Projects

Named in honor of two of the most respected individuals in the Vihiga area, the Bunyoli Fund provides monetary support for primary and secondary school students who are AIDS orphans or who come from backgrounds of extreme poverty. Each year a committee of teachers and parents from the local primary and secondary school recommends needy students for these awards.

At the primary school level, the Bunyoli awards provide school uniforms to selected students in Standard 1-8. Though the Kenyan government has decreed that primary schooling should be "free and universal," many financial barriers to school attendance remain. This fund helps ensure that the poorest children in the area are not denied the opportunity to further their education.

At the secondary level, these awards provide need-based financial aid to meritorious students who otherwise would be forced to give up their formal education. Nearly half of primary school students who finish Standard 8 are unable to continue their schooling, and the primary reason is lack of school fees. These awards go to students who plan to attend the local day school, thus allowing them to live at home and remain a part of the community.

Joshua Bunyoli Egunza was born in 1930 in Vigina and began teaching primary school in 1956 in North Maragoli. He was promoted quickly because of his work ethic, warm interpersonal style and leadership capabilities and served for 17 years as headmaster of schools at Chambale, Ingidi, Kerongo and Igakala. In addition to a position as recording clerk of Vigina Monthly Meeting, he served as presiding clerk of the East African Yearly Meeting of Friends. He was among the founders of Vigina Secondary School and is now a respected elder and advisor on clan matters. Sadly, in the 1990s, Joshua was diagnosed with diabetes and was struck with blindness, but he still attends clan functions and is a highly respected elder in the Vihiga area.

Salome Tsindoli Bunyoli was born in 1935 at Chavogere in Sabatia Division. She attended Kaimosi Girls Boarding School for two years and then joined Sangalo Science and Technology Institute where she learned agriculture and majored in animal and poultry rearing. In addition to raising a family of six children, she served in various capacities as church secretary, treasurer, and senior counselor. Known for her humble style and kind heart, she took care of orphans and widows and was always ready to share whatever little she had with the community. In 2000 she was awarded the highest honor by the East African Yearly Meeting of Friends, marked by the lighting of a pressure lantern at a public ceremony. Tragically, she died on June 24, 2003, after suffering from hypertension and spending nearly two months in a coma. Her funeral attracted the highest number of mourners the village of Vigina has ever seen.

Because education is the cornerstone of human development in any society, our local board of governors has given highest priority to improving the quality of schooling for village children. Though Kenya has been relatively successful in expanding educational access, the state of school facilities in remote rural areas is often lamentable. At Vigina Primary School , for instance, up to 50 children per class sit three to a desk in classrooms with dirt floors. The teachers' room and principal's office are cramped and virtually without furniture, electricity and running water are absent, and pencils, notebooks, textbooks and recreational equipment are in short supply.

Our first projects at Vigina Primary School included replacement of two dilapidated and overflowing latrines and repair of the water tank . The new latrines are far more sanitary than the existing ones and the repaired water tank allows teachers and students to use rain water instead of water from the stream, which contains a high level of microbes.

Primary school classrooms are exceedingly cramped, with up to 50 students sitting three to a desk on dirt floors.

We were able to support the construction of 50 new desks by a local fundi (carpenter) for use at the primary school. We have also purchased new furniture for the teachers room.

Finally, we augmented a community fundraiser ( harambee ) for new chemistry and biology classrooms at Vigina Secondary School bypurchasing storage cabinets, gas outlets (connected to a propane tank), sinks (connected to a water tank) and equipment for the new science laboratory.

Villages in Western Kenya are almost always marked by the presence of a church, a legacy of the intense missionization that took place during the colonial period. In addition to their religious function, churches provide an important meeting place because they are usually the largest building in the village. The village of Vigina hosts a small Quaker church which sits adjacent to the primary and secondary schools.

Several years ago community members embarked on an ambitious project to build a new and larger structure on the site of the existing church. These renovations were partially completed with funds donated by members themselves. We supported the completion of this project through support for cement for the floor, windows and latches, doors, and paint. Though still in need of more benches, the new community meeting hall is now in constant use for student assemblies, voter registration, end-of-term exams, church services and meetings, weddings and other community events.

Most people in Maragoli face major obstacles in obtaining adequate health care. In the U.S. , for example, there are 341 people per doctor, but in Kenya the average is 10,150 people per doctor. World Bank figures show that 10% of Kenyan children don't live to see age 5, even though many of their diseases are preventable.

Though the government operates a hospital in Mbale, it is not adequately equipped or staffed to meet everyone's needs. From the standpoint of community members, this hospital is not only too far away (nearly 10 miles), it is expensive and often people are unable to afford the medications or treatments prescribed by the doctor.

Consistent with our emphasis on supporting sustainable projects that will provide tangible benefits to the entire community, we are currently supporting the construction of a village health clinic. Coordinated by the Vigedze Women's Group, we are reviving a project that stalled some years ago due to lack of funding. The inauguration of the project began in 2005 with a meeting at the construction site between MACODEF officials and representatives of the Vigedze Women's Group.

Community members have contributed their own labor to this project by carrying water. providing meals for workers, and spreading stones ) before the cement is put on the floor.

When finished, the health clinic will provide such essential services as prenatal care, immunizations, and treatment for malaria, tuberculosis and typhoid fever. It will also be a center for health education, providing important information about HIV/AIDS prevention, nutrition, sanitation, water quality and malaria prevention. By disseminating educational information, the hope is to give community members the knowledge and power to protect themselves against illness. Our goal is that this facility will be maintained and run entirely by local health care providers.

The impact of AIDS on village life in the Maragoli region has truly been devastating. It is almost impossible to find an extended family untouched by this disease. Because AIDS strikes down young adults in the prime of their lives, it has left nearly 20 percent of the local primary school students as partial or total AIDS orphans. AIDS has also hastened modifications in customs such as widow inheritance and male circumcision. Because AIDS is highly stigmatized, many victims suffer in silence. Our projects in this area have focused on both outreach to affected individuals and prevention aimed at young people.

In addition to support for school fees and uniforms for AIDS orphans described above, we have provided small grants of about $120 each for medicine, food and income-generating activities to individuals who are HIV positive. These individuals took the initiative to get voluntary testing and to visit the MACODEF office as a group to put together an application for support.

For example, Leah's husband died from inheriting a wife who had HIV; she now lives in a grass hut (which, throughout Maragoli, is more and more a sign of poverty) and supports five children and four grandchildren. With the funds she received, she is selling vegetables and paraffin to generate more income for food and medicine. Alice, a single mother, is deaf and dumb and depends on her parents, who do not work, for support. With our grant, she bought a sewing machine and has been making clothes to sell; as a result, both she and her daughter are in better health now. Dorothy contracted the virus from her husband who lives and works in Nairobi . She has begun selling secondhand clothes, and the business is doing very well. It provides money for food for her children and medicine for herself, and her health has improved greatly. As word of these small victories gets out, more HIV-positive individuals have come forward and have created a support group for individuals with AIDS that is facilated by our project coordinator, Joyce Adisa Bunyoli.

The best long-term solution to the AIDS crisis, of course, is prevention. One avenue we have pursued in this vein are small grants to the Vigina Youth Football Team . This village soccer team is comprised mostly of teenage boys who have left school but have been unable to find employment. These young men are at a very high risk of contracting and spreading the HIV virus. Our small grants provide new shoes, uniforms, and equipment for some members of the team, thus creating a viable recreational option for idle youth. More importantly, the grants also sponsor workshops on HIV/AIDS awareness for team members led by qualified medical personnel.

Our main vehicle for facilitating income-generating activities among community members is a micro-loan program. Our goal is to put small amounts of money in the hands of capable people who are unable to qualify for bank loans because they have no collateral. For our initial loans, we have supported projects proposed by existing mutual aid societies. Known colloquially as “merry-go-rounds, mutual aid societies are informally organized groups of people who meet weekly or monthly to pool their resources. Because the mutual aid societies already have a functioning leadership structure and can provide group mentoring and oversight of projects, they are effective vehicles for implementing our micro-loan program.

The rationale for the granary project came from the observation that middlemen typically buy maize at throwaway prices during the harvest season, store it, and then sell it to community members at inflated prices during times of scarcity. The Granary Self-Help Group applied for a loan to enable its 10 group members to buy large bags of maize at the cheaper prices. The maize is dried and stored at a small shop rented by the group and then sold back to community members during the off-season at prices that are affordable. The grain bank is thus a mechanism for improving food security and availability and giving poorer members of the community access to more affordable maize.

The Inua Self Help Group is based in Vigedze Village and is composed of eight women and seven men who have come together to improve their economic situation. Due to prevailing poverty rates, the group members rarely have any disposable income and they are unable to access any credit due to lack of collateral. Most of the members, however, do raise indigenous cattle and chickens, and they applied to MACODEF for a loan to upgrade their animals through the raising of cross-breeds. We have extended loans to five members of INUA (these recipients were chosen by lottery by the group itself) for the purchase of quality livestock or day-old chicks.

Once purchased, the group takes responsibility for preparing animal food and feeding troughs and inviting veterinary personnel for routine check up and treatment of animals. Regular inspections are conducted by the committee for mentoring and benchmarking and to ensure that money is not diverted to any other use apart from the intended project. The goal is for each member to pay off his or her loan by the end of one year.

Another mutual aid society that has received funds from MACODEF is comprised of individuals who are physically challenged in one way or another. These persons typically face stigma and discrimination in their daily lives, and they are sometimes taken advantage of because of their impairments. Yet most are capable of engaging in small business activities, such as the selling of fruits or vegetables in this photo of Biliha.

We have provided each of the individuals in the Physically Challenged Group with loans or grants of approximately $75 each to for income-generating activities. Our local board of governors, which knows the situation of each individual quite well, made the determination in each case as to whether a loan or a grant should be given. To provide a glimpse of the tangible ways in which group members are using their funds, we have attached below the budget that was submitted by this group as part of their application for funding.

No	NAME	KIND OF BUSINESS	COSTING	TOTAL
1	Misoliza Walks only with support of two sticks	Petty Trade (i).Selling of dry maize (mahindi) Mahindi sack @1600 each (ii). Ripe bananas @400 (iii). Mangoes @400 net (iv). Millet 1 sack @2000 (v). Ground nuts one sack @3000 (vi). Transport @1000	1600 x 2 400 400 2000 3000	3,200 400 400 2,000 3,000 1,000 10,000
2.	Silas Njoro Cant stand or walk, use wheel chair	Sewing and repair of shoes Materials @10,000	10000	10,000
3.	Loice Evereso Has one hand as the other one has only two fingers.	Small Business & Poultry Rearing (i). Vegetables @600 (ii). Dry Maize @1600 (iii). Omena @ 1000 x 2 (iv). Chicks day old @3000 (v). Feeds	600 1600 2000 3000 2800	600 1,600 2,000 3,000 2,800 10,000
4.	Laban Sasi Walks but leans on one side	Making and Selling Bricks (i). Trees @ 5000 (ii). Labour @3000 (iii). Shelter @2000	5000 3000 2000	5,000 3,000 2,000 10,000
5.	Jane Munene Blind totally	(i).Purchase of 2 grade goats @3000 each (ii). Buy traditional hens @2000 (iii). Purchase feeds @2000	3000 x 2   2000 2000	6,000   2,000 2,000 10,000
6	Esther Mucheneke Blind	(i). Purchase 1 ordinary cow @10000	10000.	10,000
7.	Aliviza Blind	Dairy Farming Purchase 1 ordinary cow @ 10,000.	10000	10,000
8	Mrs. Osako Limps on one leg	Poultry Keeping (i). Chicks 50@75/each (ii). Chicken mash 70kg @ 1200 (iii). Growers mash 140kg @1000 (iv). Layers 20kg @1200 (v). Drugs@450	3750 1200 1000 3600 450	3,750 1,200 1,000 3,600 450 10,000

In spite of adequate rainfall from March to December and the presence of many small streams and springs, most community members do not have access to safe water. The main sources of water are springs, streams and rainwater, but each of these is unreliable Unless they are preparing tea, most people do not boil drinking water because of the scarcity of firewood. The preferred method of water storage is clay pots.

There are 11 springs in the Vigedze and Vigina area, all of which are unprotected to varying degrees and thus subject to multiple sources of contamination. In two of these sites (Salano and Suguta), shallow wells have been dug by hand where the water comes up out of the ground, resulting in small, stagnant pools. At several other sites, pipes have been installed, but the water flow is slow and erosion has made it difficult to fill buckets with water. Sometimes the wait to fill a one bucket can be as much as two hours. In general, the springs are not easily accessible. Some are surrounded by steep slopes and are very difficult to access while carrying a 15-20 liter container. Collecting water is seen as the work of women and children, who typically walk ¼ to ½ a mile to and from the nearest water source.

Moreover, the springs tend to be contaminated with waste from both humans and livestock. Baseline water quality sampling in a nearby village, for instance, revealed high levels of fecal coliform bacteria. Informal reports from the local community point to a high frequency of diarrhea, and diarrheal diseases are known to be a major cause of mortality among infants and toddlers. Finally, some of the streams and springs dry up during the dry season from January to March. Eucalyptus trees that grow near the springs are partially responsible for this, as their root systems require large quantities of water.

Unfortunately, very few homes are equipped with water catchment systems. As a result, most rain water is wasted. Because thunderstorms are often quite intense, rain storms often wash away top soil and cause erosion as well. The following projects aim to improve access to clean water:

Project One: Rehabilitation of Springs

The Lusiola Environmental Group has proposed to improve water quality at the 11 springs by building or repairing cement foundations, installing efficient pipes and protecting the springs from livestock. They will accomplish this through the following steps: the springs will be dug out by hand (over roughly a 15’ x 15’ area) to expose rcoal will be laid down to act as a natural filter; a concrete wall with two pipes extending from it will be constructed at the water source; the drainage area will be dug out and reinforced with concrete to prevent erosion; several cement steps will be constructed to improve ease of access to the spring; and, finally, the spring will be fenced to keep livestock from entering the area..

Community members will provide food, sand and stones for each project. These in-kind contributions will total Ksh 275,000 (US$3,819), or approximately one-third of the total cost of the project

Project Two: Rainwater Harvest Systems

In order to minimize the number of people going to streams to collect water, the Lusiola Environmental Group has proposed the installation of rainwater harvesting systems for 33 “semi-permanent houses” with tin roofs. Depending on the season and the number of people in the household, rooftop gutters draining into a 1000-liter water tank can meet between 25%-75% of a household’s water needs during the rainy season. Water collected in this way prevents long lines from forming at the springs; it saves backbreaking work for women and children; and it is especially useful for older men and women who cannot go to the rivers or springs. Rainwater can also be given to animals. After the rainwater has been collected, it will be treated with chlorine so that it is safe for drinking.

Project Three: Improvement of Latrines

Contamination of the water supply from human waste is a major problem, and the Lusiola Environmental Group has proposed to improve the latrines of the poorest segment of the village population. In these cases, shallow holes are dug in the ground and there is no permanent structure or roof to cover the openings. Instead, fibers from banana trees are used as a covering on the sides, or branches and mud are used to create an enclosure over the latrine. In both cases, however, cleaning the latrines and keeping them free of flies and parasites is extremely difficult. The plan is to use cement, wire mesh and metal to improve the sanitary conditions of these latrines by making them easier to clean.