A team of Island professionals, including agriculturalists, a food scientist, a veterinarian and three Atlantic Veterinary College students will be traveling to Kenya next week to continue working on Farmers Helping Farmers ongoing projects. “We are in the middle of a three-year project,” explains coordinator Teresa Mellish. “Last year, we identified what needed to be done and gave ourselves a really clear starting point. We have worked diligently over the past year developing educational material, raising funds for better equipment and preparing to make the most of our time helping the farmers while we are there. We are looking forward to getting there, seeing what accomplishments have been achieved since our last visit a year ago and building on them.”
The project, entitled “Economic Development of Kenyan Small-Hold Farming Groups,” was designed to provide assistance to the Wakulima Self-Help Group Dairy farmers in veterinary expertise, milk quality control and improved nutrition for their cows through enhanced forage production. This project also includes an opportunity for these African farmers to access credit to purchase additional, better-quality dairy cattle to improve their small herds. Local donations have also made it possible to build a milk quality laboratory. With increased technical assistance and better equipment, the farmers anticipate seeing a greater return from their milk sales.
Another rural Kenyan organization, known as the Muchui Women’s Group is also being assisted through this project. Farmers Helping Farmers’ last successful project saw each of the 61 women in this group receive a water tank with the help of Islander’s generous donations. These industrious women are now using a portion of this water to grow tree seedlings to sell for a small profit that will help them buy other household necessities. The women have just completed a technical training workshop at a forestry institution and now have an understanding of “sandbed” preparation, tissue culture and grafting. The course focused on fruit trees such as mangoes, bananas, avocados, citrus fruit, paw paws and macadamia nuts. For many of the women, this would have been their first formal educational training.
As a result of the success of both the Wakulima Self-Help Group Dairy and the Muchui Women’s Group, Farmers Helping Farmers is now using their projects as models for other Self-Help Groups. Members of the Board of Directors from both groups have formed a Council designed to give other Self-Help Groups guidance and motivation. Leaders from newly formed cooperatives, such as the Marega Water Supply Group, have been invited to participate in these Council meetings. This gives the newer leaders an opportunity to learn from the careful management and organization which has been such an integral part of the success behind the model groups. Farmers Helping Farmers is planning to meet with this Council while they are in Kenya.