Locations » Kenya
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Contact Information
IHF Kenya
Care of Kiplenge Ogola Advocates
Cath. Diocesel, Nakuru Secretariat, Stadium Road
PO BOX 864 Nakuru 20100 Kenya
An overview of our work in Kenya
The IHF run an education center and an orphanage in East Central Pokot, as well as organizing a famine feed once a month for over 1000 people as droughts have created an urgent lack of food.
The orphanage provides a home for 50 children, and the classrooms provide lessons in English, Mathematics, Computer and Leaderships skills for 250 students.
Volunteer Projects
- Working on the public display wall which contains finances and daily reports of the center.
- Teaching the children English, public speaking skills, music, art and at the same time learning Kenyan culture and language from the children so they also learn to teach.
- Cultivating the advisory council.
- Working on our August open house fundraiser for locals.
- Collecting school supplies and clothes from Kenyan communities and international schools, civic groups, etc.
- Working on our Medical clinic and outreach program.
- Working on famine feeds, survival program and sponsor letters are continuous monthly needs.
House Projects
- Fixing the kitchen, roof, bathrooms and schoolrooms.
- Painting the houses.
- Painting the entrance wall with a huge IHF sign.
- Posting signs to IHF at entry roads.
- Fixing plumbing system and electrical wiring.
- Working on the Peace Farm vegetable garden and compost area.
Center Reports
Sunday 20th, December 2009
The children at the center continued to compete in the community football tournament and are performing very well and so go to the semi-finals this week. We were able to perform a famine feed and survival program this past weekend in Pokot. We bought 32 chickens and 22 goats for the people there and delivered much needed cholera medication as there is an outbreak with many deaths occurring. Many of the children have returned back to the center after spending three weeks of their holiday at home. We now must prepare for Christmas.
Sunday 13th, December 2009
The children are enjoying their third week of the school holiday. A local secondary student helped to organize a football tournament for all the children at the center along with the children in the nearby community. The tournament is called the Nakuru West Football Peace Tournament, and our children are performing well in it. The children just love playing and watching football and we are lucky enough to have a pitch for the children to play on.
Sunday 29th, November 2009
The children finished their third term of school and so were very happy that they could return to their home, Pokot. Many stayed up the whole night because they were excited at the propsect of going home. We performed a survival and famine feed in Pokot so as to provide relief to those who are suffering in Pokot. Others chose to stay at the center to work harder at their schooling. Regardless, all of the children will return in time for the Christmas holiday.
Sunday 22nd, November 2009
The children just completed their end term exams and worked hard all week in preparation for them. They now only have one week until their school holiday and so are overjoyed at the thought of more free time. The classes at the center are continuing to go well, especially since further review helped the children for the exams.
Sunday 15th, November 2009
The children enjoyed a mini-holiday this week as Class 8 took their very important exams to determine their secondary school status. The children organized football and netball tournaments as well as helped in the garden and the kitchen. All five of our children in Class 8 were nervous about their exams but were happy with how they turned out. They will not know the results until after Christmas and so will not know until then what school they will attend for the new year.
Sunday 8th, November 2009
The children were overjoyed by the arrival of new staff members at the center in the form of teachers, nighttime caregivers, and daytime caregivers. This will ensure that the children have the individual attention and care that they need. Renovations are still underway to make sure that the center will be registered in December.
Sunday 1st, November 2009
The children just finished up their mid-term exams and are anxiously awaiting their results. They also enjoyed a nice outing to the Kenya Premier League football match in Nakuru’s town. The children loved watching football and cheered very loudly for the local team, the Ulinzi Stars. The game ended in 1-1, but the children enjoyed the outing tremendously anyway. Renovations are still underway at the center to complete the registration process. The children also finished up sponsor letters to thank all of their wonderful sponsors.
The Education Center
Out of all the schools in Kenya, even including those situated in the worst slum areas, the best students from our East Central Pokot tribes still only achieved test results within the lowest test score results in Kenya. Because of the need to search for food and water class attendance is also the lowest in the country, especially for girls.
The need for schooling is often little understood, female mutilation is still commonly practiced and the selling of girls as child brides and laborers is common especially when drought makes survival uncertain for the poorest. The going price for a child is four goats.
The quality of schooling is also poor and beating common by teachers, most of whom are not of the Pokot tribe. We are working hard to improve the lives of the community by bringing in teachers from around the world to help motivate not just the students, but also the teachers. Teacher morale is low, with alcoholism being common amongst the teachers who are often drunk in class.
Kenyan teachers sent to teach in the impoverished East Central Pokot area commonly feel that they have been sent to the lowest post and are ranked the lowest. There are also issues of guilt. Firstly, the teachers feel shame for their families for being sent to such a low teaching post. They also face the daily battle and guilt of often using their very meager salaries, (that they by tradition are supposed to send back home), to instead help the poor and often starving children of Pokot, and in the process angering their tribes back home.
There is also an unfortunate cycle of dependence created on the teachers' alcoholism in the Pokot area, as the drink is made from the cheap corn husks and therefore provides a source of income for the families within the area.
Our goal is to lift up not only the children's grades, but also the teachers' motivation, teaching quality, pride and image, in Kenya as well as world wide as they are people who dedicate themselves to help these struggling children.
Education is a means of keeping the children active and enabling them to meet other tribes. We also strive to create educational ideals and positive role models for the children to strive for, rather than joining the local delinquent youths who steal goats from other tribes as a way to deal with tribal issues such as water hole rights.
The classes also keep the children safe, especially girls, who are too weak to go in search of water on their nomadic trips each year when the water holes go dry.
These classes and our other programs in Kenya therefore serve many vital purposes, all very important to bring peace and development to the East Central Pokot area.
Letter from our volunteer Joseph to the children in Kenya
IHF has been busy doing famine feeds and working with the Pokot tribe of East Central Kenya. The East Pokot location is part of the Arid and Semi Arid regions of Kenya, surrounded by the Samburu, Turkana, Tugen and Marakwet tribes. Temperatures there tend to be very hot, usually around 114 Fahrenheit. The area is dusty, especially during the dry spell of the season. It has no permanent rivers, only scarce springs that only appear during heavy rains from neighboring districts.
I have seen far too many ancient tribes disappear during my twenty years of work and I am continuing to work hard to help those who still survive. IHF is currently focusing on the critical needs of the nomadic Pokots and Turkane tribes. At the present time the Turkane tribe is getting some assistance from the Sudan, but the people are still suffering, as are the Pokots, who receive no aid. These tribes live in the bush, maintaining their ancient cultures and ways, and thus are largely unseen and unknown by other people. When IHF brings food during a famine feed, many tribes people will walk over a day to get flour and cabbage. Sometimes we have to drive away with many still standing in line hungry. It is very painful to see so many of them with signs of advanced malnutrition - their hair has lost color, their eyes are yellow, their joints are swollen and their skin is drained of color.
The Kenyan food reserves are completely empty, not a bag of corn left. Our fifty orphans and three communities rely on us during this horrible famine. We have vowed to do everything we can to keep them alive during this drought and to help with long-term solutions. Without help the outcome is grim. The communal tribes end in up in city slums not knowing how to protect themselves and frequently their unknowing children are used and exploited.
We are determined to help the East Central Pokot. Please help us help them. There is so much you can do. Contact us today.
We want to thank our Board, Ans Dickie and British Airways, John Formacola, and Janice & Blake (for our famine trucks and so much more). As well as Linda from BR Pharmaceuticals for providing our Kenya projects with vitamins. To see the comments of some IHF Kenya Volunteers please visit our news section.
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