Helping Out

Jiinue Echengo Project – Western Kenya

These two villages of around 400 people are located in the poor Busia area of Western Kenya near Lake Victoria.  The villagers’ land was depleted and many were obliged to work as labourers earning less than £1 a day, leaving them in abject poverty with no time or resources to improve their own land.

In 2010 UK charity Send a Cow agreed to help the villagers with a three year agricultural project costing £30,000, provided by Africa Exclusive and our clients.  The project follows tried and tested small scale farming improvements suitable for villagers with one or two acres of land.  After thorough training, assistance is being given with composting, soil improvement, and the introduction of highly productive bag gardens and keyhole gardens.  These enable villagers to grow large numbers of vegetables and fodder crops.  Around 20 specially trained families have been provided with dairy cows in calf.  These produce milk for sale and consumption, manure and urine (natural fertilizer for the gardens) and the calves are passed on to other families.

Many families are seeing major improvements in their diet and income from the sale of vegetables and milk lifts them out of the poverty trap.  They can now afford to send their children to school and have access to medical help.  Some enterprising families have bought chickens which produce eggs for sale and consumption and others have improved their accommodation.

Send a Cow provides ongoing agricultural and veterinary support and training.  It also introduces fuel efficient stoves, tip taps and simple hygienic toilets to reduce disease.  Friends from nearby villages are visiting Jiinue to learn the techniques for themselves, and so the work spreads.  By the time the main project ends in June 2013, over 400 people will have benefited.  The benefits will be sustainable and lasting.