LAB Training

There are five new LAB groups this year, each with 10-15 members, and they’ve been hard at work learning as much as they can to improve the quality of their livestock.

In September and October, members attended Disease Theory training sessions with our WILK instructors. In these sessions, LAB groups learn the importance regularly spraying against ticks, giving cows vaccinations, and avoiding grazing areas used by infected cows.

We also noticed something remarkable during these LAB trainings. Many of the new participants took part in our Grass Management trainings over the summer as well. As a result, these groups have been very serious and motivated in their LAB sessions: there has been full attendance, everyone shows up on time, and they’re all ready and willing to learn.

In mid-October, we hosted our annual Business Skills Seminar in Kimana for three days of transformative learning. During these sessions, we discussed important topics including Buying and selling livestock: How to bring cows to market and make smart sales decisions; Record keeping: Managing finances and tracking progress; Budgeting for success: How to keep animals healthy and alive, especially in tough conditions, with a focus on disease control and prevention; Crafting a business plan: Turning ideas into reality; and Marketing and selling strategies: The 6 P’s – price, people, place, product, profit, promotion.

Since 2011, our LAB program has empowered Maasai families to manage their livestock better, boosting family incomes and ensuring the sustainability of our WASH projects. This program works, with loans yielding an average of 35% profit and being repaid 99% of the time. For the five new groups, this round of MOU loans is the first of four possible loans to receive through the LAB program.

MOU Loans

In November, after our new LAB groups received all of their training, they were more than ready for their loans. But before groups can sign the MOU to receive 200,000 Kenyan Shillings (about $1,600 USD), they have to come prepared. They need to have their business plan, their signed family consent form (to confirm collateral), a down payment, and the oversight of their chief.

The MOU outlines the requirements for each group’s loan—that they will use the money to buy livestock, that they will practice their new skills on those livestock, that they will sell them on time (by the end of June), and that they immediately repay WILK upon selling. Ultimately, these loans provide both new and returning LAB groups with the resources to grow their businesses and further support their communities.

Because Maasai love their animals, there is a cultural habit of not wanting to sell livestock. This leads to people keeping livestock too long, even when rain isn’t predicted. Building the habit of selling on time is key to run a successful livestock business.

Early Results

This week, WILK field officers monitored the new groups for the first time. Not only do they check on the health of the cows, but they also determine group cohesion and activity. Because LAB brings Maasai herders together to mitigate risk and spread out work, group members must delineate responsibilities and pull money together for the benefit of everyone. There are regular group meetings that each member attends so that cows stay healthy and can be sold for a higher price than they were bought.

So far, one group has stood out as an example for the others to follow. The Empusel Naretoi group has vaccinated all of their cows for Foot and Mouth Disease as well as Lumpy Skin Disease, both of which can be fatal for cows or prevent cow fertility. They are meeting regularly and contributing to the group’s money box. There even is a woman whose husband has given them permission to store grass in a spare room of the house.

We’ll continue to monitor the groups up through the summer, when the cows are to be sold at the market. Then, when the next cows are purchased, monitoring will continue. We have high hopes for these newly-trained livestock keepers!

The post Program Update: Livestock as a Business appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

Now that we’ve trained community leaders, we’re well underway with our newest program. Let’s take a look at how early lessons are already resonating with our 11 Grazing Management Committees.

Community Development

When asked what communities needed from us, GMCs immediately mentioned motorcycles; they wanted to use the vehicles as a way to monitor farmers—who, consequently, hadn’t been trained in grazing management in any way. The first step we took, then, was to reinforce the idea of a community with one main goal: grass conservation to support cow health. Collectively, we decided that teaching GMCs to teach their communities’ farmers was a more important “need.”

The other difficulty we faced was trying to convince farmers that the work they were being asked to do would benefit them in the end. Individual farmers are just that—individuals—and, without knowing the plan, they were hesitant to work together. We used early meetings with these communities as a way to build a consensus for what everyone wanted to accomplish. GMCs, then, could go over their plans on how to manage the grass.

Water is Life Kenya’s (WILK) Co-Founder Joseph Larasha also brought up an important point for farmers to consider: “What are livestock for?” Often, Maasai consider cattle to be worth more than their own families, to the point where money would be used to support cows before anything else. But cows build income that will support their families, so farmers had to rethink their approach towards traditional husbandry.

We’ve managed to pass on a lot of information to many people during each meeting. Sometimes hundreds of people will show up to listen in and learn from WILK, Larasha, and the GMCs. More importantly, what tends to happen after our trainings is that what we teach is then shared with friends and families. The impact of these lessons travels far and wide, and we couldn’t be happier.

A Thousand Trained, Thousands to Go

Since donations started coming in, we’ve helped GMCs lead community trainings in Ogulului, Enkong’u Narok, Oloilalei, Loolakir, and Esiteti. In the last two weeks, we’ve trained over 1,000 farmers. We’ll train thousands more before the summer’s over.

For 11 years, WILK has been teaching livestock farmers how to run successful businesses and prevent losses when droughts come through our Livestock as a Business (LAB) program. During these community trainings, we’ve been sharing those same lessons about drought cycle management, buying and selling, and working together as a community. We’ve taken to calling this portion of the training “LAB Lite.”

People are seeing the vision, and they are jumping on board. Healthy grass means healthy livestock, stable family incomes, a robust, resilient ecosystem, strengthened wild animal herds, increased tourism, and more prosperity for the entire community.

We have so many people to thank for believing in us and our mission. We’re proud of the work we’ve done to help communities in Kajiado County, Kenya, but we’re not finished. We’ll continue to teach more communities about grass management and conservation over the rest of the summer months. And, hopefully, more Maasai will be ready when the next drought strikes—and will have the skills to keep their cows alive.

The post Planning for Pasture: Program Update appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

Breaking Ground, Solving Problems

When drilling in this region, which is right near the volcanic Mt. Kilimanjaro, we never know what lies below the surface. Earlier this year, the hydrogeological survey told us where the water was, but the kind of rocks underneath were a mystery until drilling happened.

On June 30, we broke ground. The conditions were less than ideal. Olmoti’s soil is volcanic, so it’s filled with minuscule pockets of air. During drilling, the pulverized rocks shot out of the borehole via compressed air. The walls of the borehole also were too loose, so they collapsed several times.

The volcanic soil was also loose. As water was ejected from the borehole, that water was absorbed into the air pockets. The soil turned muddy, and the collapsing walls of the borehole caused several delays in drilling. Fortunately, our team was on the ground monitoring the drilling the entire time. At each road bump, we helped the drillers problem-solve, communicate with their boss in town, and devise solutions. For example, we solidified the walls of the trouble zone with 8-inch casings so drilling could continue.

After 50 meters of arduous drilling, we hit first water—which is in abundance. After a day of drilling, you could put your ear to the borehole and hear it slushing around at the bottom. In total, we drilled 312 feet, or 95 meters, to tap into the lower aquifer so Olmoti’s borehole won’t run dry.

What Comes Next

Test pumping followed a week later. The pump ran for 4 hours at 15,000 liters/hour, and the water level didn’t change. This tells us the water will flow well and consistently while not depleting the supply. The water itself is also clean, which means it’s potable. Many people showed up for test pumping and filled their jerry cans so they could bring water home without having to walk for hours to find it.

The next phase of this project is construction. As always, not only do we have to build the infrastructure needed to support the borehole and make it functional, we also have to elephant-proof it. Reinforced concrete will prevent elephants from destroying the borehole as they try to retrieve the now-accessible water. There will also be a pump house, water point, water tank, latrines, and other features built around the borehole. To run the borehole, a water pump and solar panels will be added.

Our boreholes in Kenya are expensive, but that’s because they need to sustain the community. Once the project is completed, women and girls will no longer have to walk up to eight hours a day to find water. This will give women the opportunity to earn money to send their children to school—and girls will have a chance to attend, too, because the cost will no longer be prohibitive.

Lives are going to change for the better! Thank you for believing in this borehole project and supporting the Olmoti community. We can’t help them without you, and we look forward to more good news about the Olmoti borehole!

The post Global Linkages Water Project: July Update for Olmoti appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

Why Care About Grass?

Traditional Maasai livestock keepers are strongly conservative in terms of preserving their culture and way of doing things, including grazing habits. Pastoralists decide how and where to graze their animals in communal grazing areas, but they have never been trained about the impact of managed grazing.

85% of Maasai income comes from livestock, but livestock can only be healthy and sellable if they eat well. This means that managing pasture strategically is critical to economic stability.

While some Maasai lost everything in the recent three-year drought, they haven’t taken advantage of the abundant grass growing now that it’s raining again. And the one thing we know is that another drought will occur eventually. We need to prepare now to prevent the loss of livestock.

Illiteracy is also a major hurdle in the communities where we work, so we have found that effective, practical education is key. Investing in education on this critical topic could make a huge difference. Even if 10-20% of the nearly 12,000 livestock farmers in this region start sharing this vision, the ecosystem can be greener and more prosperous within three years.

Our Plan for Pasture

Livestock keepers participating in our LAB program managed to keep their animals alive during the recent drought. This is due to skillful pasture conservation and planning ahead.

We decided to bring this same method to the Grazing Management Committee (GMC) leaders through a new program called Planning for Pasture. First we spent time understanding their needs. Then we developed a curriculum to empower all GMCs to train community members and build cooperation between them.

We teach the committees to set goals and then develop indicators to measure success. We also teach drought cycle management and pasture conservation. Finally, we “train the trainers to train” by assigning topics to the committee members. This lets them practice teaching and designing lesson plans which prepares them to teach their communities later on.

So far, the responses from the 176 people we have trained have been extremely positive. Several members said, “We’ve never had training like this before. When are you coming back?”

Setting Maasai Up for Success

We are successful because we partner with and in communities to build lasting capacity—rather than dictate policies from a desk thousands of miles away. Together with the GMCs, we have begun promoting the vision of a “3D Free Zone”—a “No Death During Drought Zone.”

You can help us support Maasai grass managers by contributing to our Planning for Pasture Campaign. Doing so will lead to more secure household income because of stable animal body conditions and fewer fluctuations in animal values, which means less stress and more prosperity for families.

We are nearly halfway to our goal of $48,800 for this project. Your gift—at any level—will get us closer to providing the education and support that Maasai need to thrive in their challenging environment.

Grazing management is a natural extension of our work, which provides clean water and livestock business skills. This level of planning and education will go a long way in guaranteeing a healthy and prosperous future for Maasai and their ecosystem. With a shared vision and cooperation fostered by a strong community training program, the crazy ups and downs caused by the drought can finally be a thing of the past.

The post Planning for Pasture: Helping Maasai Avoid Livestock Loss During Drought appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

There are both immediate and future repercussions from this overabundance of rain hitting Kenya. Let’s look at what’s happening in and around Kajaido County now as well as at what likely will happen next.

Water, Water Everywhere

Kenyans have seen record rainfall during the 2024 rainy season. Heavy rains, exacerbated by the Indian Ocean Dipole, are causing dangerous flood conditions along western Kenya. In Kajaido County, some roads are impassable. So far, over 200,000 people have been displaced because of flooding caused by constant rain.

But flooding is only the most obvious result of this severe weather. Landslides (or mudslides) and soil erosion also occur because the now-saturated soil can’t absorb the deluge. Last month, a landslide killed more than 40 people in Mai Mahiu, Naruku County (north of Kajiado County). And, at about this time last year, heavy rains during the rainy season caused similar environmental challenges.

For Water is Life Kenya (WILK) specifically, work is on hold. We can’t complete the borehole installation in Lositeti until the rains stop. Because our Livestock as a Business (LAB) and Hope for Widows programs meet outdoors, we have to wait for the weather to clear before we can train more people. Basically, everything is on pause while the rain falls.

When It Rains, It Pours

The floods are a problem now, and they’ll cause additional problems in the future. Land degradation is the most dangerous result: fertile soil washes away in the floodwaters and, when the rain finally stops, the land creates huge cracks and ravines get bigger. Flooding, then, will exacerbate desertification as much as drought.

Animals, too, suffer from changing soil conditions. Our friend Michael Lankoi, who told us about Lositeti’s need for a borehole, lost all of his cows when he was in search of water. They tried to drink from a difficult-to-access ravine after the sediment moved because of last year’s floods. Unfortunately, they couldn’t climb back up out of the ravine, which is where they died.

Nutrients crucial to crop cultivation are also lost, and pollutants settle in the ground. The remaining water from the floods often carries disease, which affects crops, people, and animals. So not only is the potential for food insecurity an issue, the overall health of the region is compromised.

What We Can Do

There’s no way to control the weather, and climate change is causing weather patterns to shift drastically. What we can do, however, is continue to support our communities in Kajiado County. The main way for us to accomplish this is to provide clean, reliable sources of water that both people and animals can use.

It may seem contradictory to talk about water when there’s so much rain falling. But remember that Kajiado County suffered for three years under severe drought conditions. The rain is heavy now, but it won’t last. And when the water dries up, we have to be prepared for the potential of another long drought.

We’ve learned to adapt to unpredictable weather by preparing communities as much as possible. We hope that, with the addition of training our Grazing Management Committees, we’ll find a way to help our friends weather the storm.

The post What Happens When the Rain Won’t Stop Falling appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

In honor of World Day of Social Justice, let’s take a look at how our focus on people has enabled us to continue supporting Maasai as they overcome life in the unforgiving, beautiful land they call home.

Seeking People-Specific Solutions

The area where we work in Keyna, central and southern Kajiado County, may seem limited. But with scarce resources and social isolation, the people who live there need our help the most. These resources include basic necessities, like water, that we don’t even think about. And because people live so far away from each other, the cost to obtain these resources is usually out of reach.

Only after we learn about a community and its culture can we offer the best method of assistance. Therefore, we drive on rough roads to rural locations, set up chairs in the shade, and listen to what people have to say. Once we realize what their needs are, we figure out ways to help them help themselves—whether that’s by constructing boreholes, offering income-generating programs and training sessions, or, in some circumstances, just distributing food.

Ways We Help

The projects and programs we offer have evolved since WILK started operating in 2007. We began with Clean Water (WASH) Projects, since water is the key to living in this semi-arid region. But water isn’t free, so a steady income is also a necessity for Maasai living near our boreholes. We began the Livestock as a Business (LAB) Program as a way to mitigate the cost of maintaining the boreholes, which is part of the reason why our water projects are so successful.

Our LAB program is also important because there are no Maasai without cattle. The income in this region comes from livestock, and people needed better skills to manage their herds. Livestock benefit from fresh water, disease treatment, and grass storage. We’ve developed LAB lessons to teach different methods that improve cattle quality and, therefore, bring in more money from the market.

We also don’t leave people in the lurch. For instance, when we realized that widows were struggling to meet their daily needs and couldn’t obtain their rightful land, we developed the Hope for Widows Program. By developing businesses, widows could afford their land deeds and take care of themselves and their children. All of these programs work because we take a personalized approach to serving Maasai communities.

Facing—and Bringing—Challenges

Every now and then, someone needs a boost. Considering the many obstacles Maasai face, we are constantly listening and learning about outside factors that might hinder progress for program participants. Last year, for instance, we noticed that some of the women in our Hope for Widows program weren’t saving money for their businesses. Remember that most of them were still dealing with the three-year-long drought that plagued Kenya. Instead of saving and reinvesting their profits, women were using any profit from their businesses to pay for personal expenses like food, school fees, and other daily needs.

It became clear that they needed an incentive to save more money (and keep their funds separated). To inspire greater savings, we pitched a savings competition: the five women with the highest savings would have their savings doubled. A few weeks later, we checked their savings boxes. The top earners had saved between $20 and $30 (around 2,000 to 3,000 Kenyan shillings). They were running strong businesses, their savings were doubled, and they were proud of themselves.

What we’ve learned from our community development work over the past 17 years is that empowering others is a formula. We design ways to help them succeed, and we celebrate them with each goal they achieve. These women bore the brunt of the drought head-on and, against the odds, they were able to turn a profit, send their kids to school, and save money on a shoestring budget. We’ll continue to help them navigate problems like climate change and poverty because we know they can succeed.

We Can Do Even More

There’s so much we take for granted in the United States—clean water, a prosperous economy, substantial rain. But in Kenya, none of these are guaranteed. Our presence on the ground and our commitment to help these communities flourish is still needed.

But unlike other organizations who care about numbers more than people, WILK puts Love into Action. We always keep the beneficiaries—who are real people—at the heart of what we do because they deserve to live in a stable environment, have access to clean water, earn an education, and practice their cultural traditions.

We care about our Maasai friends in Kenya and want to help them thrive. We’ll continue to serve them in ways that make sense culturally, strategically, and personally. And we’ll continue to find new, exciting ways to support them as we work together, along with our donors, for lasting change.

The post How to Affect Lasting Changes: People-Centered Work in Kenya appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

New Water Projects

Our donors helped us and those whom we serve get through the ferocious drought. The generosity of our WILK community funded water projects, food relief, and the restocking of livestock. The supply of clean water from our dozens of water projects also supported life and kept people clean and healthy.

This year, with your generosity combined with the power of strong partnerships, our Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Program will bring more clean water to at least three new communities in southern Kenya: Lositeti, Olmoti, and Olasiti. Currently, we’re standing by with the drilling machine to break ground in Lositeti for their water project.

Continuing the LAB Reboot

WILK’s Livestock as a Business (LAB) Program has been teaching many farmers critical skills. LAB members, past and present, reported that most of their livestock survived the drought. Some goals of LAB’s training are to improve the management of and increase the income from livestock, the main source of income in our region. And it works. Learned skills (pasture conservation, disease prevention and control, well-timed buying and selling of livestock, and drought cycle management) empower livestock farmers to manage their resources and keep their animals alive, their families fed, and their children in school.

WILK’S LAB program reboot is going strong. Nine groups received training and livestock loans this past fall. The cattle purchased with livestock loans in November and December are fattening nicely and will bring profit to the groups.

Currently, more women’s groups than men’s groups want to join LAB. But we found higher-than-expected livestock losses in some families of women LAB members. Although we train them, when it comes to actual decisions all these women can do is say to their husbands, “We learned it’s good to sell livestock on time, before they are too skinny, and use the money from the sale to manage our other cows.” Not every husband listened to his wife, so cows died. We plan to extend this program to reach more men, who make the decisions for livestock in their families.

Our own Livestock Farmers – Larasha and Nelson

At the cattle restocking ceremony last year, we gave a mini-LAB lesson to the recipients of the livestock and the other attendees. The reception of the message was good, especially since the benefits of the training were obvious. WILK co-founder, Joseph Larasha, hosted the ceremony at his home in front of his newly constructed animal feed store.

He said, “You can feed cows at home and save your cows. When cows stay home, they save energy and don’t need as much food since they no longer walk long distances.” People saw how healthy and numerous his cows were. They also saw the feed store, which he’s filling with food to prepare for the next drought.

Nelson Tinayo, WILK field officer and member of the Ilmarba Livestock Farmer Group (which lost cows during the drought), shared his experience at the ceremony: “There is no reason for the drought to kill cows if we store food for our cows and sell at the right time. You need to look at your capacity to feed the cows you have. When you can’t feed them all, sell some to buy food for others and those will survive.”

The LAB Graduate Cooperative

One powerful tool for training is through the new livestock cooperative formed by individuals who are members of graduated groups. In Kenya, a cooperative is “a self-governing group of people who have come together to address their economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a business that they own and control democratically.”

The Nashumu Cooperative (meaning “to lift up”) was formed in 2019 to promote continuing economic development and a community of smart livestock farmers. The 45 cooperative members come out of livestock farmer groups that completed four years of the LAB program. They didn’t want to lose the benefits of training, good community spirit, continuous learning, and camaraderie of the LAB program. Their main activities are to buy, fatten, and market livestock.

With support from WILK in 2024, the cooperative can be a powerful example of successful livestock keeping in WILK’s work region and a force to propel recovery from the drought. A main area of focus for both LAB and the cooperative will be to implement and provide good examples of pasture conservation and improvement, focusing on the construction of stores, improvement, and protection of grasslands.

Look for More from WILK

With your support, we look forward to great things ahead as we work together for a 2024 full of growth and prosperity. Thank you for ALL YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT, and best wishes for a brilliant year ahead!

Much Love,

Joyce Tannian and the WILK USA and WILK Kenya teams

The post The Year Ahead: WILK’s Goals for 2024 appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

50 Families Have Cows and Goats

The recent drought in Kenya, the worst in 40 years, devastated families across the region. Over the last several months, there’s been enough rain to pool areas of water and encourage grass growth, both of which are needed so cultivated livestock can survive.

While we waited for conditions to become sustainable, we trained three new and six reactivated LAB groups. Previous participants welcomed back the LAB program, which has taught livestock management and disease prevention since 2011. New participants also received training over the summer as a way to prepare them for their cows and goats.

In December, we purchased the livestock from the market. Our donor community helped us buy a total of 25 cows and 50 goats. A person received either two goats or one cow, which means that 50 families benefitted from the Restock & Restore Campaign. One woman even walked five miles to the meet-up spot—without shoes on. When our team asked if she needed to borrow a pair to walk back, she said, “I have a cow now—I don’t need shoes.”

Lives Have Changed Already

Cows and goats change everything for families in need. Especially after the long drought, livestock gives hope to people who lost animals and income. Those who own cows are given more respect by their peers—and have more confidence in themselves. Cows are a long-term investment for Maasai livestock farmers. They equal currency and can either be used as payment or sold for money. They’re also an important, inherent part of Maasai culture, both in ceremonial and practical use.

As an organization that relies on donor funds, we at Water is Life Kenya want to use our hard-won resources in the right way to get the desired results. We understand that the first step is to help people develop as individuals before transformation can happen at the family and community levels. Part of our mission is to equip Maasai with tools that develop income through improved resource management. Getting high-impact results in human development provides the evidence our generous donors need to know that their money is being used well.

We support Maasai livestock farmers, both in and beyond the LAB program, so that they can continue this long-practiced tradition. Livestock is life for Maasai and, through sharing what they learned, LAB graduates are spreading prosperity throughout their communities.

Entering the New Year with Cows

This first distribution inspired great hope in the communities we work in. People who hear about the distribution have approached our team, asking to be on the list for the next distribution.

Well, earlier this month we celebrated the 90th birthday of our Board President, Francis X. Tannian. Instead of gifts, family and friends donated cows in his honor. 22 recently purchased cows will be distributed on December 30th, right before the new year.

It’s shaping up a to be a bright 2024 for them and many other families as we continue this transformative work across Kajiado County, Kenya.

The post Cows and Goats: Gifts of Hope appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

Meet Koyiaso

Koyiaso is from Oltome village in Amboseli. She is an active woman of 45 and has four children. She lost her husband four years ago and joined WILK’s Hope for Widows Pilot program in July 2022. Whenever you see Koyiaso, she is carrying on her back a big load of textiles and clothing which she sells from village to village. From the profit she earns through her business, she buys food and pays school fees for her family. Koyiaso has also saved enough money to make improvements to her home. She recently built a fence to protect her family from lions and even piped water from the nearby borehole to her house.

Koyiaso said, “Before I joined WILK’s Hope for Widows program, I was shy. I felt hopeless. Now I have ideas and can talk in front of people. I am able to make a profit and manage my business. I have enough knowledge so that my business won’t collapse when I have big expenses like school fees. I am known as a business lady, where before people would avoid me because I had nothing.”

Koyiaso has blossomed as she built her business with the grant she received from WILK. When she talks about how grateful she is for the chance to change her life, she cries. She had a hard time since losing her husband and didn’t see how her situation could improve. But now, hope is alive!

Empowering Widows through Business Skills

In the Hope for Widows program, we train women in business skills, self-empowerment, women and family health, and their rights as widows. After training, we award a cash grant of $150 to start their small businesses and three goats to start their herds. Based on our 2022-23 pilot program results, we found that a one-time donation of $800 means a woman receives $2,400 in benefits through increases in four key financial indicators: income, assets, savings, and business inventory.

1. Increase in Income – Women went from an average of $50 per month to $200 per month. This means $1,800 more per year for these women and their children.
2. Increase in Savings – Most women began with $0 in savings. Now they are saving $50 per woman in 6 months. This is growth of $100 per year.
3. Increase in Assets – After receiving goats, their livestock assets have grown from an average of 2 goats per woman (worth $120) to 6 goats per woman (worth $360).
4. Consistent Inventory – With this new financial discipline, women can maintain inventory, run their small businesses consistently, and keep their customers coming back.

Additional Benefit: Improved Household Nutrition

In addition, we have seen significant improvement in household nutrition. Before the program, women were eating two meals a day, one of which was only a cup of tea. But by July 2023, they were eating two meals a day with real food, like vegetables and ugali, rice and beans, corn and beans, or porridge with milk, along with a cup of tea for breakfast. Now they are strong, healthy, and energetic. And when we asked how their quality of life had changed, the women told us that their confidence, hopefulness, feeling of belonging, and belief in their ability to “handle things” had increased.

They Could Use Your Help

So many more women need the training and grants, especially due to the inflation of staple food
costs, a weak Kenyan currency, and drought causing poor harvests. Widow-led families feel the pressure even more than others. Providing skills and seed money will boost these women and build resilience so they can thrive in an uncertain environment.

Your gift of $150 will provide money for a widow to start her business; $460 will fund one year of training; $800 will support a widow in her first year of the Hope for Widows Program, including the grant, goats, and training.

Together, we can do even more. Any amount you give will be put towards our work of Helping Kenyans Bloom. Thanks to you, widows in Kenya can care for themselves and their families with dignity and hope.

The post Hope for Widows Spotlight: One Woman’s Journey as a Businesswoman appeared first on Water is Life Kenya.

Why Goats & Grants?

You may be asking: Why goats and grants…again?

Last November, the first round of Hope for Widows participants had their Goats & Grants ceremony. Since then, they’ve been running their businesses, saving money, and reliably providing for their families.

The goats (two females and one male) are long-term investments for the widows. These women need to build capital and livestock is still a good investment in the region. Having a built-in savings account that compounds over time—especially as they have babies!—is a key component of increasing capacity.

The grants are short-term cash infusions to help jumpstart the widows’ small business ventures. With these grants, they are able to buy what’s necessary to stock their shops, as well as any raw materials needed for production.

Giving, and Giving Back

At this ceremony, a total of 32 women, 15 from Ogulului and 17 from Amboseli, completed the Hope for Widows training over the summer. Sessions primarily covered business strategies to help the women learn how to build savings and how much to invest into what they’ll be selling. There will also be a training session in the future dedicated to women’s health issues.

Each widow received a grant of $150 (about 20,000 Kenyan shillings) and three goats (two female, one male). The money is to be invested in their businesses, so they have 10 days to make a supplies list and purchase what they need. The goats are additional collateral that give the women a source of savings.

Here’s an example of what was purchased with the grant:

Two Groups, One Heart

Now, where do the baby goats come in?

Some of the goats distributed in November did what goats do—and had babies. With grateful hearts, the widows who own these goats decided to “pay it forward.”

Each widow with multiple babies gave one baby goat to a woman in need. There were plenty of smiles, tears, and happy dancing when the handovers happened. For us, seeing this level of reciprocity is a dream come true.

At the ceremony, women distinguished themselves by the length of their participation in the Hope for Widows program. Those who completed their training last year wore blue shukas while new participants wore orange. Women from the pilot group also gave baby goats to friends who needed a boost of help. Overall, the ceremony became a celebration of the hard work all these women have done so far.

Past Success Leads to a Future With Hope

Speaking of hard work, Group 1 of the Hope for Widows participants is nearing the end of its first year. We recently traveled to Amboseli and the Kilimanjaro Highlands to check in with these groups. While surveying their experience thus far, we asked about the most impactful skills they’ve learned. Two answers were repeated: making a profit and becoming self-reliant. 

Despite the long drought that’s been plaguing Kenya, these women managed to make enough money to cover their expenses, and then some. Last year, the widows would often skip meals to make sure their kids ate. Now, they’re eating every day. They received their second grant earlier in August and, with their experience, they know how to put it to the best use possible.

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