Kipringwe, Ringa, and Table Banking

Workers harvesting tea near Kericho

Agriculturalist

This morning, Rick, Rob and Joseph interviewed a candidate for a new position with A Better World.  Joseph, who is a board member of ABW, holds a PhD in Agriculture from U of A, and was born and raised in Kenya, is an soft-spoken, intelligent man who contributes greatly to ABW and it’s projects.  The new position that they were interviewing for would essentially be an agricultural consultant on the ground in Kenya.  He would be responsible for establishing and overseeing gardens at all ABW’s projects.  This is something that is difficult to manage from Canada, and requires a specialized skill-set.  Up to this point, the gardens that are established have had varied results because of a lack of direct oversight here in Kenya.  The goal is to first provide one meal a day to all school children in each facility, and then, in addition to the food program, move towards commercial viability (selling the crops to return profit to the school).  Joseph and Rob were optimistic about the candidate (Richard) so I think an exciting future awaits for food production on-site of every school.

Kipringwe

The view from Kipringwe school

We headed up a steep, ridiculously bad road into another ABW school this morning: Kipringwe.  This school was built about five years ago by Carpet Colour Centre and HJ Cody High School in Sylvan Lake.  It located in probably the most beautiful area I’ve seen yet in Kenya.  It is perched high on a ridge overlooking rural pasture and forest.  The soil is deep red, there are stands of banana trees and fields of maize, and makeshift barbwire fences, picturesque in their own way, haphazardly cut across the landscape.  There is an abundance of life here, the cattle is fat and healthy, the land is green and lush. As we moved slowly up the unforgiving road, people on their way home from church stopped to stare, obviously unaccustomed to visitors.

Rick inspecting some new metal roofing at Kipringwe

The school is in sore need of renovations: the metal roofing was badly rusted, much of the paint was severely faded, and the walls were covered in mud from years of use.  There are currently six hundred students attending Kipringwe and only nine teachers!  Five additional teachers, who were supposed to be paid by the community, have walked off the job.  The parents have not come through on the payment in three months.  Rick made arrangements to have the roof replaced and we are in the process of specifying paint for the walls.

One thing Kipringwe has going for it - a huge plot of land for gardening.  The land is so fertile, crops should flourish here and produce regular harvests for the school.  We are hoping too (no one more so than driver Charles) that the road will be improved in the next year as promised.

Some kids at Kipringwe

Ringa

Another grand opening took place today at Ringa school in the countryside about an hour southeast of Kericho.  This is a long-established project for ABW, but they’ve just opened another set of classrooms.  The funds were provided by Julie from ABW and Don and Glenna, a great couple who had decided to forgo gifts at their wedding to have guests give money to the building of the classrooms.  Again, there were lots of speeches (Kenyans love long speeches), singing, dancing, poetry, recitations, and even a bit of drama.  It was Sunday and raining, but there was probably close to a thousand people to there to welcome us and thank us for the new school.  The parents of the students pushed the Canadian’s collective comfort level a little by getting everyone up to dance as they bestowed gifts upon us.  Eric, decked out in a leso (a kind of scarf), a hat, and carrying a cow hair fly swatter, bore a striking resemblance to Mahatma Ghandi.  He danced just like I imagine Ghandi would have danced.  

Kipringwe

Politics

One of the interesting developments since the last elections here in Kenya, is that two of A Better World’s project managers here were elected into parliament.  It is a great platform to base a campaign on because these guys travel all over their district, and have regular contact with many people who later become voters and constituents.  They have also shown a grassroots commitment to the community through the good work that ABW does.  One of the new MPs, Joseph Limo, was at Ringa to dedicate the new classrooms.  He now has some influence in Kenyan politics, which can only mean good things for A Better World’s efforts to raise the level of education in the remote regions of Kenya.  Already, through his influence, the government has adopted nationally a ABW initiative called Table Banking.

Table Banking

We ended the day by meeting with Joseph’s wife, Beatrice Limo, about Table Banking.  This is an innovative approach to microloan financing to help kickstart business in rural Kenya.  Without going into too much detail, the system allows people who would otherwise not qualify for a bank loan due to unaffordable interest rates or lack of collateral to join other like-minded business people to self-fund ventures.  In simple terms, the process uses seed money, and money raised through contributions from members of the table, to build a insured pool to draw from for business loans.  One of the best attributes of this system is the built-in accountability to the community.  I was very excited to learn of the program, because there is such massive potential here.  The contributions made, while enabling small business and agriculture - two proven wealth generators, are not aid; the contributions are an investment into Kenya and a vote of confidence in the ability of Kenyans to build successful businesses.  The proverbial hand-up in place of the hand-out.