Sowing Seeds of Local Self-Government in Kenyan Fields: WOW Launches Fundraiser for The Gutuka Project This Fall

This month, WOW is conducting a campaign to generate funds in support of our Kenyan sisters and the children they are caring for in Homebay, a peanut growing region of the Nyanza Province.  The women participating in The  Gutuka Project  are members of a local  SACCO,  a savings and credit cooperative,  chaired under the leadership of The Family Resource Center and Jenipher Otieno.  All Funds generated from WOW’s campaign will go directly to the project. The Family Resource Center provides training and support for orphaned children and families caring for these children. 

The Heart of the Program:

 

The purpose in the forming of the coop initially was to provide sustainable solutions for the many orphans in the area. The women who help take in these orphaned children are essentially doing foster care for them, but unlike other places in the world, there is not government funding for these families.

It is often very economically difficult to add an extra person to a household already struggling in this region. There are currently about 30 women involved in the coop. Most of the women in the Gutuka program are the bread winners in their households. They provide for their families through small businesses that include the farming of peanuts, making baskets, raising poultry and making of foods. What makes these women and the program so special is that many of the women have opened their hearts and homes to orphans, that had no place to go. The Coop makes it economically possible to care for the children as well as their families. Please help these children by making a donation

 

The How of the Program:

 

Each family will be responsible for their own planting and harvest. At harvest, the individual families will be paid cash for their crop. The peanut grinding machine will be kept at a center, where the peanut butter will be ground and packaged.  Proceeds from the sale of the peanut butter will go toward food subsidies for the children, and the future purchase of more peanut seed, which the families will receive for free to replant the next crop.

The Cost of the Program:

There are three financial components to the proposed project. The first is to raise money for the purchase of seed for planting peanuts, estimated around $800 US dollars. Planting time for peanuts begins in November. There are generally two successive plantings for the peanut crop. The second is to purchase a peanut grinding machine estimated at $700 US dollars. The peanut grinder is a means for the women to produce peanut butter, which is a nutritious product as well as cash generating for their families. The third component is continuing education for the women, estimated at $1000 US dollars. Building their capacity through training in business skills, will help them improve their income generating and saving activities. These families have already raised $500 US dollars toward the project themselves by saving $2 US dollars a month consistently.

Gutuka is a Swahili word meaning “self-realization,” or as we would say in the US, self-reliant. This is the type of genuine investment in women that WOW advocates for. Please join WOW in making a donation today to help plant seeds of local self-government in the fields of our Kenyan sisters’ gardens. Just go to WOW’s website, and press the donate button. Enter your donation amount. Tag the donation as “Gutuka Program.” We appreciate your support of this project, and all donations are tax deductible.

WOW Teaming Up to Strengthen Families in Kenya

Kenya flag waving

The Worldwide Organization for Women and the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops are teaming up to bring in renowned parenting expert Nicholeen Peck and Teaching Self-Government to train the families of Kenya in a system of parenting that will change the country of Kenya forever!

The Catholic Church in Nairobi will host Nicholeen for this training this November. 

This project is a “teach the people to fish” type of project.  Nicholeen Peck is going to give her knowledge away.  Funding for this project will come largely from donations. Nicholeen will be training 69 Kenyan facilitators and trainers how to teach self-government principles and then they will carry the project throughout the country.  Nicholeen states: “It’s all about impact. Everything I teach is for everyone to find more freedom and happiness. Poor family relationships lead to bondage.”

Nothing will help the people of Kenya more than uniting and strengthening its families. Strong families are crucial to a thriving society. You can help Nicholeen help Kenya by clicking the link below!

The project will take Nicholeen and her family three weeks because various three to four day trainings will need to occur. Nicholeen will also speak to groups of people in multiple universities and to religious congregations of multiple faiths. 

These are the 15 things the Kenyan Conference of Catholic Bishops sees as problems needing to be solved by good parenting and strong marriage relationships:

 

1. Communication with children especially during adolescent stage on human sexuality.

2. Rebellion among clan. Which is highlighted by the number of strikes.

3. Indiscipline.

4. Addressing developmental changes that young people go through.

5. Teenage emotional changes.

6. Radicalization by secular ideas.

7. Socialization of children in families.

8. Handling in helpful behavior. 

9. Peer pressure.

10. Bridging the gap from when joining school thus: 

      Nursery age – to class one

      Primary eight – form one

      From four to University

11. Addressing issues of rites of passage

12. Alcoholism and drug abuse.

13. HIV AIDS in families.

14. Absent parents.

I 5. Media influence.  

…among others. 

The Worldwide Organization for Women is excited to be a part of this great endeavor. If you would like to help fund this project, Your donation will help pay for production of a Kenyan booklet for distribution, teaching supplies, airfare for the trainers, living expenses for the three weeks in Kenya and ongoing training that will take place virtually, etc. 

Please click here to learn more: https://www.youcaring.com/worldwide-organization-for-women-398737

To learn more about the Worldwide Organization for Women click here.

For more information about Nicholeen Peck and the Teaching Self-Government model of parenting see https://teachingselfgovernment.com/

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