The tale of Mweronkanga

From the hills of Nyambene lies a land with untold story. The ‘dry land’ of Mweronkanga; the marginalized land as they put it where poverty has been the daily norm and struggling to put food on the table is a big issue .With only one medical facility, and no organization working in the area due to harsh weather and living conditions .

CIFORD Kenya works to empower the rural poor. Through normal field visit realized the need for community empowerment through community education and mentorship. CIFOR D has seen a development gap in the Mweronkanga community and have together with the community agreed on various topics to be addressed during our collaboration and below are some of them.
1. Food security and income /dry land farming
2. Environmental conservation and protect
3. Water, sanitation and hygiene
4. Sexual and reproductive health
5. Water harvesting and conservation
6. Renewable energy .

Women Group training. To reach the community members there has to be an organized strategy which is through organized community groups. This helps reach more people at a time and the people reached can be able to share whatever information with the other members of the community,

Mweronkanga roads. The infrastructure is poor this has reduced the number of development partners in the area. CIFORD being a community based organization ventured in the area and it has been very satisfying working with these community without considering the hardships in the area.

Empowerment

The journey that started six months ago and can now be considered a trend to success since the community response to training is excellent with most farmers adopting conservative agriculture and use of their local resources to generate income

Home visit and follow ups. Women have taken up the skills learnt and done at home. Due to harsh conditions they have to cover the vegetables to avoid wastage by the birds and chicken. The gardening has to be made real and they farmers have to be clever than the birds. The seedlings are placed even on the roof.

Portable gardens which use little water.

Success
1. The farmers have accepted the training and are practicing the skills
2. The community are willing to learn more
3. Availablility of the green and fresh vegetables even during the dry session
Challenge.

1. Resources: There is enormous request from the community to partner with them but due to limited resources we can not be able to meet their needs.
2. Water shortages : Women have to walk for over 15KM in search of water. When they get it it is not enough for the family use .
3. Climate change: It is real and need for mitigation
4. Retrogressive culture practices whi makes girls drop out of school to get married.

To support our project to
1. support agriculture training for 30 women for 3 months USD 1200
2. Support a farmer with energy efficient stove at USD 5
3. To support a girls alternative rite of passage and mentorship for 60 giirls for a whole week is USD 2000
4. To provide a 3000 litre water tank and its accessories _USD 250
5. To drill a water borehole which can serve over a 1000 people cosr USD 25000

For more information to support our program in Mweronkaga pls getin touch with us via cifordmeru@yahoo.com ‘Thank you