The MWGP supports some of the poorest women-led households in Kenya and focuses on providing opportunities for women and girls who may never otherwise be given the chance to earn an income, giving them status within their community.
This project supports the three key areas at the heart of Soroptimists’ Programme Focus Goals – Educate, Empower and Enable. Improved food production and education will enable women and girls to transform their lives and those of others through a process of cascade learning and mentoring thereby reducing poverty, improving health and increasing employment. In addition young girls, boys and parents will be offered Empowerment Seminars to discuss alternative rites of passage to Female Genital Mutilation in an effort to eliminate this practice.
The project is run on the ground by CIFORD (Community Initiative for Rural Development) and overseen by our partner, Child.org. CIFORD is inspirationally led by Margaret Ikiara, a member of SI Meru. Margaret has 27 years of experience in husbandry, agricultural economics, teaching and community development and she is dedicated to improving the lives of women in her home region of Meru.
The Project operates in one of the poorest parts of Kenya.
- HIV/AIDs are prevalent in the region.
- 41% of women and girls are grossly or borderline malnourished
- 55% live a hand to mouth existence in agriculture using methods which degrade the land
- 22% have no formal education, only 11% complete secondary education
- 8/9% achieve minimum levels for literacy & numeracy compared to 85/87% in Nairobi
- 31% of women have undergone FGM
The MWGP aims to empower women to establish sustainable food gardens which enable them to feed their families and even earn a small income by selling excess produce at local markets. Using an established model, the project provides seeds, agricultural equipment and relevant technical advice. The women are trained and mentored throughout and have access to formal and informal agricultural learning opportunities.
The Legacy:
- the project is sustainable and easily replicable
- more women and girls will live above the poverty line with improved life chances and able to care for their dependants more effectively
- women and girls will have a greater chance of survival, safety and status in their community
- the number of beneficiaries will continue to grow through the cascade system of passing on knowledge and understanding
- women will become role models for others without conventional academic skills
May 2019 UPDATE: Follow the link below to read the latest update of the project.
JANUARY 2019 UPDATE
- £136.430.61 has now been raised by clubs across our SIGBI Federation. SI Canterbury has raised nearly £13,000.This supports our progress towards our £150,000 target.
- Two motorbikes have been purchased to enable CIFORD trainers to reach more remote women/groups. This will help the programme run more effectively and enable training/visits to different groups to take place on the same day. It also means that the scope of the project has grown and is now able to reach communities further away from the CIFORD centre than originally planned.
- Year 2 of the project has begun and CIFORD Kenya have met with community leaders to inform them of the agricultural training, the Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) seminars for young girls and the boys’ forums.
- This year’s communities are from farms and markets so we’re expecting a lot of progress. 9 groups with 253 members have begun in-depth training at group level both in their individual groups and at the CIFORD centre.
- Training on intensive land preparation, planting, including the spacing of common crops grown, and crop husbandry including, thinning, weeding and integrated pest management, have been undertaken.
- Plants purchased and distributed include, spiderweed, amaranth, kales, butternut, black nightshade
- Tools including energy efficient stoves, forked jembes, wheelbarrows, pangas and spades have been purchased and distributed to the groups.
- Young mother’s have begun the Mother’s Nutritional Training. 83 young mums attended the Child Care and Basic First Aid at Home course in November 2018. 79 were trained on Water and Sanitation hygiene with a focus on personal and baby hygiene. There is an increase in the number of mums joining the groups which indicates that the participating mothers are sharing the training with their peers and encouraging them to attend.
- These groups are spread out over a wide target area and this presents a challenge with some mothers walk long distances with their children on their backs and arriving late for the training.
- Additional ARP seminars for girls have been undertaken. 93 girls attended in December 2018 and were enthusiastic about their learning and increased prospects to stay in school and achieve their dreams. Their graduation ceremony was a colourful success and acted an alternative rite of passage to FGM. Sadly 43 had to be sent home as they could not be accommodated at this time. The biggest challenge to these seminars is the lack of an accommodation block, meaning the girls have to sleep on mattresses on the floor of the training hall, and poor sanitation facilities with only 2 toilets and no bathroom.
- 48 boys attended a Boys’ Empowerment seminar in December. The boys were taken through a package which would help them to grow and understand bad and good morals in society. Topics included, reproductive health, self realisation and life skills: helping them to improve their self esteem and develop goals in life, drug and substance abuse, sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases, sanitation and personal hygiene and early marriage and teenage pregnancy. In Meru teenage pregnancy stands at 20% so this last topic is especially important.
APRIL 2018 – SOROPTIMIST STUDY VISIT TO THE MWGP
Kenyan singing and dancing was a key feature of an inspiring study trip to Meru attended by five members of Soroptimist International Canterbury in early April. They were part of a group of twenty four Soroptimists who took part in a five day visit to see the impact of the Meru Women’s Garden Project supported by the national federation.
The project was originally developed by Seeds for Africa, a charity which grew out of the 2008 Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. SI Canterbury has supported it since 2014 and members were delighted when it was selected as the Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland Federation Project in 2015. The women are trained on sustainable farming practices and agricultural techniques which maximise crop growth on small plots of land with unreliable rainfalls. They work in community groups and are provided with plants, seeds, tools, equipment and a mentor for two years.
The Soroptimists were met on arrival in Meru by a large number of the women singing, dancing and bearing gifts for their visitors. This was a feature throughout the visit and the women’s warm and happy welcome, positive attitude and hope for a better future provided inspiration to all.
During the visit members were hosted by Margaret Ikiara, founder and leader of CIFORD. They learnt more about the organisation’s aims and vision and the work done by this amazing woman and her team of staff and volunteers.
A highlight of the trip was undoubtedly visiting the women’s groups, seeing their gardens and talking with them about their crops. The women proudly told how they no longer need to walk to market to buy vegetables but can now feed their families from their own produce. Many have excess crops which they sell to raise a small income and most groups have established ‘Table Banking’ to support each other in times of greater need. They also discussed future needs and their hope that more women be given the opportunities they have had.
During the week, the group also met with young girls who told how they have benefited from ARP seminars educating them about the dangers of Female Genital Mutilation. These are also funded by the Soroptimist project and aim to dispel myths about this procedure, arm the girls with the confidence to stand up and say no and provide opportunities to discuss sexual health issues. The motto of these sessions is ‘Girls Need Education not Circumcision’.
Soroptimists from SI Meru, the newest club in Kenya founded in 2013, joined the group on several days. This provided a wonderful opportunity to discuss common aims and projects and share ideas for supporting women and girls locally and worldwide.
The final day of this inspiring visit saw 194 women graduate from the project with a ceremony and party like no other. The site was decorated in celebration and dancing, singing, speeches and friendships were not marred by the downpour of rain. Each graduate received a Certificate of Participation to acknowledge their hard work and commitment to the project.
In the words of Margaret Ikiara, speaking as the rain poured down, ‘We are blessed with rain. This project and these graduates are blessed’.
MARCH 2018 UPDATE
- £105,000 has now been raised by SIGBI clubs – well on our way to achieving our target of £150,000
- Four Alternative Rites of Passage seminars have been held since the launch of the project in March 2016, funded by SIGBI. These are weekend or week long courses aimed at informing girls of the realities of FGM, dispelling myths and enabling the girls to make informed choices where possible. Research in this area has shown that many girls choose be circumcised rather than be forced.
- Before training 67% said FGM is a necessary part of growing up. When asked at the end of the weekend less than 6% thought so. 100% of attendees said they’d recommend it to their friends.
- The seminars cover important social issues including the repercussions of teenage pregnancy, early marriage, HIV/ids, drugs and alcohol abuse as well as the short and long term effects of FGM.
- A boys forum for 60 boys from the local community took place in December 2017 with more planned in 2018. Delivered by CIFORD, these deal with issues of drugs and alcohol and domestic violence as well as educating them on gender issues.
- Five communities were identified for the first cohort of women’s groups and training began at the beginning of April 2017. Barake – 37 women, Makena – 32 women, Mutethia – 43 women, Lachathuriu – 34 women, Mwendwa Rii – 48 women, 4 men – total of 198 to be trained by March 2018
- These are now coming to the end of their training having undertaken classroom sessions on agricultural and farming methods, weekly sessions within their communities and mentor support. They are really positive about the training and how it has benefitted them so far.
- Some initial difficulties occurred due to the lack of March rains and although they did have access to water some groups had to walk up to 10km to get this from a well. Water is therefore prioritised for livestock and themselves as opposed to their crops.
- Their training however, encouraged them to recycle water used for household tasks, to water crops until the November rains came and this enabled all the women to grow enough to feed their families. All of them have established their own food garden and are producing crops. As a result don’t now need to buy vegetables at market, saving around 10 Kenyan shillings a week.
- Each group had water tanks installed in November before the next rains and this made life so much easier for the women.
- Throughout the programme surveys are carried out to provide data to plan each part of the course and judge impact
- In November 2017 CIFORD undertook more research in local communities; talking with local governors and chiefs and holding public meetings. As a result they have identified new groups which will begin their training in April 2018.
- The first intake of five groups which began training in April 2017 will graduate in April 2018. They are offered their mentor for the next year and many of the women will step up to become mentors for the new intake.
For more information please follow the links below:
www.Child.org/what-we-do/empowering-women-community