Haraka haraka

Matatu’s are the cosy contraptions that provide the main form of public transport in Kenya.  Converted hi-ace vans with seats for 14 passengers (seats for 14, room for 16, 17, 18, 19, 20…) that drive about the place like chariots in Ben Hur.  The drivers are notorious for being as reckless as a 14 year old boy playing destruction derby on his PlayStation 3. 

I personally believe that on the Kilifi – Mombasa route (about an hours journey), the drivers have sworn an oath not to take their foot of the accelerator for the entirety of the journey and only overtake when there’s a car approaching from the other direction. It’s thrilling stuff indeed.

So you can imagine my disgust that for my trip down to Mombasa for a (youknownotreally) important meeting with FHI (Family Health International large US GNGO and strategic partner of USAID in Kenya) and VSO, I get the only Roadwise Rory driver in Kenya. 

How many times do you have too sigh really heavily and stare at a guy with ‘HURRY THE FUCK ON’ eyes in an hour and 45 minutes to hurry a guy the fuck on??

So it’s because of Super Safe Sammy that I arrived into the meeting 25 minutes late with Peter (Country Director FHI), Gordon (Coast Area Manager FHI), Charles (VSO Programme Manager - HIV/AIDS), Makena (Head of Programmes VSO) and three of my fellow volunteers – Emma, Chris and Abdu.

The idea is that through VSO, FHI would take four high calibre volunteers (4 out of 3 is not bad) and use them as a skills resource for four of their APHIA II partners on the coast and that us elite quartet (cough) would move seamlessly between each others placement sharing our particular skills with each.  A four pronged attack on poverty like Messi, Eto, Henry and Iniesta - quite frightening stuff really.

However, the idea has been slow to really take shape, this being the first time all parties have met together.  The three other volunteers are all one-yearers (which is just a long holiday really isn't it?!!)  and have already been here for quite a while– Emma is leaving in four weeks, Abdu is leaving end Oct/ start Nov and Chris is leaving in late Nov/Dec leaving me with the lone striker role.  Quite frightening stuff really!

But the good news is that FHI agreed with me that it is extremely difficult to generate income for SCOPE working in such an environment. They will work closely with me and provide me extra resources to support SCOPE and our BDS project.

I also had Charles (he’s me programme manager) and Mckena with me on Friday checking on my progress and how I’ve settled so far.  They seem to be quite happy, as do SCOPE and we hope to get more help from the EU’s sustainable living project.  More people involved, more people to blame!! 

Of course not. But bringing as many people, expertise and funding  in behind one co-ordinated project does seem like a rational approach and will amplify any chance we have of success.

Actually, even though the objective of resource sustainability seems to be maybe out of reach, the more we continue with the project, the more opportunities we uncover that could potentially do something. 

Maybe even do something good, but lets get ahead of ourselves yet.  We’re doing good enough going slow and steady, just like that bloody twat driving me to Mombasa last week.

In the footsteps of Marie Antoinette (kinda)

Solar powered milk, illegal black gold, Kilifi District gets the bullet and Mama Zelpha is eating clothes.  For an unproductive week it’s a contrastingly bumper blog!

As part of our Virtual Marketplace project, which is has more holes than a golf course, we are visiting Divisional Agricultural Officers (DAO) for each of the 3 constituencies in Kilifi -  Bahari, Kaloleni and Ganze - to learn more about agri-produce and market access problems.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we went to Ganze (take a bow – the poorest constituency in all of Kenya) and two of the divisions there - Vitengeni and (la la la) Bamba.

Vitengeni’s story is a story of what used to be.  Used to be a lot of people, used to be a lot citrus fruits, used to be bumper harvests of maize, used to be reliable rain.  People migrated to urban areas, citrus producing plants died courtesy of the 2006 drought and the lack of rain is to be discussed in Italy this week. Gr8!

But we did find a Milk Co-operative that have themselves their own solar powered coolers to take milk from throughout the district, store and sell.  All the way from Annapolis, MD in the US and financed by the World Bank, these impressive machines currently allows the Co-op to take milk from 12 of their 400 members. 

12 from 400.  They could produce 250litres a week but only produce 50 and sell 30 because they don’t have a market.  None of these figures add up but it’s a visit result – possibly some sort of opportunity if we can find a market and create a value chain. 

On to Bamba, 40kms in three hours on a bumpy road to the poorest, least agri-suitable area in Kenya’s poorest constituency.  So you might be surprised that this meeting visit was so much more positive than Vitengeni.  The local DAO listed three agri-produce with potential for growth – local sisal (sold to broker for 3-5k, sold at market for 10-15k), Meet goat (Bamba is famous for their goats sold to broker for 800sh, in Mombasa for 1200-1500sh) and Cashew where there used to be big harvests. 

Another thing about Bamba is that it is almost completely bare of trees like if it has been waxed (yuk!) clean of all it’s cover, burnt and sold as black gold.  Charcoal.  Completely illegal and therefore a big money earner for local farmers and police,  Charcoal production is having a hugely destructive effect on the eco-system throughout Africa.  

There are many NGOs working to solve this issue by encouraging the use of locally produced jatropha seed whose oil is used as to burn for energy as an alternative charcoal or people like WildLiving.co.uk who are producing eco-friendly charcoal (though expensive to buy and production is limited it is a step in the right direction). And of course if more income can be generated from the opportunities listed to us by the local DAO then there may be less of a need for charcoal income in Bamba?

Once we compile all the products and opportunities from all divisions within the 3 constituencies in the Kilifi District, we will need to find markets and access to create a virtual marketplace. 

And that’s the other thing that happened this week – Kilifi district is getting the bullet.  The three constituencies are being made into new districts. So it’s Bahari (which is really Kilifi), Kaloleni and Ganze. This is part of a (sinister?) plan by Pres. Kibaki to greatly increase the number of districts.  This plan is not published, debated in Parliament nor discussed with the Prime Minister’s office. More districts means more district sized salaries and costs. Of course Kenya has got heaps of cash for that kind of thing.

Finally, Mama Zelpha got a loan from SCOPE to buy fish to supplement to her Clothes shop business.  Her new shop location is doing really well and figures for her first full week or better than this time last year.  But the income she generates from the clothes she uses to feed her house of 13 people.  As she puts it ‘I just eat the clothes’ i.e. she cannot afford to buy new stock. 

So the plan is to use the profit from selling fish Ksh2,500 (€25) to use to buy her families food for 2 weeks and then use the profit from the clothes to buy more stock – which seems to be more profitable. From there, things should continue to improve.  And they are improving for her, which is good. Damn good indeed. But at this stage, one set back would be catastrophic for her and her family(which blows me away).

Funny thing is, I was trying to convince her to spend Ksh2,250 or 2,000 on food to allow more money for her clothes shop.  That was Friday afternoon, Saturday night Colm goes on the Tamerind Dhow in Mombasa for a volunteer birthday party – Dinner Ksh4,000!!

Marie Antoinette would be proud of me.

WFP Food Distribution

So, SCOPE had a volunteer for a month called Mike, a scottish professional photographer.  He took a series of photo-documentaries on each of SCOPE's main project areas.  Below are some of his excellent photos of the work SCOPE do with the World Food Program Food Distribution in the Kilifi District

I will post photo's from each of Mike's photo documentaries and a little snip-it on how each project is supposed to be linked to my objectives.  But really, the main thing here is to admire Mikes fantastic photos.  For more check-out www.mikebyrne.co.uk.

SCOPE Project Area: Food Distribution

The World Food Program Food Distribution in Kilifi works with Index Patients (People Living With HIV/AIDS with a BMI of lower than 18.5)  to provide them and their immediate family with a highly fortified Corn Soya Blend (CSB) and 50% of their food requirements (Cerels, Pulses and Oil).

The program period is four months i.e. 4 distributions by which stage the index paitient will have shown an satisfactory increase in BMI thus existing the family from the program.

One of the biggest problem with the program is that it only allocates food for families of up to 5.  So if you have a family of 6, you only get food for 5.  In the program SCOPE run at the moment there are a significant amount of families with more than 5 including two with 16 in the Household.

The distribution of food lasts one week – Monday to Friday. A steady stream of the poor peoples poor (predominantly the women with childern) arrive in silence to collect their families dinner for a month.   A parade of the hardest lives lived, each body battered over time by the harsh wild winds of poverty, battling against the cruel excesses of natures extremes.

And then me.

Some of the volunteers help with the distribution including yours truly. Here's a typical example of what goes on:

A woman arrive carring an infant tightly wrapped around their back.  Mother and child watch as this Irish guy fumbles about calculating their allowance, weighing it, cursing, adding a bit, spilling a bit, cursing and then checking it again.

I can see a toddler focusing on my every move intently.  He’s thinking with huge brown eyes, chubby brown cheeks and small button nose:

“Paddy, that better not be my food your spilling”.

I knock some maize from the bag and glare back at the child.

“How’d ya like that? Look at me like again and July will be a long month for you my friend. A very long month indeed. Do you understand me?”.

Power, what is there not to love about having it.

The food qaunities are heavy, sometimes weighing up to 40kg. Watching these slight women and childern carry the parcels perched on their heads for the long journey home is quite something.  Their bodies over time reduced to the impossible mechanics required to survive the furicious daily demands placed upon the poor.

As you can imagine, it’s interesting to be involved in the distibution.  A household only gets 4 months support by which stage the HIV/AIDS patient should have achevied a satisfactory BMI level to exit the programme.  The challenge is to ensure that they exit the programme permenantly by helping them achieve a sustainable livelihood.  

So these hardcore poor are also the target clients of the Business Development Programme. Hardcore Poor are those who cannot afford to meet their basic food requirements not to mind other basic necessities.

Add a dreadful disease like AIDS on top and these my poor long suffering ladies and gentlemen of reccesion riddled Ireland are the hardcore poor of Kenya.