Empower 175 students for food security in Kenya

The year 2020 started very well and we all had a lot of hopes that the year would be much better than last year. Like previously reported, our youth polytechnics reported back to school after long December holiday and they started the school term well little did we know that the learning will be affected by the “monster” covid 19 pandemic which has affected the whole world. Although they had started their usual school activities they had to stop most of them and stay at home for their safety. We are happy that to this far we have not had any of our communities that we are working with tested positive with the corona virus and we hope for the best. Most of our agribusiness clubs that we have been supporting had already started their garden activities with most of them with ready vegetables which they were selling to their schools for their meals and selling surplus to their neighbors. It has been very difficult for them to work on their school gardens or even sell the vegetables as they used to since they cannot be allowed in the schools compound and they can only get updates from the few school workers who have access to the schools. Although the club patrons in some schools are coordinating sales of vegetables, the club members feel that it is not enough as they had a lot of activities they had planned for their gardens and most of them were preparing products to show case during annual agricultural show in Nakuru which is held in July every year unfortunately this year things are different. There are losses of farm produce for some of the gardens as it has been raining heavily and they feel they could have taken advantage of the heavy rains and especially on water harvesting and planting new crops. They fear that they will lose a lot and they will have to start all over again but since they don’t have an alternative they have to bear with the situation and we really feel sorry for these young youths who had high hopes that their agribusiness will be more productive this year considering the favourable weather. We hope this monster will come to an end soon and things will get back to normal. Thank you to our friends and well-wishers who have been thinking about us and our communities and also for their kind contributions. We really appreciate your support and concern during this difficult moments

We are excited for the gift of another year and we hope that you have all started the year well in good health and more energy. We take this opportunity to wish you a prosperous new year 2020. Our youth polytechnics students have been on long December holiday and they are now back to school for a new semester. Most of the students graduated from the training centers and they are waiting for their results as the institutions are busy enrolling new students. We have been encouraging youths to join these vocational training centers so that they can gain technical skills that will help them self-reliant by creating their own jobs and being employers. Good examples are our agribusiness club members who have graduated and they are busy in utilizing skill gained on agribusiness. Most of them are already into the business even as they wait for the results. The weather has been very favourable thus enabling them to implement various agribusiness activities and especially modern farming techniques where they have been growing crops and selling them at good prices especially during festive seasons when the demand for most products was very high. Since it is still raining in most parts of the country, they are producing more products so that they can sell to various schools, institutions and local retailers as it is usually very dry in January. They are taking advantage of the rains and demand is still very high. We are encouraging them to continue with the same spirit and focus on expanding their farms for more produce and profits. Some of them are also offering trainings to the communities and institutions at a fee again increasing their income. Our discussion on previous report was on water harvesting structures and we hope the parents will participate in making this initiative realizable as they promised last year. The semester is very new and the schools management will guide us and the parents on the way forward on this issue. We are planning to engage graduated students in facilitating trainings on agribusiness to the new students who are joining various institution and are ready to join the club. This will be planned in due course with the teachers, new students and facilitators who will be the already graduated club members and of course the other club members who have now gained a lot of skills. We thank you all those who have made this project successful as we welcome them and others to continue supporting our young youths.