What a difference (half) a year makes!
- John Chisholm
- Oct 29, 2024
- 4 min read
In this post, we share reflections from our board President, Carra McFadden, and from her husband John McFadden, on their recent visit to Kenya. Read on, and you’ll find it’s hard not to smile.
The power of hope
CARRA'S REFLECTION
On our first day of family visits we met graduated families doing well on their own, and it was heart-warming.
On day two, we went to see families from the Musirigwa Cluster in Gisambai, a village just 40 minutes south of the United Kenya Rising office. These were ‘new’ families, having only joined Family Care in April.
Seven families comprised the village ‘cluster’ group, and they are all within a short walk from each other’s homes. We were scheduled to visit three of the seven shambas (farmsteads), and to then meet the whole neighborhood group of seven families.
The first family’s home had already been renovated, and was just waiting for the last application of smooth mud on the outside walls. The latrine and washroom were brand new and ready for use. A compost area was established, and azolla (a water-based plant that’s an excellent source of protein for animals) was now being grown in a small pond. A new poultry coop housed a small flock of young chickens. The farm was not only thriving, but exploding with lush growth and diversity. We were surprised. How long has the family been in the program? Since April?
The next family’s shamba was nearly an identical experience. A newly renovated home that needed one more application of mud plaster. New latrine and washroom. Chicks running around chirping. Sack gardens lining the paths in and around the house and farmland, to reduce erosion. Fruit tree seedlings growing taller each day. Hmmm!
We encountered the very same situation on our third home visit. What was going on? These families began their Family Care journey in April 2024, and six months later, on October 9, we were witnessing unprecedented crop growth, fully renewed dignified living spaces, healthy bathing and bathroom areas, active composting bins, young farm animals, and very happy faces.
When we then gathered with the four other families - whose farmsteads, we were told, are in the same advanced state - we were overwhelmed with the thankfulness and gratitude for this program that group members proclaimed to us. We heard of the poor situation each family was in when United Kenya Rising found them. We heard of their willingness to be a neighborhood, so that when the first new house among them was completed, all the group’s members arrived on scene to help build the next person’s home. They assist each other every step of the way.
I turned to Millicent, the social worker assigned to this area, and she said, “We, too, have been overwhelmed with the camaraderie and friendship that has developed between these seven families. In this whole zone, we as staff arrive together for each visit, and we have gotten to know the families very well. They are making the best of each resource we have for them. And they do not wait for me to follow-up with them - they call me and say, ‘What can we do next?’ ”
From the very beginning, new families are taught what resources will be available to them, and the high level of effort expected of them. They agree to a sort of ‘contract,’ to be assisted in five areas - education, agricultural, health, dignified homes, and livelihoods. And the opportunity to transform life has lit a fire in all of these families’ hearts.
The mothers and fathers who I met just three weeks ago can now see a brighter future for their families and for their neighbors. Hope is a powerful motivator, and the joy-filled people I encountered have found great hope in United Kenya Rising, in the Family Care program, and in the fundraising efforts we in the U.S. do on their behalf.
I warmly thank each of you for your steady donations and your unshakeable goodness. After my most recent experience, I mean that now more than I ever have.
By Carra McFadden, President of Friends of Kenya Rising’s Board of Directors, on her 15th visit to Kakamega.
Small communities, big change
JOHN'S REFLECTION
The progress I saw at UKR is almost beyond my belief. A year ago, the organization was focused on guiding families toward graduation. Those families were spread widely across Kakamega and Vihiga Counties.
As new families joined Family Care this year, a ‘zone’ approach was employed to make things simpler. Those joining in 2024 have come as groups of 30-ish families, at the same time, and in the same area. I was looking forward to seeing how that worked, and earlier this month I had the honor of visiting all three of UKR’s newest community zones.
In Ilesi and Gisambai, two zones that formed in April, the developments I came across astounded me. And in Virhembe, UKR’s newest zone from August, I saw families facing problems I could not have imagined.
In the newest zone, with families still having many unsolved challenges, I realized that each heartbreaking situation is also an opportunity for UKR to have a tremendous impact. And although those visits were emotionally difficult to experience first-hand, I now appreciate even more that UKR serves the absolute neediest in communities where extreme poverty is widespread.
The benefits to this new zone approach are many. In each of the communities we visited, we found families well on their way in a short period of time. Focusing on one area at a time does more than allow UKR staff to visit more families in a day. It also allows several families, because they’re not far from each other, to come together for agriculture or business training sessions, and for mutual assistance improving homesteads and cultivating farms.
And that’s what I saw: families working in solidarity to build each other up.
By John McFadden, also a Friends of Kenya Rising volunteer board member, on his 4th visit to Kakamega.
