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The Volunteer Programme
HIV and AIDS is becoming an increasingly common social and developmental issue and sadly these children do not receive much help from larger community development projects due to their social isolation as a result of the stigma of AIDS. Both orphaned children and widows in Kenya often severely struggle as a result of the death of a parent as the families resources have usually been used up treating the illness.
When a parent or spouse dies they are often leaving behind eight or more children ranging in age from toddlers up to 16 years old to care for themselves and each other. Consequently their living conditions deteriorate and orphans/widows often find that they have to scavenge for food.
This programme provides you with the opportunity to get involved in an important community development scheme, where you will help young children at a rural orphanage and also take part in an outreach scheme for impoverished families.
The Kenya Orphanage
The orphanage currently cares for around 30 orphans aged between 8 months and 16 years old. Most of the children have been affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Kenya and require a lot of love, support and attention that currently they do not receive due to a lack of staff. This orphanage is in great need of volunteer assistance and also ideas. It is extremely basic, lacking vital resources and needs your help in interacting with the children, whilst also providing stimulating and exciting games and education programmes for them.
The children all sleep at the orphanage and receive their education here, so you must be prepared to help in whichever area is most in need at the time. We also advise you to raise some funds before you arrive so that you can buy some books, toys, games and other items for the children. Attached to the orphanage is also a small school, which currently welcomes approximately 60 vulnerable children aged between 3 years and 16 years old. With only four teachers here, the children receive little one-to-one education and extra tuition, which you will be responsible for providing.
The Community Outreach Project
During your time on the programme there may also be the opportunity for you to get involved in the local and long-established Kenya Outreach programme for vulnerable families. You will need to organise with your project coordinator the hours you would like to work here and they will provide you with transport to take you to the outreach sites.
The Outreach programme involves the provision of relief supplies such as food rations, clothing and bedding to vulnerable families and working with children with special needs. The outreach programme targets around 150 vulnerable families and there are a number of activities and projects that need volunteer assistance in these extremely deprived areas of the local community.
Volunteer Activities
You will help these children from impoverished backgrounds to carry the burden that the AIDS epidemic has left them, since taking their parents. The orphans are unofficially “adopted” by the programme and the older children are taught various income-generating skills to ensure their new family’s survival. The programme also provides the orphans with proper shelter, food and school fees so that they can go back to school. You role is varied, according to the requirements of each family or local community you are working within.
Once you arrive on the programme, you will be able to choose amongst the various activities and areas and focus your time on a specific programme. The programme is made up of basic steps and you will be able to work on one of the following:
- Providing Shelter: Help build or repair homes so that families have adequate and safe shelter. This provides children with a healthy place in which to live and begin their rehabilitation. One home will cost approximately £100 to buy in materials.
- Providing Food: Help donate food to families, strengthening their health and creating a bond of trust between the local communities and families. You will provide basic food items to children, through donations and any outside funds.
- Agricultural Training: With their basic needs met, orphans will now feel ready to embrace new projects. Orphans will be trained in sustainable agricultural techniques including basic land preparation, planting, crop care and harvesting knowledge for traditional crops. Other skills will also be taught, such as crop rotation, water conservation and the use of organic fertilizers. Any help in this area is vital and much appreciated!
- Providing Emotional Support and Counselling: Staff at this project provide counselling to the orphans, to help them come to terms with the loss of their parents and the fears of their future. They will also create mentoring between families who have been successful. You will be expected to help in these areas and provide a lot of support to the children.
- Economic Empowerment: This project has established many economic empowerment schemes, which will enable orphans to generate their own incomes to support themselves and their family, creating a greater sense of self-respect and effective self-sufficiency. Some schemes include bee-keeping projects, fishponds and chicken projects for meat and egg sales and a fantastic ‘bike taxi’ business. One bike costs approximately £30.
- School Education: This project has built its own primary school. Due to funding, there are only 4 classrooms, built with non-permanent materials, whilst they wait to construct the main building. Your help is needed to teach these children their classes and offer extra support to the teachers. The school is aimed at helping orphans and poorer children who are excluded from the regular institutions.
- Vocational Training: You could be helpful in imparting additional computer skills to the IT teachers and possibly start up some computer lessons with the orphans and youths in the nearby local vocational centres, developed through this programme. Tailoring and dressmaking is also taught here, so any skills in this area are greatly appreciated.
- Sexual Health Education: This class is made up of project staff, foreign volunteers, pupils or students from local schools and teachers from the schools, discussing body development, sexual health and AIDS. Each of the participants is required to give his/her views about different issues that are discussed. The same programme is also undertaken in the local communities with the aim of raising awareness to the HIV and Aids pandemic whilst also reducing the stigmas associated with this illness.
- Water Sanitation: This programme involves the protection of water springs to avail clean drinking water to the communities. You can help identify areas that need safer drinking water and assist in building the new water springs, which the whole community can benefit from.
Project Support
Throughout your stay in Kenya you will have the support and guidance of our Project Manager James, the project coordinators and the owner of the orphanage. The project coordinators are often very busy, so you must undertake this programme with a sense of initiative and independence, to work to your own motivation and ideas a lot of the time.
In addition you will have access to a 24 hour emergency contact number so you can contact one of our UK staff at any time should you need to.
Project Orientation
Once you have been met and picked up from the airport, you will be taken to the project to settle in. Your coordinators will guide you through the project and provide you with a basic understanding of the local cultures and customs of the area and what to expect. If you have any questions, they will be extremely happy to help you so make sure you use this time accordingly.
Accommodation and Meals
During your stay, you will be accommodated in a volunteer house that you will share with the other volunteers on the programme. Located approximately one mile from the orphanage, the house is very comfortable and will cater to your needs, though it is basic so please go with an open mind and do not expect the home comforts that we are so fortunate to have at home!
The house has three bedrooms and sleeps a maximum of six volunteers each month. You will have access to a shared bathroom with a western style toilet and hot and cold shower. However, water shortages are not uncommon in this area so please remain flexible, as you may not always be able to access hot water at times and will need to rely on the more traditional bucket-type of shower. Your house is extremely safe, within a walled compound with night watchmen on the site. There is electricity and power outlets, but power cuts are fairly frequent.
You will receive 3 meals a day on this project, prepared for you by the cook, who also lives at the volunteer house with you: please be willing to offer her any assistance with the preparation of the meals. Breakfast will consist of breads, cereals and fruit etc, prepared for you by the cook and on a help-yourself basis. Lunch will be taken at the orphanage, though we advise that you consider packing a tasty lunch to take with you each day from supplies provided at the house. In the evenings, you will be cooked a full dinner to eat with the other volunteers after a hard day of work. We advise that you purchase bottled water during your stay.
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