It's been a great year for the Organic Health Response ... we launched our new website at www.organichealthresponse.org, we celebrated Worlds AIDS Day on December 1st, 2009, with over 1,000 visitors for the Ekialo Kiona Soccer game and Awareness Events at our project site in Western Kenya, and we're getting even closer to finishing construction of the solar-powered Ekialo Kiona community resource center.

We are so grateful for all of the continued support we have received. The Mfangano community truly felt this support in 2009 through all of the progress during the year.

In 2008, when we set our building completion date for December 1st, 2009 – in celebration of World AIDS Day – we knew we were setting ourselves up for a challenge. We gave ourselves 1 full year to design and build a solar powered community center … on a remote island in the middle of Lake Victoria, with no electricity, no vehicles, and a 3-hour wooden ferryboat ride between the mainland and our site at Kitawi Beach on Mfangano Island. We also decided to build this center as from our community---no outside contracting firms... We decided to build the EK center from local designs, with local sand and stones, with 100% local labor, and through local leadership.

So far, we’ve encountered only a few bumps along the way. Designed, built, and managed almost entirely by Kenyans, we are extremely proud of our work thus far. We continue to work hard to complete the roof, windows, doors, and interior details. Our next steps of interior set-up and program implementation will begin in the Spring of 2010.

Stay tuned for more updates in 2010. We have a lot to look forward to, including the launch of the Ekialo Kiona Radio Station set to launch in the spring and the Micro-Clinic Network in the summer of 2010. Produced in Suba and Luo language, Ekialo Kiona Radio will facilitate health and nutrition awareness, sustainable agriculture and fishing innovation, youth engagement, indigenous culture and history, and original music. EKR will help maintain our network of micro-clinics, give young people a chance to contribute their voices, and cement a sense of solidarity for thousands of isolated people across Lake Victoria.

Through partnership with the Global Micro-Clinic Project, OHR is designing special workshops to empower 100 cooperatives of 5-25 people with practical tools to address the biological and social aspects of HIV/AIDS infection. This micro-clinic network will serve as a social infrastructure across Mfangano to implement sustainable initiatives such as organic farm plots, composting bio-gas latrines, solar cooking ovens, and other innovative health programs.

A huge thank you for being a part of the Organic Health Response and helping our work move forward. We can't wait for 2010 and will continue to keep you updated. As Chas Salmen said, "The vision we have been talking about for 3 years is really happening."

Pictures:

• EK_Center_Nearly_Finished.jpeg (JPEG)
• EK_Radio_Meeting.jpeg (JPEG)
• First_Rock_Concert_on_Mfangano.jpeg (JPEG)