Imani Poultry Project, Webuye, Kenya

 THE IMANI POULTRY PROJECT WEBUYE, KENYA

 

The Vision

Africa’s HIV/Aids orphans have topped 18 million and are a rapidly growing human crisis. They are living on the streets and they are dying on the streets. They are precious babies, toddlers and children who through no fault of their own have lost one or both parents. Some are being looked after by their grandparents or aunts. They have had limited schooling and their caregivers have little or no income to feed or clothe these children, never mind give them a future. They need to find work, but often this is not possible due to the stigma of HIV/Aids and the severely limited opportunities to find work.

 The purpose of the Imani Poultry Project is to engage the widows and orphans of the community in poultry farming as a source of income generation and also to improve their food intake by providing protein in their daily diets. The project intends to train and educate them in chicken rearing, and also provide them with poultry as part of the start-up for their own business. It is envisaged that at the end of the project the trainees will be self-sufficient and have the means to run their own business, this means training in poultry husbandry and business and marketing skills.

While a proposal is currently with community banks for a loan to finance this project it could already start if funding for the project could be sourced via fundraising. The concept is designed to create self-supporting widows and orphans and to invest any returns back into the project to expand it. A total number of 40 orphans and widows will be trained as part of the initial project.

All amounts donated will be put totally to this project. Regular reports and updates will be provided at this site and a full breakdown of the project is available on request for large donors.

While a large investment is necessary for the project to make it sustainable and ongoing, small amounts are just as valuable and make a huge difference to the people who will benefit from this project.

The project is the brainchild of Ambrose Karakacha and will have a Board of Trustees to ensure the proper administration of the project. Mr Karakacha will be the General Manager of the project. For further details please see the biography below.

 

Meet some of the Orphans and Widows your contribution will assist…                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Situma is 4yrs old and infected with HIV/Aids since his birth.Both parents died 2.5 years ago from HIV/Aids reSlated illnesses. He lives with his 45 year old Aunt who struggles to get food and earns her living by selling bananas in the nearby primary school. Situma attends a pre-unit village school.

 

Teresa is 7 years old. She is the daughter of 38 year old Rose who has been a widow for the last three years. She has two children Teresa and Nyongesa and they have half a hectare of land on which they grow maize and vegetables to feed the family but it is not enough to keep them. Rose has been diagnosed with HIV/Aids for the last six years. Teresa and Nyongesa are not infected with HIV/Aids as their parents were free of HIV/Aids before they were born. Both children attend the village primary school.

 

Ken, Samuel and Kana are the children of Helen who has been a widow for seven years. Her husband dies of HIV/Aids. Ken is 13 years old, Samuel 8 years and Kana 10 years. The only child infected with the HIV/Aids virus is Samuel. Ken and Kana were born before the parents were infected. Helen is a farmer growing vegetables and bananas to earn a living. They attend a village primary school and Helen is struggling to pay school fees and feed her children.

 

Makokha is 5 years old living with HIV/AIDS since he was born. Makokha is an orphan as both parents are dead. He lives with his grandmother who is 65 years old. She is in a nursing home. She receives income from well-wishers and church members of the church she attends.

 

Ngala, Daniel and Shem are Lucy’s children. Lucy is 48 years old here she is carrying bananas to sell at the market. Ngala is 11 years, Daniel 8 years and Shem 6 years old. Lucy has been a widow for 6 years after her husband died during the political clashes of the 2007 election in Kenya. The children are going to school at the village primary school. The cost of schooling will stop her children from getting an education if Lucy cannot find further employment to pay the school costs.

How Can You Help?

We are in need of funds urgently to begin this project so that the widows and orphans can start becoming independent. This is a big project and so we have broken the costs down into stages. The first stage is to build the Chicken houses, chickens and feed. The costs for this are approximately USD 10,000. You will note that we have asked for USD5000 for this fundraising campaign. We are doing this to see how the fundraising will go.Please be generous. If you would like to know how the project is going you can contact us via email at: [email protected]  or at our facebook site: http://facebook.com/imanipoultryprojectkenya

Who are we?

AMBROSE KARAKACHA - VISION BEARER

Ambrose was born in a small village called Manda, in the county of Kakamega in 1974. Born into a family of six children (four boys and two girls) he was the last born of John Karakacha and Mama JelidahInyanji.

He attended the village primary school from the age of 7, went to secondary school at the age of 15 years for 4 years.In 1993 his father died and in 1994 he was sponsored by the evangelical mission to train in computer programming and systems analysis at the Western College of Art and Applied Science for three years.

After college he worked with Eldoret Bottles as a software developer. Later he opened his own business in computers and has been self-employed ever since.  Married in 1998, Ambrose has two children - Daisy and Bravin but his wife died in a road accident in 2006. The experience of bringing up his children as a sole parent has not been easy and he recognizes how much harder that must be for the widows and orphans affected by HIV/Aids.

Melody Green – Project Adviser

 Melody currently lives in Newcastle, NSW Australia and works as an apprenticeship adviser to enable young people to gain a career in agriculture and horticulture. With nearly 35 years’ experience in a variety of industries, she is a qualified careers adviser who has spent the last 8 years working with business on talent management and development. She has worked for the Australian Government and the NFP sector in policy and operational roles. With a career in business networking and social initiative across more than 25 years, Melody is a principal driver for innovative and sustainable programs such as the Sydney Jobs Fairs that optimize community resources, build partnerships across business, education and government and enable commercial and public leaders to engage with their populated environment. Melody has a 21 yr old son and is a published author and poet.