From Kelly Campbell of the Village Experience and the Village Cooperative."Here is the current list of projects that The Village Cooperative is fundraising for. Several have been sponsored but our goal is to get them all funded before we leave for Kenya this July." Ideas or questions? Contact Kelly at kescampb@yahoo.com.
The Village Cooperative * 6055 N. College Ave * Indianapolis, IN 46220
317-602-3696 * info@thevillagecooperative.org * www.thevillagecooperative.org
2010 Project Proposals
Mbita, Kenya:
1.
Self-Sustaining Garden. The Live Long Widows group in Mbita has located a large plot of land on the shores of Lake Victoria in which to implement 27 individual garden plots and several community plots. The land already has a direct water source and the landlord is holding it for us as we look for funding. This project is urgent – the widows need to prepare the land and begin planting seeds in order to grow food for both consumption and sale. Food from these plots will directly go to the orphans in the care of the widows and to Day Spring School for consumption. Proceeds from the sale of the food will go to paying teacher’s salaries, paying project managers, and improving the living conditions of the widows and their families. The budget includes rent for one year, the startup costs to prepare the land for farming, seeds, tools, access to water lines, and manpower. I have encouraged Jackton and the group to speak with the owners of the land about the option to purchase it in the next few years.
Approximate budget $1800
2.
Tailoring Project. The women of Live Long Widows group have been meeting several times a week and have officially registered with the government. They have 3 sewing machines and some start up materials in which to practice their tailoring techniques. A trainer has been paid to begin teaching the women how to sew. With 27 women in the group, we need to provide 3 more sewing machines and some more raw materials. Each sewing machine is $120. Raw materials such as fabric, needles, thread, scissors, bobbins, etc are about $200. Once the women have been trained, they will begin making uniforms for the surrounding schools and creating and altering clothing for the local market. They will continue to work out of the workshop we have secured for them – rent is paid through August at which point, we’d like to renew for one more year as they get this project off the ground. Rent for one year is $325. This building is being used to house the eggs from the chicken coop project as well. The trainer should be paid another $50 once half the women have been trained (she has a big job on her plate!)
Approximate budget $600
3.
Final Phase of Chicken Coop Project. The group has done an amazing job constructing the chicken coop and caring for the 200 chickens. This is one of the healthiest looking coops I’ve ever seen thanks to Ken. The first eggs were just laid a few days before I arrived and now the coop is in full production mode! The eggs will be used in feeding the orphans and widows and the children at Day Spring Academy. The extras will be sold and distributed via bicycle throughout the area. Funds from this project will pay for teacher’s salaries, improve the school lunch program, pay Ken for the upkeep of the project, and be used to supplement other project needs. In order to keep this project on the right track, we need to protect the coop with a proper fence and connect to the local water supply. The fence can be constructed for $300 and the water connection is a onetime fee of $150. We need a few more lanterns for the coop, which cost $100. The major start up cost for this project has been the chicken feed. Now that the chickens have begun laying eggs, they can be switched to local feed. We have a trainer from the UN Millennium Village of Sauri who has agreed to come over and show the village the best way to make feed from local ingredients. I would like to reimburse him for travel expenses and pay him a small stipend of $100 (he will also consult on the goat project). This chicken coop should prove to be a tremendous source of income for our partners in Mbita.
Approximate budget: $600
4.
Fruit Producing Tree Orchard. This project is so easy. Each fruit producing tree seedling costs approximately $3. The group can purchase trees such as mangos and avocados directly from Sauri. Sauri has a grafted tree variety that produces a larger fruit and thus sells for more money in the local market. By purchasing from Sauri, we are also helping another village with their income generation project (win-win!). Since trees can take a few years to grow and last for years, we need to plant these trees on owned land and not rented land. I would like to purchase 10 trees for each of the 27 widows and another 25 for the Kelly Academy Nursery School. This will just add one more source of income for all the members of our project.
Approximate budget: $900
5.
Party Rental Company. The Live Long Widows group presented us with an idea on our last trip to Mbita for a party rental company. They would like to purchase plastic chairs, several tables, and several large tents to house in the workshop and rent out to weddings, parties, church services, schools, and funerals. This is a brilliant project as it only requires a one-time fee of purchasing the supplies and will then generate income for many years. We were so impressed to hear this idea and to see the widows really becoming little entrepreneurs. I have two ideas for sourcing the materials since they will be expensive in Mbita and Kisumu. The first is to use the same source that The Lake Nakuru Lodge uses – we would get a large discount here. The second is to source these materials through Dunn Global in China and purchase several sets so that we could implement this project not only in Mbita, but also with Tumaini in Eldoret and Heart to Heart in Nakuru.
Approximate Budget $1500 per set of equipment
5.
The Kelly Academy Nursery School. (I didn’t name it!) An elder in the village of Ghera, where most of the orphans and widows live, has generously donated a plot of land to begin a new nursery school. This school already has a teacher and about 22 students, but no structure or equipment. We would like to help them establish a 2-3 classroom building with concrete floors and tin roofing and siding. We would also like to provide them with enough funding to get some desks, blackboards, and basic teaching supplies. The teacher’s salaries will be paid through the implementation of the above projects. The children will receive a nutritious lunch with supplements from the new garden, chicken coop, and tree orchard. This school is a great idea as it will help the orphans to gain a better education and it will free up the widows to work on the above-mentioned projects.
Approximate Budget $2500.
6.
Women’s Goat Project. We have seen goat projects with women’s groups both in Sauri and in Meru and have been encouraged by their success. The trainer from Sauri has agreed to come set up the goat project in Mbita and sell the group their starter goats. We will begin with a training center in Ghera, where a goat shed and several starter goats will be housed. The widows would learn how to raise and milk the goats. This portion will be owned by Live Long Widows group as a collective with proceeds from the sale of the milk going directly to The Kelly Academy for school fees, teacher salaries, and lunch programs. As the women are trained and can afford their own shed, they will be given their own goat to begin their individual businesses. Goat’s milk goes for 4 times the amount of cow’s milk, so this project has the potential to be quite lucrative.
Approximate budget $2000 for shed, starter goats, feed, etc.
Mwariki, Kenya:
1.
IDP Camp Emergency Scholarship Fund. Now that 215 homes have been built in the IDP camp outside of Nakuru, the most pressing issue is getting all of the school aged children into school as quickly as possible. With our partners in Kenya, we have started an emergency scholarship fund to help those families most in need. The Village Experience has donated $600 and was given a goal of $2000. Once that goal is met, The Lake Nakuru Lodge will match it and we can begin distributing the funds. The families within the IDP camp are currently being trained on kitchen gardens, have planted fruit producing trees, and are starting small businesses to generate income. This fund will help get those most in need off the ground and on their way to rebuilding their lives after the election violence.
Approximate budget: $1400
2.
Black Rhine Micro-financing Project. We are hoping to give all of the women we work with throughout Mwariki and the families living in the IDP camp the opportunity to start their own small businesses. We interviewed one such lady who had cleverly turned her new home into a business selling mandazzi, a Kenyan snack, to the local community. The income from this business will help her to improve her living conditions and put her grandchild through school. Through this micro-financing project, our partners in Kenya will accept and screen applications for small business loans and then submit proposals to us to help secure funding. Our goal is to see each and every person we work with in this area given the opportunity to move forward in life and start anew. We would like to make a contribution of $2000 to get this project off the ground and then contribute $300 monthly to a salaried person living in Kenya that will assist us with all our projects throughout the country. Beth, will be our eyes and ears in Kenya and help to ensure that our projects in Mbita, Eldoret, Nakuru, Nairobi, Mombasa, and elsewhere are staying on target. She will also coordinate our project visits each time we visit Kenya with our groups.
Approximate budget for one year: $5600
3.
Mission of Hope Tailoring Project. The 18 women involved in Mission of Hope are all HIV+. They have been meeting for several months now discussing how to live positively and finding ways to generate an income in order to pay for their medicines and nutritious food. Our trainer, Matt, spent a month working with these women and I was thoroughly energized by my visit with them. They are registered with the government and have impeccable minutes and accounting. While we have given them one sewing machine and 2 binding machines, they could really use several more machines so that all the women can properly be trained. One of the women offers up her house as their workshop. They have plans to make school uniforms for the community, sell clothing in the local market, and will be creating some Katanga items for The Village Experience and Lake Nakuru Lodge. We would like to equip them with 5 more sewing machines and some raw materials and help one of the women get new braces for her legs.
Approximate budget: $1200
4.
Heart to Heart Women’s Cooperative Community Rabbit Hutch and Fish Farm. This women’s group was started by The Village Cooperative in 2008. We helped to get them registered with the government, trained the women on recycled paper jewelry product, provide a workshop, and purchase the majority of their handicrafts. We would like to help them further improve their lives and the lives of their community by beginning a rabbit hutch and a fish farm to generate income. These projects have already begun, but need help to get them completed. Once finished, the women will collectively care for the projects and use the funding for educating their children, improving their homes, and starting other new businesses. These two projects are great because The Lake Nakuru Lodge will directly purchase the rabbits and the fish for use within the lodge restaurant and redistribute them to other customers throughout Kenya. It is a built in market. In fact, certain rabbits can go for over $100 each!
Approximate budget: $2000.
Eldoret, Kenya:
1.
Tumaini Street Kids Center. This is one of the only projects in Eldoret focusing on street children. They have recently rented a large plot of land to serve as a drop in center and rehabilitation center. Eventually this land will be turned into an eco-village, where former street children can come to learn vocational skills. They just opened their doors in January and already the response is staggering. Almost 100 children came off the streets to seek help each day the center was opened. We would like to help them in several ways.
- Start a fruit-producing orchard on the grounds to ensure a means of income generation in the future. Approximate budget $100
- Start organic farming on the property to ensure the children have access to nutritious food and the center has an additional source of income. Approximate budget $1000
- Start Rabbit Hutch and Chicken Coop as income generating projects and teaching apparatus to the older children. Approximate budget $2000
If you are interested in funding one of the above projects,
please contact our Executive Director, Kelly Campbell,
for more information.
Kelly@experiencethevillage.com
Mobile: 917-862-9236
Office: 317-602-3696
