„Gääße unn Hiehner“ – Father Shirima berichtet

Father Firminus Shirima hat über die Auswirkungen unserer „Gääße- unn Hiehner“-Aktion einen 16-seitigen Bericht geschickt. Wir dokumentieren ihn auszugsweise. Er gibt einen sehr guten Einblick über die Lebensbedingungen der Menschen, die von den „Apostles of Jesus“ und deren „Medical Health Center“ betreut werden.  Für das MHC haben wir ja das Ambulanzfahrzeug finanzieren können.

FINAL REPORT OF GOATS AND CHICKEN PROJECT FROM AJAM TO AKTION AFRIKA
INTRODUCTION

Women and Girls in Kenya hold untapped potential. Women and Girls in rural communities of Kajiado County, in particular, have been left behind in education and development. One in two girls in rural Maasai community areas married by age fifteen, which is 4 times the child marriage rate in urban areas. Over 80 percent of girls in rural Kajiado County have undergone the harmful practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), compared to just 8 percent in the capital city of Nairobi. Similar trends persist across development indicators, including educational attainment.
Over 45% of women and girls in Maasai communities experience domestic or sexual violence, 53% are forced into early marriages and 65% of women and girls go without menstrual management products due to poverty. The forces that constrain Women and Girls are many. They remain underrepresented in decisionmaking processes at all levels. They spend long hours collecting water and firewood. These and other household chores limits school attendance and work options.
Holistic, girl-centred, women centred and community-driven programs are needed for creating lasting, sustainable change in rural Maasai Communities.
AJAM works with community leaders, mothers’ groups, families and the County Government to change Socio-Economic Norms and create an environment in which girls can thrive through provision of a high-quality, empowering education to girls.
Girls and Women’s Education is central to effective Women Empowerment process. AJAM’s rights commitment to promote and protect girls’ rights to thrive rise at the very heart of our mission and strategy to support community action, particularly among those most vulnerable and marginalized and build healthier communities.
With this project, our focus will be on the issues that are standing in the way of Maasai Girls’ and women’s development progress including Forced Marriages, early Pregnancies, gender Based Violence and Domestic Violence and Forced hard-Labour. Empowering the women and girls to become free to chase their dreams and aspirations in life.

1. THE PURPOSE OF THE GOATS AND CHICKEN PROJECT

The main Aim of Goats and chicken support is to build Women’s strengths and assist them to become less vulnerable and more resilient to the impact of poverty and diseases. We ultimately hope that through this project will help the households to achieve sustainable livelihoods also food security.
We target the poorest homesteads especially among the Maasai women and girls who are most vulnerable and at risk as they totally depend on men for their survival. This is indeed a very special project as it targets Maasai women and girls who are normally prevented from owning land in their communities and more often unable to grow and sell enough produce to feed themselves and their children.
But with this project, they will be able to raise a couple of goats and chicken which they can get eggs to eat and also to sell and boost their financial status. They can also earn enough to trade up for a goat or two for a cow and for many other options as the households income grows.
What we have seen on the ground is that goats and other livestock truly are a spring board out of poverty among Maasai women and especially those who are impoverished households. Goats help more women get into farming or other income generating activities as goats are more resilient to droughts and climate change. Goats reproduce very quickly and relatively easily as they provide milk which has medicinal value. This therefore a livelihood project that will increase women’s capacities to provide for themselves, for their households and possibly lift themselves and their children out of poverty. The project will also aim at narrowing gender gaps in Education, Training and empowerment as we work towards building positive changes among girls and women in the Maasai communities as we create safe spaces for girls and women so they can live free from retrogressive cultural and social barriers to the advancement of girls in Education through partnership with Mother’s Groups supporting Girls Education.
And finally we also aim at supporting the mobilization of women and formation of mothers’ groups to equip them with the knowledge and skills to protect their girls against all retrogressive cultural and social ills in their communities.

2. THE PROFILES OF THE SELECTED VULNERABLE MAASAI WOMEN AND GIRLS WHO RECEIVED GOATS AND CHICKENS DONATED BY ACTION AFRIKA

Situation Analysis They come from a very poor family in the remote Maasai village called OLOONKURUMAN about 75 kilometers from Kiserian Town in Kajiado West Sub-County. The father of Naisoi has a total of 4 wives and her mother is the third wife with six children. (Two girls and 4 boys). Her only sister is 16 years and she has already undergone FGM, given for marriage to a 45 years old man and she has already given birth to one child. Her mother tried to stop the father from giving her away for marriage in vain. This man has a total of 20 children from other wives and most of the girls have been given away while very young. Naisoi is very much at risk of being given away if she will not proceed to the secondary school soonest possible according to her mother. Her sister was given away because her father needed to get some cows to survive and pay dowry for his sons. The mother has promised to work with us to ensure that the girls will not be given away if she is lucky to go to school. She will give us all the necessary information so that we can work together to protect her daughter. They have received a total of 3 goats donated by Aktion Afrika and Leah Seyiano will take care that they multiply very fast so that she can support her daughters education

Ms. Leah Seyiano Tipaya and her daughter Naisoi Tipaya outside their Manyatta

Situation Analysis Mary Kamuasi and Hellen are from a Maasai Manyatta called Enkereiyan about 68 kilometers from Kiserian and both parents are totally illiterate and they only speak the Maasai Language. Though the husband is still young, he has difficulties in hearing and do not follow any conversation well. He has two wives and 8 children. The mother of Hellen is the first wife and Hellen is her first child in her family. She has siblings – 2 girls and 2 boys and herself making a total of 5 children from her mother. Like any other girl of her age in the Maasai community, Helen is at great risk of being given away unless she is sent to the secondary school. Hellen herself is against Early Marriage and she values Education more than anything else in life. She told us that she will run away from home if her father suggests to her to get married. Hopefully, we shall be able to support her determination to the end. We have supported the mother with a total of 3 goats donated by Akion Afrika to help her have some source of income by raising these goats and be able to pay school fees and other needs for her daughter.

Ms.Mary Kamuasi and her daughter Hellen Kamuasi

Situation Analysis The husband of Peninah died 2 years ago, and he had only one wife, the mother of Mercy with 7 children, 4 girls, and 3 boys. Mercy is her second born child. The sister of Mercy who is the first born was given away two years ago at the age of 15 and now she has two children already.
Currently, the other siblings are still in primary school but barely managing and most of the time are not in class due to lacking essential school needs like books, pens, school uniforms etc. The mother has expressed the fear that if Mercy cannot proceed to the secondary school, then the relatives of her husband will come and give her away for marriage so that they can also get cows from her. It is unfortunate that the mother has no any support system whatsoever. She never went to any school herself. Mercy truly needs a lot of protection. She is extremely anxious of her situation and looking forward for any help to get her out of the situation she is currently facing.
They come from a remote village called Emboliey 85KM from Kiserian town. The mother received a total of 3 goats donated by Aktion Afrika. This is very huge support to her, for her to be able to educate her daughter mercy and her siblings.

Ms. Peninah Masana and her daughter Mercy Nashipae

Situation Analysis The husband of Kipiron has 5 wives with 35 children. The mother of Gladys is the 4th wife with 7 children. Gladys is the 4th born among the seven children of her mother (4 girls and 3 boys) her sisters were already given away for Early Marriage after undergoing FGM and now they have two children each.
The father of Gladys prefers boys to girls but even his sons are not in school for long. He has given most of her girls away for Early Marriage in exchange for cows so as to be able to pay dowry for his sons. The mother of Gladys is promising to defend and support her daughter to advance in education and she hopes that Gladys will be the only child in her house who will save the family from poverty after her university education. She hopes that someone will come forth to support her throughout in her education. She is willing to fight for her daughter with all her strength.
Ms. Kipiron received a total of 3 goats donated by Aktion Afrika. This is a big encouragement to her as she can now support her daughter’s education till the end.

This is Ms. Kipiron Lokisa and her daughter Gladys Naisiae from Emboliey Village and their family is extremely poor.

Susan Koyias is the mother of 6 children and she has two daughters Margaret Seneiya Lankisa and Grace Katetei. The husband is now an invalid and is paralyzed, no movement. Susan is struggling to feed and educate the children on her own without any help. They come from a very poor place where the drought is very frequent and no water, no vegetation and food security is a very big challenge. She received 3 goats donated by Aktion Afrika. This will help her to improve the household food security and possible educate her daughters from the proceeds from the goats.

Margaret Seneiya (centre) Grace Katetei (Right)

3. DISTRIBUTION OF GOATS, SHEEP AND CHICKEN PHOTOS

 

This is Ms. Lilau Kiatat Nkalo, she is a widow from Emboliey village. She has 6 children and only one is in school and she is truly struggling with life in educating her daughter who is very much interested in education so that she can liberate her mother and siblings from the terrible poverty in their family.
She received a total of 3 goats donated by Aktion Afrika and this will help her in educating her daughter Hannah Sancho.

Ms. Priscilla Njambi receives 2 sheep and 2 goats donated by Aktion Afrika, from Veronicah Sirote, the social worker from AJAM. Priscilla is a widow who lives in Olteyani village. Because of her poverty challenges she was not able to educate her children and for now she only depend on a very small piece of land where she plants few vegetables that she depends on to survive. She receives 2 sheep and two goats and she is extremely encouraged and committed to take care of the animals and she hopes that they will multiply to enhance her economic situation sooner than later. She lives with 4 orphans left to her by her daughter who died from AIDS.

Margaret Naserian from Olooseos receiving some of the sheep donated by Aktion Afrika. She received a total of 2 sheep to help her rear them that she could support her daughter to continue with her education and also at the certain level help her improve her food security at the household level. The area of Olooseos is rather cold and therefore the sheep survive better than the goats.
Margaret lives with her grandchildren who are HIV-positive. Her daughter is deceased.

Gladys Mokeira lives in a slum area of Kitengela and she is the mother of five children trying to educate them on her own. She received a total of 14 local chickens which can survive in this area without much diseases. She works hard to make sure they produce in big numbers so that this can become her main livelihood support. She will continue educating her children from the proceeds of these chickens and also feed them with some of the eggs from the chickens..

CONCLUSION: THE WAY FORWARD: AN APPEAL
“When you uplift a woman, you uplift the whole village and indeed the community”
As we extend our deepest gratitude and appreciation of the support from all the members of Aktion Afrika, for making this project a reality of bringing a meaningful change in many of the vulnerable households and in a very special way Empowerment of women and girls.
Even as we look forward to a great success, we are still very much aware that over half of Maasai girls do not complete their secondary school education.
Many families are unable to afford school fees, uniforms and scholastic materials. Lack of basic nutrition keeps hundreds of girls from performing well in school and many remote places of Kajiado County lack buildings and water resources that enable learning.
For school-aged girls, period poverty is so problematic that poor Maasai girls miss an average of 4 days each month. In addition, they often face risks to their health and self-esteem.
To address these needs, AJAM continues to seek partnerships that may provide sponsorships for both boarding and day school children – including meals, uniforms and scholastic materials. Through these partnerships we may be able to effectively build responsive services based on the unique needs of and underserved in the community – women and girls. Such efforts include addressing unmet needs such as an emergency shelters, counseling services, puberty and HIV education to support students’ knowledge and self-esteem; after school programmes, job skills training and social enterprises for women.
We keenly support education for the girls and women because we know that it provides a key path out of poverty.
To complete the full cycle of Empowerment, we also involve the community leadership in training programmes and forums to develop awareness, dialogue and strategies for driving change within families and communities to help community leaders accelerate human rights practices within families and communities to enable all to live without violence and in dignity.

Partnering With Communities to Expanding Opportunities for Girls and Women among the Maasai people
Euro 20 provides a girl a year with menstrual management products and be in school
Euro 100 provides a child a year of daily nutrition
Euro 600 provides a Maasai girl with a year boarding school
Euro 3,500 provides a community and women with human rights training.

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FINANCIAL STATEMENT
Income:
Received from AKTION AFRIKA Euro 2,500.00
Exchange Rate @Kshs 110 per 1 Euro
Total of Kshs. 275,000.00

Expenditure:
1. 20 Goats @ Kshs 8,000 = Kshs 160,000.00 2. 4 sheeps @Kshs 8,000 = Kshs 32,100.00 3. 84 Chickens @Kshs 700 = Kshs 58,800.00 4. Transportation of the animals = Kshs. 16,000.00 5. Transport for the social workers = Kshs 12,200.00
Total Expenditure = Kshs 279,000.00 = Euro 2,536.30