A women group's bid to make a difference in the society

 Activities

 

1. Tree nursery

The group engages in tree nursery where they sell the seedlings to members of the community during the rainy seasons. With water being scarce in the area, the members have come up with a duty rota for watering the tree seedlings .The tree nursery is established in Elizabeth Kinyungu’s homestead who is the Chairlady of the group.

2. Bricks making

The group undertakes this activity once every year. The members contribute water and manual labour for the project but engage outside labour for actual making of the bricks.

“We do manual labour like fetching water, making mud and making kiln so that we cut the cost’ says Elizabeth adding that sourcing for outside brick maker costs kshs.1 a brick. They then sell the bricks locally to community members.

“This year, we made Kshs 6,100 from the seedlings and Kshs.25, 000 from brickmaking, “says Ednah William, the group’s treasurer. "Out of this we have been able to purchase food and other basic necessities for some of the neediest children," she continues.

3. Money lending

The group gives soft loans to its members whereby they repay the money with interest. This interest boosts their finances.

In 2003, the group wrote a proposal to the National Aids Council (NAC) and got funding for a year. “However, the funding did not cover basic needs and so we relied on our activities for providing the same to the beneficiaries” says Elizabeth.

Since 2009, the group is under a three (3) year funding from African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) where they hold Capacity building, HIV/AIDS prevention and also care and support of OVCS

Accomplishments 

There has been positive change within the locality especially on HIV/AIDS issues. Says Elizabeth “More people are now seeing the importance of visiting Voluntary Testing and Counseling (VCT) centres to know their HIV/AIDS status because of the extensive capacity building that we have carried out.”

Also, the members have made a positive an impact to the children through supporting them with basic needs.” We are glad that we have touched a child’s heart, no matter how small a way it is,” continues Elizabeth

Challenges

The group lacks youth membership and  ¾  of the members are over 60.Most of the youth members fall out for  according to Ednah, they don’t see any financial benefit for their efforts.

In addition, the members are not equipped with counseling skills and as such do not have know how to approach conflicts within beneficiaries and guardians

There is negative perception by the community because of their gender and age. Most community members especially men view the women as old and uneducated.

Community expectations are very high in that they expect handouts especially during outreaches.

Way forward

The women’s group plans to increase their activities to reach more people within the district through more sensitization.

They also plan to sensitize women in family planning especially to widows and single women as according to them, some of the women continue giving birth after their spouses’ death and yet they do not have the financial capacity to provide for big families.

Increase membership especially the youth because most of the members are old and the work load is large.

The members also plan to build an office at a central place for smooth operations. ''We have already purchased a piece of land and will start constructing the office very soon,” says Ednah

Improve networking to increase knowledge. The members also plan to seek support from different organizations for more knowledge and funding to reach a wider number of children. 

Starting a greenhouse as an income generating projects. Elizabeth says that they have already paid for the same and they are expecting delivery the soonest possible.

 Conclusion

Despite the low membership, low levels of education and the age factor, these women have surely made a mark in this community.” Although we have been as branded as old and lacking, we are happy that we have made it to this point,” concludes Elizabeth.

Contacts

Elizabeth Kinyungu: Chairlady: +254713551531

Ednah William: Treasurer: +254713049936

Florence Katunguu: Secretary: +254727460583

Mutomo Maarifa Centre users praise ALIN for newly stocked library

......Of the same sentiments is Mr. Patrick Mutisya,the District Adult Education Officer who is using the Information Communication and Technology reading material at the Centre. Says he, “In these times and ages it’s very important to be computer literate, I therefore find the newly stocked library at the Maarifa Centre library very useful to me in accomplishing this.Mr Mutisya has been borrowing ICT books from the Centre.

Alex Munyao is a Clinical Officer at the Mutomo Mission Hospital. This is what he had to say “The Maarifa Centre is now stocked with relevant material for reference” adding that the medical books at the Maarifa Centre has been of huge help to him in acquiring additional knowledge relevant in his job.

Both Mr Mburu and Mr Mutisya feel that it would be a good idea to bring in inspirational material at the Centre.

ALIN partnered with Book Aid International to provide books to all Maarifa Centres

Maarifa Centre an information hub to the community

Mutomo District is an arid and semi arid area in Kitui County which is frequently faced by long spells of drought. Residents of the district rely mainly on small scale farming and keeping of drought resistant domestic animals. As such residents are oftenly faced with food shortages and mostly rely on food aid

Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) in partnership with the Communication of Kenya and the Mutomo Mission Hospital established Mutomo Maarifa Centre on October 2008 to provide the community with information on climate change adaptation, natural resources management, small-scale sustainable agriculture and other livelihood issues.

Mutomo Maarifa Centre is hosted by the Mutomo Mission Hospital and all the services are free of cost

Services Offered

·         Internet access

·         e-Government services e.g KRA pin registration,Examination results etc

·         Publications

·         Multi-media content e.g. ipods,CD-ROMS etc

·         Online Market Information

·         Advisory services

·         ICT training.

Richard Kasikali is a community worker with the Catholic Diocese of Kitui and is based at Mutha Division in Mutomo District. He works as a community mobilizer in the Diocese’s project dubbed as ‘Food for Work’ where poor households work in community development projects and are rewarded with food rations. His work usually requires him to send weekly and monthly reports to the head office.

“The Maarifa Centre has enabled me to consistently send these reports” says Kasikali who adds although he is not very conversant with ICT; the Field Officer helps him in compiling and sending the reports.

He also adds that he uses free internet at the Maarifa Centre to access information for disseminating to the community.

Of the same sentiments is Gerrald Mbaya, a Ministry of Agriculture staff who has been getting publications and other reading material from the Maarifa Centre

“The library is stocked with a lot of relevant extension materials which are important to an extension officer like me” he says adding that he has been borrowing books and other reading material and this has helped him in acquiring vital information to disseminate to the community.

The Maarifa Centre has also enabled many youth in improving their ICT skills and social networking. Priscillah Mulwa,a Youth Peer Educator has been able to download and successfully apply for a course at the Mombasa Polytechnic University College.

“I have also been able to keep in touch with my friends on face book social network” adds the 21 year old.

Thirsty?.....Try this

......The porridge can be made from maize, millet, sorghum or finger millet.

Mwende says that a kilo of maize can be used to prepare ten (10) litres of the porridge.

According to Joyce Ngina, a customer and a local resident of Mutomo, after drinking one cup of the porridge she can stay for a whole day without taking water.

Her sentiments are echoed by Daniel Muendo, also a customer who says that every market day he takes at least a cup of the porridge.

Mwende explains this by saying that in every stage of preparation, the porridge is made using a lot of water and then stored in either gourds or enclosed jerry cans which helps maintain the coldness.

“I inherited the knowledge from my mother when I was a young girl’’, says Mwende adding that she has passed on this knowledge to her two daughters.

However, she admits that this knowledge is getting extinguished and people are turning to modern ways of making porridge like grinding using  the posho mills.

PREPARATION

• Break maize using a hand driven mill.
• Soak the proceeds in water for 24 hours
• Filter the water
• Grind the soaked maize using the traditional grinding stones
• Grind  until  a residue is released  then put  the proceeds in water for it to wash out
• Repeat the  process until the entire residue is grinded
• Store the mixture for a few hours until the residue and water separate
• Filter the water out
• Mix  the filtered water with fresh water and boil
• Add the residue to the boiling water
• Boil for 10 minutes as you keep on stirring
• Store the porridge in an airy room  until it is cold
• Pour the cold porridge into clean containers with lids
• Serve cold

ADVANTAGES

• Raw materials  are locally produced i.e. maize, millet, sorghum or finger millet
• No preparation costs as the maize is grinded traditionally using grinding stones

DISADVANTAGES

• The porridge may pose health  problems if proper hygiene is not observed in preparation
• Preparation is very time consuming

Customers enjoying the traditional uji

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Mutomo Maarifa Centre milestones for 2007 to Feb 2011 outlined

Mutomo Maarifa centre was established in August 2007 to serve the local communities with various services including local content generation and dissemination, free Internet access, computer skills training, access to development publications and other outreach activities to ensure communities get appropriate information resources.  During a focal group meeting held on 22^nd February 2011, the members noted the following milestones:

• August 2007, Mutomo Maarifa Centre was established by the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) in collaboration with Mutomo Mission Hospital and ALIN.
• In the year 2008, an Information empowerment and networking workshop was held involving 47 participants drawn from youth peer educator group, CBOs, NGOs, teachers, local administration and government officers.
• An Open day and Launch of the Maarifa centre was held  and  a notice-board  erected at the bus stage as a public information dissemination point.
• The Centre has hosted many visitors key among them Oxfam Novib representatives, the local Member of Parliament, Hon.Isaac Muoki, Government representatives and the community.
• Mutomo Maarifa Centre hosted a film making workshop in 2009 organised by ALIN in collaboration with Community Based Conservation Films (CBCF) and Leicester University (UK) that resulted in FOUR documentaries focusing on Climate Change and food resources.
• The Centre published 1^st edition of a local Newsletter -The Farmer featuring local news and Agricultural innovations by Mutomo communities.
• In 2009, the centre facilitated village awareness meetings on climate change in the project Knowledge sharing for climate change adaptation supported by DANIDA. The project also supported installation of the containerized centre and additional equipments like Ipods.
• Members participated in 2 gender workshops at Kima and Nakuru
•  Mutomo Maarifa Centre’s Focal Group Chairlady, Flora Nzambuli participated in an International Agknowledge ShareFair in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and also at a Bishop’s workshop in Uganda in 2010.
•  The centre participated in civic education in 2007(Voices of the Arid Lands -Mobile reporting) which was captured by Media focus in Africa and can be viewed at http://mfoa.africanews.com/site/page/mobile_report
• Documentaries on termite control, tree soap, water harvesting were generated in 2010.
• In 2008, a VSAT was installed by Michigan University (USA) enhancing speedy Internet access.
• An MPESA (mobile phone money transfer service )is  in place and operational. This was started as a sustainability concept.
• 3 Community Information Volunteers and 2 Community Knowledge Facilitators were hosted at the Maarifa Centre. These were Catherine Mutune, Andrew Muendo, Jeremiah Binyenya, Robert Munyau and John Mwanthi.
•  Many articles have been generated and published through ALIN channels which include; Baobab, Joto Afrika, and ALIN website (www.alin.net) and OKN portal.
• Mutomo Maarifa Centre’s  blog is in operation http://mutomomaarifa.blogspot.com/
• The centre organized for a Mutomo town clean up exercise which was held  on 24/11/ 2009 and over 800 community members participated.
• Canadian Baptism Ministries visited Flora Nzambuli’s farm to tour earth dams in relation to climate change adaptation strategy in 2010.
•  Mutomo Maarifa  Centre organized a Tree planting Day at Kandae Primary school on 23/11/2010

New advisory committee for Mutomo Maarifa Centre

........Each participant was given an opportunity to write one name of a person they felt had wisdom for each of the identified info interest groups on a piece of paper.  All the suggested names for each interest group were then written on a flip chat and each category critically assessed by the participants to get a suitable person through elimination method.  During this exercise, the participants were allowed to select even people who were not present but have the capacity to support the Maarifa centre. The team successfully selected a new advisory committee and acknowledged the approach the selection process took and wished the new committee all success.

Among the many roles of the advisory committee includes: 

• To offer guidance and oversee the overall operations of the Maarifa centre in close liaison with the  field officer and the community knowledge facilitator ensuring the centre meets its objectives.

• To support in formulation of Maarifa centre operational guidelines and policies        
• To ensure the Maarifa centre information user needs are met.
• To support in planning for Maarifa centre activities.
• To support in M and E at the centre.
• To convene Focal group meetings

The members elected to the Advisory Committee include:

1.Toma Ngovu :DAO Mutomo
2. Teresia Mburu :D.O Central
3. Janet Mwema :Children’s  officer
4. Esther Musau :Chairlady Maendeleo ya Wanawake, Mutomo/Ikutha districts
5. Benson Wambua :Pastor
6. Hellen Mamwaka:SORDU
7. Dominic Musauli: Kawelu CBO
8. Nzioka Wambua :Ministry of Livestock
9. Michael Robert :World Vision
10. Rhoda Musili:Mutomo Maarifa Centre (Field Officer)
11. Sis. Kathleen  Rooney:Mutomo mission Hospital

Paul Munyoki, an outgoing member of the Advisory committee member praised the Mutomo Maarifa Centre’s activities citing that being a member has opened up chances for him in that he has acquired knowledge on upcoming technology. “I have been able to acquire knowledge on water harvesting and new methods of food production”, said the Agricultural extension Officer. “And interacting with other members has also sharpened my social skills” quipped Mr. Munyoki.

Melia Volkensii,a survivor in the desert

Mutomo District is an arid and semi arid area in Kitui County, Eastern province that is occasionally faced with dry spells. The main economic activities in the area are small scale farming and keeping of domestic animals.

The area receives minimal amount of rainfall (between 300-700mm per annum) and the residents frequently face starvation.

Very few indigenous tree species survive in such harsh climatic conditions. Of the few indigenous trees, Melia Volkensiialso locally known as Mukau is one of the species that has defied odds and has been known to do well in these unfavorable conditions.

Melia volkensii is a tree species in the family Meliaceae.

There are various steps and procedures followed in seed propagation and planting of the species.

These are:

COLLECTING SEEDS

Seeds are collected from areas of common occurrence of the tree including Kitui, Kibwezi, Voi,  Taita Taveta and Mbeere.

Mature yellow fruits are handpicked. The branches are shaken to release the mature fruits. Usually, a canvas (tarpaulin) or net is spread under the tree for easy collection of the falling fruits.

SEED STORAGE

Seed storage is not recommended. Fresh ripe fruits are the best source of good seeds since old fruits have been found to produce seeds with low viability.

SEED EXTRACTION

Once seeds are transported to the nursery, they are de-pulped using a mortar and pestle.

The dry nut is then cracked using a kitchen knife/ panga and a plunk of grooved wood.KEFRI developed a nut cracker which can be used to crack the nut more efficiently. This also reduces damage to the seed.

HOW TO PROPAGATE MELIA

 Pre-germination treatment

 Melia seeds need pre-germination treatment before sowing. The following steps are followed;

(a) Nip the seed

(b) Soak in cold water for 12 hours

(c) Slit the outer cover longitudinally

NOTE: The sown seeds are watered once and the propagator is closed tightly using a clear polythene sheet. This enhances germination because of the high humidity and temperature levels. Once rooting takes place, the seedling (germinant) is transferred into a pot filled with nursery soil.

SEED SOWING

• Fill germination box (water bucket can be used as germination box) with sterilized  sand (sterilize sand by heating or using  fungicides)
• Sow seeds into the sand-filled germination box
• Water thoroughly once. Watering is not necessary until germination is complete.
• Cover with a polythene sheet to maintain high humidity in the germination box

NURSERY MANAGEMENT

(a)Pricking out

Ø  Pricking out is carried out as soon as the germination is spotted (usually 3-7 days)

Ø  The pricked out seedlings are planted into potting tubes filled with good nursery soil

Ø  The potted seedlings should be kept under shade for at least two weeks before exposing them in the open.

Ø   After two weeks seedlings are transferred to a partially shaded nursery site for at least 3 weeks.

Ø  After three weeks, it is now safe to transfer the seedlings to an open place.

(b) Nursery operations

Ø  Watering should be done only when the pots are getting dry (Melia seedlings must not be over watered, as seedlings are sensitive to water logging)

Ø  Remove weeds from the pots when necessary

Ø  Hardening –off is necessary before planting ( this is done by reducing watering regime )

PLANTING

Planting holes are dug 5 m apart giving a stand of 400 trees per hectare. Melia does not compete with crops. However, it is advisable not to plant tall crops such as maize in the first season as the tree is sensitive to shade.

Melia is a fast growing tree attaining an average height of 1.4 metres in one year. It is therefore possible to intercrop with taller crops after the first year. Intercropping can be stopped when the crown canopy closes by which time grazing can be carried out if adequate measures to stop debarking of trees by animals. Both intercropping and grazing add value to the Melia plot.


 NATURAL REGENERATION

In its natural range, it is common to find Melia regenerating from the injured roots on farmlands. If this happens then;

Ø  Uproot some of the seedlings to remain with the right number at the required spacing

Ø  Protect the remaining trees from browsing animals

Ø  Weed when required to reduce competition from unwanted vegetation


MANAGEMENT

Trees planted for timber production are pruned (removal of buds) get clear and straight pole, that is knot  free.

At initial stages of growth, it is recommended to hand-prune buds with leaves left intact.

Trees in cropland are pruned heavily (but avoid over pruning) to reduce competition with crops, particularly for light. Pruning is also done to coincide with time when there is livestock feed scarcity to be used as fodder.

HARVESTING AND MARKETING OF MUKAU PRODUCTS

A well managed Melia tree can be harvested from as early as at 5 years of age. At such early stages of growth the main products derived are poles and fodder as well as firewood from branches. From 10 years of age, the log can be sawn into high quality timber that can be utilized for furniture making as well as construction. Other products derived include off-cuts, fodder, and firewood and saw dust.

Most of the derived products from Melia are marketed at the local supply system either at farm gate or local centres to derive income. The commonly marketed products are sawn logs, timber, off-cuts and firewood. Saw logs are lowly priced and a log that yields 300ft of sawn timber sells at an average price of Kshs.1000 in local markets. However, sawn timber of 6” x 1” sells at ksh.40 per foot totaling to Ksh.12, 000 worth of timber per tree.  In addition, a farmer is able to get 1 ox-cart of firewood sold at kshs.300, 4 pieces of off-cuts sold at Kshs. 50 each and 2 bags of sawdust sold at Kshs. 50. This amounts to Ksh.12, 600 from a single tree.

ADVANTAGES

• Good investment.
• The investment costs, risks and uncertainties are relatively lower than most agricultural enterprises
• Can be intercropped
• Provides fodder when the tree sheds

DISADVANTAGES

Poor germination rate if the necessary steps have not been followed

• Very palatable to browsing animals

  FACTS ABOUT MELIA VOLKENSII

• Requires annual rainfall of 300-800 mm per annum
• 400 trees per hectare (spacing of 5m x5m)
• Takes 12-15 years to mature
• One Melia tree can fetch Kshs. 12,000 at maturity.          

REFERENCE: KENYA FORESTRY RESEARCH INSTITUTE (KEFRI)

P.O BOX 20412,

Tel + 254202010651/2, +254 722157414, +254 734 251 888

E Mail: kefri_kitui@yahoo.com

E Mail director@kefri.org

Website www.kefri.org