being a relief worker these days often means ever greater risk is required to reach those most in need.
As we reflect on the legacies and lives of the aid workers who paid the ultimate price in service to helping others—whether during the devastating earthquake in Haiti last year or in active conflict zones—let us also appreciate the tremendous service that aid workers worldwide continue to perform every day, despite the risks, and in pursuit of a more peaceful and prosperous planet.
World Humanitarian Day is above all a celebration of all the ways people help others around the world. And I cannot think of a better way to honor humanitarians than to encourage you to help those in eastern Africa who are struggling to survive in the wake of the worst drought in 60 years.
So how can you help? The quickest, most efficient way is to make a cash donation to a relief organization that is already working in the drought and famine zone. Cash donations are the most effective form of assistance because they allow humanitarian organizations to purchase the exact type and quantity of items needed by those affected by the crisis. Donated goods require international transportation and handling, which is expensive, complex, and time-consuming; in addition, they are often not labeled in the appropriate language or packaged appropriately for storage and distribution.
USAID does not accept donations; so click here to find an organization currently providing humanitarian assistance in east Africa. Questions to consider when selecting an organization include whether the organization can provide a clear description of how they are assisting in the region, a solid history of experience delivering aid, and a transparent explanation of how funds will be used.
The USAID-supported Center for International Disaster Information has 100 ways that you can raise funds for international relief efforts. Tell us in the comments section, on Facebook, or on Twitter: how have you raised money or awareness to benefit the victims of the East Africa drought?
