Global Roots Mission - Kenya 2010 - post mission report

• Complexity: High
• Funding Level: High - the Children and Heroes need our help
• Duration: July 4th to July 30th, 2010

• Previous Mission: Baraka Orphanage

• Mission Directors: Rick Montgomery, Patrick Firouzian
• Construction Manager: Travis Gearhart
• Volunteers: Emily Axelrod, Doug, Heidi, and Nathan Bowen, Caitlinn Kolibaba, Antwone Mootz, Jen Vien, Hong Lam, Lizzie Kronbergs, Talya Shragai

• For more information: Email Global Roots
• Learn about Global Roots Service Corps

• Photos of the mission on Flickr
• Videos of the mission on Youtube

• Solar cookers
• Brick making
• Children shelter
• Solar Light Pilot
• Water kiosk
• Art project
• Oyua's kitchen
• Laptops
• Matulani Primary
• Nike

Solar Cooker Project

Global Roots volunteers and Solar Cookers International trained 5 communities in solar cooking techniques. eBay Give Team granted Global Roots $3,000 to help achieve our goals.

THE CHALLENGE:

• Deforestation: This is a serious issue especially in the national parks, densely populated areas and near rivers. Trees retain water,much needed for cooking, drinking, washing, making bricks.  A family typically uses 1 ton (62 trees) of wood per year in Kenya.
• Carbon dioxide emissions:  A family burning wood fire to cook may emit up to 8 tons per year.
• Hazard gathering wood: Women have to go farther and farther to gather wood. Some face danger from poachers (rape) or from wildlife (lions, buffalo, snakes)
• Gathering wood = no school time: On average, 44 days are wasted gathering wood. This time could be used to go to school.
• Wasted money: When families do not have time to gather wood, they have to buy it. This money could be used for food, books, or radios.
• Smoke: Wood fires emit toxic smoke which, in closed kitchens, creates a serious health hazard to the women cooking.

GOAL:

• Train community leaders on how to make and use solar cookers and expose them to other energy saving stove alternatives.
• Train village leaders how to monitor adoption of the solar cookers and other technologies that enhance environmental conservation.

OBJECTIVES:

• Enable trainees to be familiar with and use solar cookers and other complementing technologies (fireless cookers, upesi)
• Enable trainees to discuss challenges in cooking energy provision and discuss possible solutions
• Enable trainees to assemble solar cookits
• Enable trainees to pasteurize water using solar cookers
• Enable trainees to undertake comparative cooking tests to ascertain the saving made on wood when using a combination of other complementing technologies.
• Enable trainees to confidently cook at least 15 different recipes using the solar cooker.
• Enable trainees to be familiar with solar power (D.lights) for lighting and cell phone charging.
• Test the state of drinking water and pasteurize it in solar cookers.

RESULTS:

• Conducted 9 training sessions
• Trained over 85 community members
• Trained 20 future trainers
• Donated 50 solar cookers - built 20 solar cookers
• Reduced carbon emissions by 50% for 70 households: 280 tons of co2 (typical emissions 8 tons/year, expected emissions for adopters by household: 4 tons/year, total 280 tons of co2 total saved: 70*4 tons/year = 280 tons of co2)
• Estimated 200 additional tons of co2/year (without additional training by Global Roots): 50 new households adopters/year
• Each cookers pays for itself almost 13 times per year in co2 emissions (cost of a cooker: $4, cost of a ton of 1 carbon credit: $13, emissions/year savings by family: 4 tons)
• Average wood consumption per family per month: 1 ton (62 trees) : reduced to 500kgs (31 trees)
• Will save 2,700 trees this year
• Saved 3,080 days of wood gathering, 350 (44 days)
• Children can go to school, women can take care of family
• Reduction of 95% of the diseases caused by smoke/carbon inhalation  

Special thanks to Margaret Owino, James, Stella and Simon from Solar Cookers International, for their partnership to make this mission a long lasting success.

Interlocked Brick Making Machine

GOAL:

• Improve productivity of brick making at Baraka Orphanage to increase the income available to support the orphanage (food, tuition, uniforms, etc.).
• Give the community an edge by bringing latest technology of interlocking bricks
• Reduce reliance on cement in mortar
• Increase quality, durability, and longevity of schools and houses.

OBJECTIVES:

• Acquire a good quality machine at the lowest possible price
• Transport and install on location
• Train the volunteers, then have volunteers train the staff

RESULTS:

• Doug Bowen took charge in setting up the machine, and hetrained the community in making bricks.
• Interlocked brick machine is now operating in Mtito Andei, Baraka Orphanage
• Sales generate income to the orphanage, resulting in food, tuition, and uniforms.

 NEXT:

• Measure adoption: Are people buying these bricks? How many are made per day? What is the unit price and the profit margin?

Baraka Orphanage - Children's Shelter

Global Roots volunteers and local community members completed the construction of the Baraka's children shelter. This safe harbor and library provides an environment for abused children to be sheltered from trauma and provides a conducive environment for recovery. The 500+ book library provides ample opportunity for learning and discovery.  The main room is decorated with children's hand-prints and happy murals, all in the spirit of lifting the mood and promoting creativity. The orphanage treasurer now knows how to use Excel to track expenses, donations and send us regular statements, with two laptops in hand.

CHALLENGE:

A Kenyan child who loses one or both parents is traumatized, alone, and lost. Baraka Orphanage receives new orphans almost every week. The process to find a host family, a school, and proper clothing is tedious, and Rosina, the founder, needs all the help she can get to make the transition smooth. Unfortunately, it is all too frequent that children do not receive the love they need from their foster families. In dramatic cases, they are abused.

Recently, a piece of land was donated and the construction of an orphanage headquarters and shelter home was started.

GOAL:

• Acquire the necessary materials and supplies to complete the children's shelter roof, floor, walls, and gate; paint.
• Make the children's shelter a safe harbor for orphans, conducive to recovery, learning, and playing.

OBJECTIVES:

• Build the roof
• Install the concrete floor
• Plaster and white-wash all walls
• Decorate walls with children's hand prints
• Paint a mural
• Purchase bookshelves and sort all donated books

RESULTS:

• Travis Gearhart, Construction Manager, organized the building of the roof and floor, ordering of supplies, painting the gate and more.
• Hong Lam ran a campaign in San Jose to gather over 500 books, many toys and clothing, eBay sponsored the shipping to Kenya.
• Caitlinn Kolibaba gathered many books from her friends and brought them with her to Kenya.
• All volunteers participated in the building efforts: Hong Lam, Emily Axelrod, Doug, Heidi, and Nathan Bowen, Caitlinn Kolibaba, Antwone Mootz, Jen Vien, Lizzie Kronbergs, Talya Shragai , and Patrick Firouzian.
• Mtito Andei youth development group participated in the construction.
• The headquarters is complete, from floor to roof.
• Electricity was installed.
• Walls painted and decorated.
• Library is stocked with over 500 books.

Solar Lighting Project - Phase One

CHALLENGE:

How do you study at night without electricity? How do you find your way in your house, in your hut?

We take light for granted. Upon flipping a switch, voila! Light!

Well, it's not like that for over 80% of Kenyans. They still use oil or kerosene lamps. These lamps emit smoke and toxic emissions that are harmful to people and communities. Children have no choice but to use these lamps to study when they are home at night.

GOAL:

• Acquire a simple, cheap solar lighting system in China
• Install this system in a family home in Mtito Andei, and follow-up on usage and durability
• Plan for larger scale deployment

OBJECTIVES:

• Understand the functioning system and components
• Install on the roof, run cables into the house
• Train the family on how to use the system
• Assess usability and durability

RESULTS:

• Patrick Firouzian donated a lighting system.
• Nathan Bowen and Antwone Moots, Global Roots volunteers, installed the system in a Kenyan's family home.
• Joseph and Agnes now can use solar powered lighting in their home.
• Their daughter is no longer exposed to oil lamp/smoke/heat.  She can study at night and avoid toxic fumes.

NEXT:

• A solar lighting system like the one we installed costs $30. If we acquire and assemble a large quanity, we are confident we can reduce the cost to around $25 or less. The ultimate goal is to remove every kerosene lamp and replace them with solar powered lamps.

Matangini Water Kiosk

CHALLENGE:

Mtito Andei has a big water problem. Less rain, more people, more food to grow. This is creating a very complex series of challenges:

• People struggle to get enough water to drink. They  have to either buy water to be delivered to their home, or carry water from miles away.
• Not enough water is present to nurture vegetable crops. People have to pump water from very deep wells (if they have a well) or purchase water.
• Wildlife exits the national parks to get water in areas where rivers still retain some. This elevates the human-wildlife conflict.

GOAL:

• Bring water closer to communities, avoiding lengthy walks for women and children

OBJECTIVES:

• Secure funding for resources to dig trenches
• Dig trenches from water reservoir to kiosk in Matangini
• Build water kiosk with bricks and metal door
• Purchase and lay water pipes to the kiosk

RESULTS:

• Travis Gearhart, Construction Manager, ensured the kiosk was delivered within constraints
• Antwone Mootz and Nathan Bowen helped dig kilometers of trenches to bring water pipes to the village
• Kenya youth development volunteers assisted the digging
• The water kiosk is now complete and serves the Matangini community. They no longer walk 5 kilometers and carry 60 liters each time to get water.

NEXT:

• The water pipes will be extended to watering holes near the Tsavo Park boundary, to attract wildlife and ensure they do not enter the community areas.

Primary School Art Projects

CHALLENGE:

Children receive reading/writing/math education but have few avenues to express themselves through art.

GOAL:

• Give children a way to express themselves through design, drawing, painting.
• Children express their dreams, wishes, what they want to be, and what matters to them.
• Use colored paper, scissors, color pens and markers.
• Hang all drawings in the classrooms.

OBJECTIVES:

• Secure art supplies, ship to Kenya
• Identify primary schools to run the program
• Secure volunteers to run the program
• Display results in classrooms

RESULTS:

• Hong Lam, a Global Roots volunteer, donated 100 kilograms of art supplies. eBay sponsored the shipping of these supplies to Kenya.
• 4 primary schools, over a thousand children participated.
• Volunteers facilitated the process, along with school teachers: Hong Lam, Emily Axelrod, Caitlinn Kolibaba, Jen Vien, Lizzie Kronbergs, and Talya Shragai.
• Over a thousand drawings, all in the classrooms, remind every child of their dreams.

Baraka Laptop and Excel/Word Education Program

CHALLENGE:

Accounting and transparency are always a challenge. To firm-up processes and improve transparency, Patrick Firouzian donated two Dell laptops to Baraka's orphanage.

Heidi Bowen and Emily Axelrod, Global Roots volunteers, trained Rosina in basic spreadsheet and word processing fundamentals.  They also trained her in accounting and provided Excel templates. She is sending reports regularly, tracking income, allocations and expenses.

GOAL:

• Improve transparency

OBJECTIVES:

• Find laptops to donate
• Deliver laptops in Kenya
• Train local treasurers/accountants
• Provide templates for tracking income/expenses

RESULTS:

• Heidi Bowen and Emily Axelrod ensured Rosina was trained well enough to continue reporting after their departure
• Two laptops donated
• Templates created
• Rosina trained in excel and basic tracking
• Excel and Word software reference manuals provided

Oyua's Kitchen

Oyua was 13 when we first met her at the Matulani Primary School in Mtito Andei. She was introduced to Patrick Firouzian, our manager of international projects, as someone who had recovered from an immune system deficiency by eating Moringa leafs. She seemed like a happy, hard-working child.

One year later, when Patrick returned to Matulani's primary school, he looked for Oyua but found only her two younger brothers. Patrick learned from the school master that Oyua was no longer with us. Why? If she had medication, why would she not get better? Patrick learned that she had not enough food to sustain her fight against the disease.

When Global Roots director Rick Montgomery heard the story, he was compelled to do something. It is revolting to see children die because they do not have food to take with their medication. This has to stop and Rick (traveling through the area on a safari with M&G Expeditions) immediately decided to contribute to the health of the recovering children by ensuring they have enough food during treatment.

CHALLENGE:

• Mtito Andei: HIV infections rates are among the top five cities in Kenya. Medical relief exists and medication is available but children need to eat properly during treatment and there is just not enough food in this area to go around. In addition, families are coming to the hospital every two weeks, walking all day. This is exhausting for sick parents and children.

GOAL:

• Increase chance of recovery for children having HIV treatments by providing meals along with treatment and delivering medication and food to families who live in the most remote areas.

OBJECTIVES:

• Empower Mtito Andei's clinic with a vehicle to deliver the food and medication to remote areas.
• Build a kitchen and store room in Matulani's primary school to ensure no sick child skips a meal.

RESULTS:

• Oyua's kitchen is already built! Rick requested early on that the kitchen be named after the special child Patrick met a year earlier so its name will be “Oyua's Kitchen.”

• We are currently looking to buy the right vehicle for Mtito Andei's clinic head nurse to deliver medication and food.

Matulani Primary School was the site of Global Roots' first function in 2008.

Since then, we have returned and supported the school, the teachers, and the children. This year, we were sadden by disappearance of Oyua, and parents of Maria. Both were HIV positive, receiving treatment, but passed away because of malnutrition.

We spent some time with the children and were impressed by their English and math skills! More info soon!

Before the volunteers left for Kenya, Sports Illustrated magazine put out an issue featuring the World Cup.  Pictures were shown of children all around the world playing soccer.  The last picture portrayed children in Kenya.  Instead of using a soccer ball, these children played with a ball made of plastic bags tied together.  When Nathan Bowen, a Global Roots volunteer, saw this, he decided to contact Nike to ask for a donation of soccer balls.  Nike responded quickly and in a big way.  Within a week, Nathan had 24 brand-new soccer balls to bring to the children of Kenya.  Nathan also brought pumps to allow continuous use of the soccer balls.  The soccer balls were handed out to Baraka Orphanage as well as 3 other primary schools.

GOAL:

• Bring soccer balls to Kenya
• Donate balls to orphanage and orphans via schools
• Play "football" with the children
• Have fun doing all that!

RESULTS:

• All Nike soccer balls are now helping Kenyan children play around after school

NEXT:

• "Get us a sports arena in Mtito Andei!"