Thoughts following my visit to Egmont projects in Kenya 9-18 November 2009

Sally Woodcock and I have recently returned from a 10 day visit to Kenya. We met all four of the current Egmont partners and visited their project activities on the ground. Two were based in western Kenya, near the shores of Lake Victoria, the other two were based in Nairobi with projects in the slums. This was my first visit to the real Kenya, and I don’t think I have seen such abject poverty, rural and urban, for a long time. This was a stark reminder that for many families in Africa it is a daily struggle to find enough to eat let alone buy school uniforms, or get to the local clinic. Add HIV&AIDS into that situation and it, quite literally, makes you want to cry.

Recent statistics highlight that in sub-Saharan Africa over 4,000 people are dying every day from AIDS and another 5,000 are contracting HIV every day – more than 1,000 of these are children. So while HIV&AIDS need no longer be a death sentence if you can access the drugs, it is still huge problem and a big issue for those infected and their affected families, in particular the children.

The projects were all doing good things and we met a wealth of impressive individuals, both working for the implementing organisations and amongst those benefiting from Egmont funded interventions.


ACE (Action in the Community Environment) – Siaya District in Nyanza Province, western Kenya

The ACE programme in Siaya was started two years ago with Egmont funding. Siaya District is very poor and ACE estimate that 30% of the population in their programme area are showing the symptoms of AIDS (this doesn’t include those not yet sick) and 47% of children have been orphaned by AIDS. ACE was founded on the belief that not enough was being done to mitigate the plight of AIDS orphans. They are implementing a very impressive holistic programme to help improve the lives of children in the poverty-stricken rural communities of Siaya District. With help from the community they identify sick and often bedridden individuals who will by default be carers responsible for a number of children. ACE visit these households, offer counselling, encourage them to be tested for HIV and if positive assist with access to ARV treatment. ACE will also provide emergency assistance - nutritious flour (for all the family to eat as porridge), simple drugs if necessary, uniforms for school age children, and in extreme cases where people’s houses are in very poor repair, a new house will be built. All beneficiaries are single parents/grandparents who are looking after several children, often orphans. Once well enough, the beneficiaries join community support groups which are assisted by ACE to engage in food production and income generating activities eg. group gardens and fishponds. ACE also work with the local schools implementing an “off the shelf” health education programme called Child to Child which encourages children to identify solutions to the problems they and their families and communities face.

ACE is well organised with an impressive staff team. Sally and I believe they are making their Egmont Grant go a very long way and impact is significant. Most importantly they are deliberately targeting those who have fallen sick and are unable to cope with the responsibilities of childcare – they then assist these individuals to literally get back on their feet, and with support from ACE and other community members, to regain their ability to meet their responsibilities as carers. It is a well thought through approach carried out in a sensitive and compassionate manner. ACE are already replicating their model in Tanzania. I believe there would be scope to take it further afield.



KPEN (Kenya Poverty Elimination Network) – Ndhiwa, Homa Bay District in Nyanza Province, western Kenya

KPEN improve the livelihoods of women infected/affected by HIV&AIDS through income generating activities and psychological support. It was founded and is coordinated by Dolly, a middle class Nairobi lady who comes from the Ndhiwa area and was motivated to do something after seeing too many grandmothers and widowed mothers struggling to care for rising numbers of orphans. All the staff are local people and have noticeably good relations with the community. The interventions are simple – beekeeping, the provision of high quality (and very handsome!) billy goats to improve the milk production of local goats, and the introduction of amaranth (an easy to grow protein rich grain which is used as a morning porridge). Bee-keeping, managed on a group basis, requires little labour and, with the honey being harvested and sold every 3 months or so, it brings in regular income for the group members. Honey is also known to be medicinal and immune-boosting so members are encouraged to keep some and, along with their children, to eat some every day. In addition Dolly, a counsellor herself, has trained 4 HIV-positive group members as psychosocial counsellors to help support those who are ill and/or struggling.

We were impressed by KPENs work and Dolly’s vision. She is well organised and has thought through the specific interventions, in discussion with the communities, in some detail. It is not an accident that all the products of the interventions – honey, goats milk, amaranth – all have genuine nutritional benefits. The women repeatedly told us how they all had more energy as a result of eating amaranth porridge in the mornings, and were now able to send their children to school with bellies-full of energy-giving amaranth! Next year KPEN plans to introduce vocational training for some of the older orphans, again she has chosen sensible skills which link back to other project and community activities – carpentry (they can make beehives to sell to the project, desks for schools etc), tailoring (will be able to make protective suits for bee-keeping) and welding (can make window and door frames for new school buildings etc).



TICAH (Trust for Indigenous Culture & Health) – Nairobi slums

Most of you will remember the lovely Angela who gave an animated talk at the Egmont launch in March. TICAH’s work is a little unusual, particularly in the Kenyan context where “witchcraft” is banned. They have collected local, and mostly long-standing, information about the use of food, herbs and medicinal plants to improve health and treat all manner of ailments. This has been compiled into a very user friendly book and last year Egmont funded its transfer onto a website. With Egmont support TICAH are now taking the information to HIV support groups in the slums of Nairobi. Sally and I met some of the group members involved, most are HIV positive, some are on anti-retroviral treatment (ART), some are not, and all are caring for children. It was fascinating to watch them excitedly exchange remedies and outcomes – the men as involved as the women. They all reported a significant decline in their expenditure on drugs and a significant improvement in their health and that of their families. Certainly, as a collective, they stood out as looking the healthiest of all the groups we met during our visit.

TICAH is run by a team of four women – all very impressive. There were no concerns over systems or accountability. We were in no doubt as to the value of TICAH’s work in promoting the use of medicinal plants – they are cheaper and in many cases more effective than conventional medicines. It is worth noting that TICAH does not promote the herbal remedies as a better alternative to conventional medicine rather as complementary to conventional drugs. Besides, much of their teaching is about improving diet and nutrition for better health. A recent evaluation of their work in the slums found that the TICAH training had led to more than half of the participants starting some form of small vegetable garden – quite a feat in the slums given the lack of available land.


YABEC (Youth Advocates for Behaviour Change in Kenya) – Nairobi slums

YABEC is a small organisation run by HIV positive volunteers. They have projects in four of Nairobi’s slum communities. Working through community support groups they are sensitising them on HIV-related issues and promoting income generating activities with training and follow-up support. Two of the YABEC trustees are nurses who visit sick and struggling families in their spare time, providing psycho-social support. They also work with church nursery schools and supply needy orphans with uniforms and food. YABEC also support youth groups in the slums who put on plays in public fora to encourage debate and improve understanding of HIV-related issues.

Sally and I saw a range of interventions and met a number of beneficiaries. We were particularly impressed by a group of young medics who had set up a clinic and a dispensary in the Kibera slum and were running a grocery store to help cover the costs of running the clinic. They had part-time jobs and gave their time at the clinic on a voluntary basis. It is exactly these positive driven individuals that Egmont should be supporting.



Closing Comments

It is unbelievably humbling to witness for oneself the dire poverty in which many vulnerable Africans live. It is a daily struggle to produce enough food to feed their families, educate their children, and keep healthy and yet they retain an extraordinary vision, enthusiasm, energy and determination for a better life for themselves, their children and their communities. With a little of the right support these people are able to change their own lives and those of their children. I saw numerous examples of this when in Kenya.

I am very proud of the fact that through Egmont we have been able to help these constructive and determined people and many more like them. You as an Egmont supporter should also be proud!