Empower 175 students for food security in Kenya

The students have been on holiday since the beginning of April 2018.  Today they resumed for 2^nd term studies and we are happy to report that since March it has been raining and students were busy working on their gardens even during the break as they had a schedule of what to do and taking advantage of the rains. We were able to support them with planting materials before they break for April holidays.  They have all planted their crops and their gardens are very nice and they are optimistic that this time round they will enjoy good yields from their gardens.  Most of them will be enjoying vegetables in their lunches as most of them are ready for harvesting.  They are also trying in their small way to do water harvesting during this season to ensure they will have water for irrigation during the dry period even if not much but the water will be useful also for other school purposes. We will be doing fresh trainings on value addition and marketing to equip the students with necessary information and practices on value addition as we realize in most schools those who we had trained earlier have already graduated and not in school now but we are happy that some of them are practicing what they learnt and becoming self-employed even after their studies.  This is very encouraging as they are now practicing agribusiness and they are food secure we will continue encouraging them and assisting them where we can and especially on marketing, value addition and other farming techniques.  At this point we have encouraged them to join youth groups where they can access government loans and youth fund to advance their projects.  As earlier reported, we still want to build capacity of the tutors and students and linking them with the government institutions and especially on available youth opportunities we will have facilitators from ministry of youth affairs and other government institutions to ensure that our youths are well prepared in facing the outside world after their courses.  We are happy to report that this project has been successful and we thank all who have contributed to this success together we have achieved and our youths are more food secure and they have gained a lot of knowledge and skills which will be very useful now and after the learning period.  We are ready to continue with the journey of supporting our youths for a brighter future. 

The youth polytechnics opened school for their first term in January 2018 after long December holiday.  During the December holiday, it was a bit dry and they did not have many activities in their gardens during the period.  Most of them had schedules on members responsible to visit the school during the holiday and address some of the project issues.  This worked quite well and when they all resumed in January, they were able to continue with their duties.  Currently all the schools are preparing their gardens in readiness for planting during the long rains expected in March/April.  We will be supporting them with seeds and planting materials since they don’t have planting materials as they were not able to do seed banking last year due to prolonged drought resulting into low yields.  We are also discussing with the school administration on possibilities of digging shallow wells in some of the schools so as to improve the current water problem in most schools.  We hope to initiate fundraising activities to support some of the schools’ projects addressing the challenges affecting the clubs.  To tap the students’ talents and available opportunities, we have agreed to work closely with the school administration, tutors, government sectors and other institution working with the youths so as to build the capacity of the tutors and students to ensure that the youth benefits from the available opportunities.  We are optimistic that these opportunities will benefit our youths and will be eye openers for them even after they finish their courses and they will have somewhere to start.  Agribusiness is one of the opportunities that we want to inculcate into all youths and since most of them have developed a lot of interest it will be our starting point.  Thank you for the support this far and we invite you to walk the journey of supporting our youths with us.

Youth polytechnics are just about to finish their school year.  It has not been easy for them as the challenges were many but somehow they have managed in one way or the other.  Being an election year, it has been more challenging.  The weather change was a major challenge and especially in school where we have the school gardens.  They had little harvest from their gardens but this did not kill their morale.  Those in arid and semi-arid areas did not have much in their gardens as most of their crops were affected by the prolonged drought and since they don’t have water structures, it was not sustainable in any way.  The club members are still determined and they have said that they will not give up.  There have been some rains in September and they have planted their gardens and they have allocated themselves duty to attend to their gardens during their school holiday.  They have also started simple ground water harvesting to ensure that they will water their crops in case the rains subsidize when they crops are still young but they are optimistic that the rains will continue for sometimes.  Ground water harvesting is a challenge at the moment since the rain is not heavy and not continuous and also lack of proper techniques.  We hope that they will be successful in their projects and enjoy yields from their gardens.  We have been working closely with them to encourage them and building their capacity on agri-business.   We will continue working with them on these and other areas as we hope for the best.  Thank you for the support.

This year weather patterns have been very challenging to the farmers.  The long rains in May did not continue for long as it was expected and this was a big blow to the farmers.  Most of them lost their crops when the rains subsidized and since the rains did not continue for long, they did little on water harvesting that could not sustain them for long.  Our youth polytechnics were affected as well as they had not harvested enough water due to inadequate water harvesting structures.  Our youths felt very discouraged as they had a lot of hopes that this time round they would at least enjoy some harvest.  We continued to encourage them and sensitizing them on climate change and the effects.  Some of the lost all their crops but some were able to enjoy some vegetables and other short term crops.  Those in dry areas had very little but with introduction of drought tolerant crops, they had some crops in their gardens.   We will continue building their capacity as we continue fundraising for water harvesting structures in their schools.  As earlier reported, we are happy to see the youths embracing agriculture after our intervention and introduction of urban gardening as well as other farming technics.  We have been trying to working with the youths even those not in youth polytechnics to prepare them for another source of income and livelihood even without white colour jobs.  Slowly they are changing and venturing to agri-business.  We wish to continue working with them and supporting them in all possible means.  Thank you to all well-wishers have walked this journey with us be blessed.

Hello everyone, we are happy to report that finally we have received the long waited rains in the country.  Although it did not start in March as expected, farmers are smiling as they plant new crops with a lot of expectations of receiving good yields.   There have been various challenges as most farm inputs have increased in price but farmers are still struggling.  We have already supported some youth polytechnics with seeds and planting materials which they have already planted and they are progressing on well. We are also encouraging them to take advantage of the heavy rains to do a lot of water harvesting to ensure that they will have some water to push them after the rains subsidizes.  Although majority doesn’t have the appropriate water harvesting structures, we are training them on how to practice various techniques to do water harvesting.  Some of them are already practicing the techniques and if successful the others will adapt the same.  We are so encouraged to see how youths are determined in this project they have now accepted agriculture and realized how they can be self-employed as well as employers through sustainable agriculture and agri-business. We continue supporting them and encouraging them further as this will reduce the current status of youth unemployment and food security.  We hope that this time round they will harvest good yields after the efforts and failure due to prolonged dry spell.  We thank all those who have contributed towards success of this project.