1 Abou tKilele Foundation
Kilele
Foundation is a community-based organization registered with the Ministry of
Culture and Social Services in Kenya in 2002. The organization’s area of
operation is Machakos County in Kenya with a concentration of its grassroots
activities at Katangi Ward. Its strategic mission is to initiate
and implement community development projects that are people-centered, gender
responsive and socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
The organization is led by an executive director assisted by a lean team
of professionals and a board of directors. However, Kilele Foundation has an
advisory board composed of local and international advisors including Tatjana
Martinoska (Qatar), Beatrice Njenga (African Union, Ethiopia), Kelly Coladarci
(USA)
The organization initiates and implements projects across various
sectors that include water & sanitation, health, agriculture, education
environmental conservation and civic education. Through the support of Global
Philathrophy Alliance (GPA), Akiba Mashinani Trust (AMT) and Akiba Uhaki
Foundation (AUF), Kilele Foundation is implementing a Youth Agribusiness
Initiative, Village Microcredit Scheme(VIMISE) and Institutional
Strengthening/Capacity Building projects respectively. The organization through
a cost-sharing arrangement with households is also implementing a Solar
Mashinani Initiative, a project meant to eliminate the use of kerosene lamps
and instead introduce the use of solar lamps in 4800 households by 2016.
2 The Problem Statement
Many
rural women in Kenya are bearing the heavy burden of poverty. While there is
enough evidence that more women than men in the rural areas work longer hours,
they are the lowest income earners and hence live in poverty. More specific,
most women in the rural in Katangi Ward in Machakos County in Kenya have
replaced men in their households as providers of food to their families.
Over
90% of the women in the area are wholly responsible for the education of their
children from primary to secondary school education. The women find it
difficult to educate their children in middle level and other tertiary
institutions for economic reasons. Besides, you will find many women
constructing shelters (usually grass-thatched houses) for their families and
utilized their merry-go round income to pay for healthcare bills for their
children. These actions do not redeem women economically but only serve to
impoverish them.
The
reality of women-headed households in Katangi Ward has been aggravated by the
overindulgence in alcohol abuse by men. As men spend hours in non-productive
activities, women are usually involved in subsistence farming, small household
businesses (selling vegetables and rearing poultry) and merry-go rounds in
order to provide for their children. These activities have not eased the
economic burden on the shoulders of women in the area.
For
a long time, there has been no development assistance (there is no record of
government-sponsored initiatives targeting women in the area) reaching this
community. The women have borne the consequences arising from the gaps in
development funding especially on the area of economic empowerment. With a new
threat of increasing cases of new HIV infections in Katangi Ward, the women in
the area are expected to suffer more in both economic and health terms.
The
foregoing economic realities facing women in Katangi Ward call for long-term
and sustainable economic empowerment interventions that will enhance the
capacity of the women to take care of their families but also to increase their
economic voice. Well thought-out economic empowerment interventions will help
to generate sustainable solutions to food, water, health, education and housing
household needs.
