Holistic Poverty Mitigation
Over the past few years, we have been partnering with poor communities in the villages where we provide sponsorship to vulnerable children. We recognize that while the children are benefiting immensely through education and healthcare, a majority of the communities in those villages remain essentially poor. This is where Tumaini has been coming in with comprehensive poverty mitigation mechanisms. Specifically, we are partnering with primarily youth and women groups offering them a hand-up socio-economically. To ensure success, we only partner with groups which are legally incorporated as co-ops (locally called community-based organizations (CBOs) or self-help groups. Through these efforts, we reached a milestone last year by lifting over 30,000 people from extreme poverty. The net result of this comprehensive approach is that as vulnerable children are given opportunities through education and healthcare, their guardians and others in their communities are being helped socio-economically. In the developing world where nearly a billion people live on $1.95 a day, these small efforts are making a huge difference in the areas we serve.
Koma Wisi CBO is one of our recent partners. They started a few years back by meeting regularly to raise small amounts of money to meet some basic needs. Like most co-ops, they began by doing table banking (where each member contributes set amounts monthly and the money is put into a savings bank account) and merry-go-round (where each member contributes set amounts weekly with the total being given to a member rotationally). Our approach with these groups is to partner in projects that they themselves have identified and assist them to realize higher economic gains. Ordinarily, our assistance falls within three broad categories of grants, training & technical support, and small micro-loans. Over the past several months, Koma Wisi has launched a poultry project. George, our socio-economic coordinator, has been working with the group to reach their economic goals. They have been offered a grant, training, and technical support. Part of the technical support provided was site visits to other successful poultry farmers. The group now has 200 chicks and now two months into the project, the potential for yield in eggs looks promising.
From time to time, we host all the CBO leaders from across the county to our main campus for special training as well as peer learning. The event for the spring season was held this week. The goal was to train the leaders on the critical concepts of leadership roles and entrepreneurship.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to our socio-economic efforts. You are lifting entire communities from extreme poverty and the testimonies are endless. We have more communities on the waiting list. The beauty of these efforts is that any amount of donation helps and return on investment is typically guaranteed. If you would like to make a designated donation for socio-economic development, please follow the online link or send a designated contribution.
Sincerely,
Stanley Mutunga
President/CEO
COVID-19 Update:
As of Wednesday, January 20, 2021
The daily positivity rate has remained below 5% this week.
There is a total of 99,444 confirmed positive cases to date, an increase of 2.046 which is lower compared to previous weeks.
A total of 1,736 deaths, an increase of 42 in a week (which is lower compared to previous weeks).
The cases continue to be reported from across all the 47 counties.
There is a nightly curfew (from 10:00pm to 4:00am) which will continue through the end of March.
The government has announced the launch of vaccinations beginning next month.
Since the country-wide school re-openings, there has not been a spike of cases despite the challenges with social distance.
We continue to thank God for His protection. All the children and the families that we support remain safe. Our staff are all doing well and continuing to serve.