A Day Without Dignity is a movement started last year as a counter-campaign to TOMs Shoes One Day Without Shoes event. The day is about honoring the dignity of each person and supporting aid projects that honor that dignity. This year’s focus is on local champions – those leading local projects to address local needs. At Spirit in Action, we know that local leaders are the heart of change and it is our role to support these already active leaders!

One champion I met last summer was Margaret Ikiara, of Community Initiatives for Rural Development (CIFORD Kenya). I was so inspired by the work she was doing in her community to support other women and people with HIV/AIDS and now SIA is proud to support this vibrant organization, doing good in their own community. I asked Margaret to tell us about their work in her own words:

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(L to R ) Tanya, Guardian, Margaret, and children in guardian's care

Encouraging and working with people affected by HIV/AIDS

In Kenya the HIV/AIDs was declared a national disaster. This is because we are all affected or infected. This pandemic has continued to impact on the lives of Kenyans both socially, psychologically and economically.

The people affected directly are the ones who suffer most. These are people living with HIV/AIDS, orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) and the grandmothers caring for them. This is because the people who are dying of HIV are those who are in the productive age group. This has left the families and the whole country economically affected.

CIFORD Kenya is a community-based organisation working in Meru, in the north region of Kenya. CIFORD Kenya realised the challenges the people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS were facing in the society, including stigmatisation and discrimination. These people were left out in the community development agenda. This made most of the people lose hope and self-esteem.

Support and Working Groups

Margaret (center) talks with one of the support groups

With my leadership, CIFORD Kenya mobilised the people affected by HIV/AIDS into working groups. These were formed into: People Living with HIV/AIDS, and Guardians caring for the orphans. CIFORD did not have any resources to support the women. We brought them together and started training them the importance of self-reliance. We committed our time to capacity building where we encouraged the members to come together to mobilise their own resources.

CIFORD Kenya believes that the communities have the solution to their problem and understand best way to address them; all they need is encouragement support and some resources.

For the people living with HIV, we embarked on training them on positive living, nutrition and antiretroviral treatment (ART) adherence.  We also trained them on gardening for better nutrition and increased household income. This has made these people change their lifestyle and have self-esteem and then they become leaders in the campaign on positive living.

Some of the guardians at their weekly meeting.

Guardian Merry-Go-Round Loans

For guardians, (the elderly women who are caring for children), we are aware they have a burden of supplying basic needs for children and there was need to make the guardians come together and start “merry-go-round” and savings group. There is no other way they can help one another other than to bring their resources together. The women have been meeting every Monday at 3.00pm and they have been contributing 20 Kenyan Shillings (Ksh) ($0.25), which is collected and given to one member. The impact of this money is clearly seen in the sense of relief of these women feel when it is their turn to get the collected amount.

The women have been starting small businesses with the money from the group to enable them support the vulnerable children they have welcomed in their households. The guardians are also trained on agriculture skills and livestock-keeping to improve their food security. The surplus food is sold to supplement the family income.

Through a gift, CIFORD Kenya brought in USD $24, to use as principal for loaning among the women at a 10% interest rate. The money has been of great value and many guardians have used the small loan to start small businesses. Most of them have been buying bananas and avocadoes to sell in the local market. The profits are used to support the family. After one year the $24 has grown to $66 as the interest is building on the principal. Women take loan for a maximum of $6 and as little as $0.60!

Solutions from Within the Community

The local problems in Africa cannot be addressed from the top but from within the community. The beneficiaries have to address their own problems in their best way possible. This is the only way that brings positive and sustainable change.  Little resources can mean a lot with full participation of the people in the problem.

There is need for partners to appreciate the inputs of the community members in the intervention strategy, in order to enable a sustainable development.

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Visit CIFORD’s Facebook page for regular updates and more photos.

More posts about CIFORD: 

• CIFORD Kenya: Compassionate Community Action
• A Better Way to Grow Food

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A round-up of some of the exciting things to cross my desk in the last week:

1. SIA Business Groups Receive Reinvestment Grant – Dennis Kiprop, the Small Business Fund Coordinator in Kenya, sent me this photo of himself with 4 of the newest SBF businesses in his area. He met with each of them this week and gave them the $50 reinvestment grant, which comes three months after their initial $100 business grant.

2. Offertory Prayer – I really appreciated this prayer at my church last week and I think it’s appropriate for my daily work with SIA:

O God, through the offering of these gifts, may we become more open people:
open-minded in heeding your wisdom,
open-hearted in healing a broken world,
open-handed in responding to your call for cherity and justice.
With thanks for all good gifts, we dedicate these offerings today.

3. Cellphones for Health - A long and interesting article about technology start up companies in Kenya. One new business created a system for automated text reminders to go to patients reminding them to take HIV/AIDS medications or to get maternal health check-ups. So cool what cellphones can be used for in Kenya!

4. Doing it Differently - The blog How Matters recognized Spirit in Action as an organization “doing aid differently” on her Pinterest Board! How Matters is dedicated to discussing the ethics, complexity, and importance of community involvement in international aid. (Don’t know about Pinterest? It’s a new media-sharing tool, and another thing making me happy this week!)

5. Monday Morning Inspiration - “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson (via http://www.dailygood.org)

Let me know what’s inspiring you this week!

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SIA SBF Coordinators watch a presentation about tree seedlings and reforestation.

Spring is in the air all over the USA this week! To celebrate the rain and the warmer temperatures, I am reposting this discussion of agro-forestry from last April on Spirit in Action’s blog.

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Our international partners working in Kenya have long recognized the value of agroecology. This type of farming system, also called bio-intensive agriculture, uses techniques that help to replenish the nutrients in the soil and uses minimal amounts of chemical fertilizers and other inputs to grow vegetables and fruits. Agroecology methods bring greater crop yields while using much less space, water and energy, than conventional, high input methods.

In Africa there is great hope for the widespread embrace of agroecology technologies, especially because it benefits “small farmers who must be able to farm in ways that are less expensive and more productive.”

“But, [agro-ecology] benefits all of us,” says a NY Times op-ed, quoting a UN Human Rights Council Report, “because it decelerates global warming and ecological destruction.”

The UN Report shows that “small-scale farmers can double food production within 10 years in critical regions by using ecological methods” including compost, double digging, and relying on beneficial plants, animals, and insects for pest management. Indeed, Olivier De Schutter, author of the UN report, said that “Malawi is now implementing agro-ecology, benefiting more than 1.3 million of the poorest people, with maize yields increasing from 1 ton/hectare to 2-3 tons/hectare.”

Samuel Teimuge talks to a group about agroforestry to combat deforestation in Kenya.

Samuel Teimuge, who worked with SIA to start his Ukweli Training Center many years ago, teaches bio-intensive methods and has seen how they can increase production while having a minimal affect on the environment. He also leads workshops to help reforestation efforts in the Rift Valley. Trees are important for slowing erosion on the steep slopes.

Mark Bittman from the NY Times urges us to consider agriculture from a global perspective, understanding food as a human right and sustainable agriculture as a high-priority for the world.

In addition to supporting bio-intensive agriculture training in Kenya, it is just as important to support small-scale farmers here in the US, like these young farmers in Oregon.

Do you use bio-intensive methods in your own garden or farm? Share your stories in the comments section!

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Related posts:

• How does your garden grow? (About the farms we saw in Malawi)
• Planting trees for a “greener Kenya” (About the reforestation work of SIA SBF Coordinator, Dennis Kiprop)

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A round-up of some of the exciting things to cross my desk in the last week:

1. Empowering Women at CIFORD – I finished making a video (with Boyd’s narration!) about this great community organization, which we visited last summer. Spirit in Action, with support from the Charles Wentz Carter Memorial Foundation, awarded CIFORD a grant to hold more girl’s empowerment workshops this year!

2. Community Involvement in Uganda – This article tells an encouraging story about a conference that (gasp!) included local leaders in the discussion about rural electrification, access to capital, women in business, and access to technology for youth. “While the panel topics were nothing new for a ‘development’ conference, the panelists were not your usual invitees. They included primary school students, village brick makers, local farmers, and young “tinkerers” who had built their own home-made radio.” Full article here: Uganda: Villages in Action Bringing Poor People’s Voices to the Forefront

3. New digital camera made it safely to Malawi – Canaan Gondwe, Small Business Fund leader, wrote, ‎”Tanya, We are overwhelmed with the performance of this new camera. We are witnessing quality pics. Connecting them to computer and importing them is also easy.” We can look forward to many more photos of the exciting progress in Manyamula Village!

4. News from Balayiro Women’s Self-Help Group – I got a wonderful letter in the mail from this thriving group in Kenya. They received a small cash grant to buy local seeds for the group. “We prepared the seeds in the seedbed. Luckily enough there was moderate rainfall and warm weather. Now we are expecting a good harvest! Traditionally, in Luhya community, farmers do save the indigenous seeds from year to year in crop recycling method, covering them with ashes from the burned firewood.” They grew:

Jute Plant – A leafy green, rich in betacarotene, iron, calcium, and vitamin C, eaten with Ugali (maize meal).

Spider Plant – The leaves, stems, pods, and flowers can all be cooked and eaten. The leaves are bitter, but the bitterness can be bleached out with boiling water. A group of farmers are growing this plant in Minnesota for the Kenyan diaspora here!  

Black Nightshade – This nightshade is not poisonous, as we tend to imagine here in the West. The barriers and the leafy greens are eaten and are highly nutritious.

5. Quote on compassion – (from a women’s retreat I attended last weekend): “Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant wit the weak and wrong…because sometime in your life you will have been all of these.”

This basket from a small business in Uganda will be one of the auction items!

P.S. Save the Date – May 5^th Celebrate Spirit in Action’s “Sweet Sixteen” Anniversary! We booked the Islandia Clubhouse in Alameda, CA and I began pulling out some of the silent auction items that we brought back from Africa! More details to come soon.

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Tanya visits Camily's solar cooker shop in August 2011. People gather to hear about using the strange boxes to cook food.

Gaudenziah, whose husband Camily has received several grants from Spirit in Action to promote and sell solar cookers out of the front of their home, was recently inspired with a new business plan. She knew that solar cookers use the power of the sun to cook foods such as meat, beans, eggs, rice, and vegetables. Then, in October I emailed to the Wedendes a story from the Solar Cookers International newsletter.

The article, about the work of Light Gives Heat in Kisumu, Kenya, told of the great opportunity of baking with solar cookers. “Most people cannot make high-quality cakes because of the irregular temperatures of charcoal and wood stoves, but solar cookers bake perfect, moist cakes with very little worry of burning or over-cooking.”

Pat-A-Cake

The story sparked Gaudenziah and Camily into action! “We shall be selling cakes and tea and we will also be boiling eggs in the solar cookers and people can buy when they pass beside the cafe,” wrote Camily excitedly to me.

They already have the solar cookers that Camily made from wood, glass, and reflective tinfoil, and they were able to use some of the profits from their cooker sales to buy a few baking supplies and paint for a sign. “SEEING IS BELIEVING CAFE is a wonderful name,” declares Camily, “because people are seeing, testing food that has been cooked in the solar cookers, then they believe and then they end up buying the cooker!”

Gaudenziah pours sun cooked tea for a customer.

A Sunny Outlook

It isn’t hard to see now, in the sunny season in Eldoret, that solar cookers can produce good tasting local foods, without using expensive charcoal or spending all day walking to gather wood for a traditional three-stone fire. “Right now we are in the dry season and now our solar cookers can cook all types of food in a short time, like 3 hours,” says Camily, in the sales pitch for his hand-made solar cookers.

Proudly, Camily and Gaudenziah reported this month, “With the profits that come out of the business, we are able to pay school fees for David our son [in 10th grade] and we have some to put back into the business.”

I wonder how solar cooked cupcakes taste. Hopefully someday I’ll get to taste, see, and believe for myself!

Tanya visits Gaudenziah at her family's thriving Solar Cookers business in Eldoret, Kenya.

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