For four years the Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and the Pacific Ltd (AFAP) and its in-country partner in Kenya, Concern Universal, have been working with the Madre Ippolita Children’s Home (run by the Little Daughters of St Joseph) in Ndithini in the Eastern District.  The area’s agricultural productivity is poor and people suffer from drought and lack of employment.  The Home’s campus combines an orphanage, a school, a farm, and a small health clinic for in-patients and out-patients. The purpose of AFAP’s partnership is to provide modest support aimed at building knowledge and management skills, and some agricultural resources to enable the Home to operate as a self-sufficient entity and a general resource for the surrounding communities.

 

Caption: Ndithini toddlers.      Source: Margaret Duckett, AFAP

In February 2010, the Home was housing 401 children including 34 children infected by HIV and a number of other children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS.  Most children are aged 2 months to 10 years, although there is a group of 15 year olds.  The school provides education, shelter, health access, clothes and nutrition for all the children. The school curriculum follows the official Kenya syllabus but with a focus on social studies and English, and counselling regarding HIV/AIDS.

The campus site also offers a 20 bed ward for local patients and weekly adult and paediatric HIV clinics (in practice patients turn up when they require care rather than only during clinic days). The health clinic contains a pharmacy store including antiretroviral drugs, a general dispensary and a small laboratory including a CD4 machine which is used on a daily basis.  Comprehensive VCT counselling is also provided.  The clinic is geared to follow-up care with serious cases being referred to the District Hospital.  Children with less than 1000 CD4 cells and adults at Stage 3 clinically and with less than 300 CD4 cells receive free antiretrovirals. The children in particular are receiving intensive treatment to lessen opportunistic infections. The Sisters noted that in 2009 they were providing food supplements for most of their patients, but this has lessened with the breaking of the drought.

With the support of AFAP and our long-term Kenya partner, Concern Universal, the Sisters have participated in a series of training workshops and exposure visits to improve their skills and knowledge of how to manage a small farm and to market surplus produce.  One major challenge has been the fairly regular turnover of the Sisters so we have tried to institutionalise capacity through documentation and appropriate infrastructure, and by ensuring that agricultural training is also provided to the three farm labourers and to some of the older children.

Strong linkages have been made with government to provide agricultural and horticultural expertise, including access to agricultural extension workers.  In particular, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology provided two scientists to work with the orphanage staff on the development of a farm management plan to assist the orphanage to manage its farm using sound soil conservation strategies and appropriate cropping practices.  Concern Universal Kenya facilitated the provision of improved seed and planting stock to reduce the risk of poor yields and poor quality produce.  Two hundred local households also benefited through the Sisters applying the seed bulking method.  The current crop is healthy, with pupils also helping with weeding, especially in the farmland adjacent to the school compound.  The wide range of crops includes a number of legumes, as well as significant quantities of maize.

With funding from AFAP’s African Women’s Program and the ANCP, a small zero grazing unit for dairy cows and four Toggenburg

Caption: Toggenburg goats in Ndithini.                                          Source: Margaret Duckett, AFAP

dairy goats (3 nannies and 1 billy) has been built on the farm. One dairy goat has kidded and the remaining two females and thirteen local female goats are in kid to the Toggenburg billy goat.  There are also two dairy cows due to calve soon, and a bull who provides a very good watch-bull role as he lows when any stranger is on the site, particularly with any night-time intruders.  The milk is proving to be a big boost to the nutrient requirements of the HIV positive orphans and the young infants.

Napier grass and lucerne have been planted with good results, and provides sufficient feed for the existing livestock.  Greater production is underway.

The long-term farm management plan includes the development of ‘demonstration plots’. The plan is to use these for field-based training of groups of older orphans and as a source of information for the local communities, particularly those affected by HIV/AIDS who would benefit from additional skills to improve their food security.  These plots will be developed following the installation of a pump for irrigation and the construction of another holding tank and associated pipelines.

Caption: Maize in Ndithini.              Source: Margaret Duckett, AFAP

The orphans have been benefiting from the increased supply of fresh vegetables, fruit and dairy products, and the older orphans from developing skills in agriculture and horticulture, including shucking maize and sorting legume seeds for re-planting.  During the past few years of drought, a number of children from the surrounding area would come to eat lunch at the school due to the lack of food in the local area; this has ceased in recent months due to the breaking of the drought, but is an indicator of the safety net for the local community provided by the presence of the school.  The older orphans and the local children attending the school are all contributing to a broader range of skills and knowledge base in the local communities.

More on this resource

  • June 2010
  • Australian Foundation for the Peoples of Asia and the Pacific Ltd (AFAP) (www.afap.org)
  • 09.06.2010 10:47 | Contributed by: Margaret Duckett, CEO AFAP
  • www.afap.org