Supporting UNITED KENYA RISING IN KAKAMEGA, KENYA

JUNE 2023 NEWSLETTER

Our board visits Kenya, a terrific short video, eye clinics, schooling, rain, bricks, nets, and awards.

In March, eight Friends of Kenya Rising board members visited Kakamega to visit families, got to know the UKR team, and see Family Care in action.

All of them had been to Kakamega several times before. But because of the pandemic, not all had travelled to see how things are now since we started the shift to Family Care four years ago. 

The board members spent most of their time visiting families deep in the interior regions of Kakamega and Vihiga Counties. They also got reconnected with UKR staff and board members (who are often old friends), and they took time getting to know new staff members. 

All agreed it was a fantastic trip, and everyone returned with new energy and inspiration about the programs we support in western Kenya through our partnership with United Kenya Rising. Alison Hyde was so excited that a local reporter got wind of the scoop; Alison's recent visit to Kenya (and eventful life in Africa more generally) was featured in the East Aurora Advertiser (click here to read). 

Board member Linda Bennett shared a poetic impression of her trip:

I learned so much about families' livelihoods: fields of red earth turned and ready for planting maize, kale, cassava, sweet potatoes, grains. Tea plants and fruit trees—coconuts, pineapple, bananas, avocado, papaya, passionfruit, jackfruit. Growing chickens, ducks, goats, calves and piglets; selling milk. A bicycle parts and repair shop, wood products and planing wood for others, brick making, leasing land, renting rooms to students. Creating pots, braiding hair, designing and sewing clothes, panning for gold. Many caring and competent staff. Thank you UKR.

Many of you reading this personally know someone on our board, and they were likely part of this visit. So please ask them about it! You might also be able to come visit for yourself during a future trip (if you're interested, please reach out to one of us or simply reply to this email). 

We are so very grateful to UKR families, staff, and board members for hosting us so graciously. Asanteni. 

The young Kenyan journalists helping UKR have produced yet another terrific short video. Click here to watch​. 

The video features a testimonial from Meshack, a grandfather whose family has found their path to a brighter future with help from UKR's programs.

Have a look and see for yourself the incredible enthusiasm, gratitude, and hope that Meshack and his family have found through their participation in Family Care. 

United Kenya Rising, in partnership with the Optometry Department at Kakamega's Masinde Muliro University, has been organizing free eye clinics in the villages where it works.

Since September last year, half a dozen free clinics have served over 1,100 Kenyans of all ages, with children and students making up close to one-third.

With the incredible efforts of John Lucente and his Lions Club colleagues who collect donated glasses, over 700 people have received free prescription eyeglasses during UKR's community clinics. 

Restoring one’s eyesight can is transformational, but prescription lenses are not the solution for everyone. Click here to read Janet’s story, a powerful example of how our Family Care model helps each family differently. Janet was without sight until she was referred for a surgery while attending one of UKR’s eye clinics. Today, after a successful surgery paid for through Family Care support, Janet can again see.

Students across Kenya have returned from break for their second term of the school year. It is the first school year with a regular academic calendar since the pandemic disrupted learning. 

Before heading back to school, many of UKR's 180 high school scholarship students attended workshops on sexual & reproductive health and other life-skills topics. 

Primary school learners also returned to class, including the more than 400 primary students from UKR’s families.

Public schools across Kenya are struggling with severely delayed financial support from the national government, and doing their best to run classes without the budget they usually count on. It is a huge challenge.

Students, meanwhile, keep studying despite the challenges at under-resourced schools and the typical, long treks on foot. Now that rains are back, the walk home often involves taking shelter from sudden rain and then when skies clear and the sun sets, navigating thick mud the rest of the way home.  Everyone knows that education makes a better future and the sacrifices are worthwhile. Students keep learning. 

The dry season is over and many months of regular, heavy downpours are back. At a time when continuously inflating food prices have reached a crisis point, Kenyan farmers are praying for bountiful harvests that will push them through to the next season. 

UKR’s families are now growing a great variety of crops on their farms, which mostly range from a quarter-acre to one acre. With the return of plentiful rain, good cultivation methods can produce a lot from these small farms. The UKR agriculture team's guidance over the last few months has helped its farmers to plan and plant with great thought and care. Many families are already harvesting beans, vegetables, and other fast-growing crops as they wait for their maize to mature.

In February, seven UKR guardians and three staff members underwent training on the production of interlocking stabilized soil bricks (ISSBs).

The environmentally friendly bricks use less carbon-intensive cement to build with, and they do not need any kiln or wood-fire to produce which saves trees. 

These newly trained guardians hope to make and sell the beautiful and durable bricks for business, and UKR’s Public Health Department looks forward to using them for construction of new latrines. The first bricks, made during training, will help a nearby UKR family build a latrine. The structure will be built as soon as this family has completed digging their pit. 

Thank you to Friendly Water for the World for providing the training, and to Rotary Club of Rockville Maryland for helping us buy our first Makiga ISSB brick-making machine.

Earlier this year, after carefully surveying each of the 200+ families in its programs, UKR staff determined that 775 mosquito nets were needed for everyone to sleep safely protected from malarial mosquitos. Some families did not have any nets, while many others didn't own enough or had nets that were falling to pieces. 

Fast forward three months and more than 600 nets have already been distributed to UKR families, with more on the way. UKR is providing enough mosquito nets so that only two people (same gender siblings or married couples) will need to share a net. This solution makes sense because two siblings of the same-gender usually share a foam mattress, anyway. 

When this initiative is complete, each and every child, youth, and adult from UKR’s families will be able to sleep under a mosquito net. We hope this will go a long way toward reducing cases of malaria that are still all too common in western Kenya. 

United Kenya Rising was among several groups recognized for their good work during the national Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition (DIAR) ceremony, held three months ago in Nairobi. 

UKR’s leader, Nelson Ida, was on hand to receive the award, a runner-up recognition in the category of Community Based/Community Focused Organizations that are helping shape a better Kenya.

Every month we go over the photos that staff take and vote on our favorites. It's been a while, so we instead of Photos of the Month we've compiled some of the very best photos from the last year. Check them out!

Click here to see our favorite photos from the last twelve months.

www.friendsofkenyarising.org