Empower 175 students for food security in Kenya

We are happy as we do this report since in previous report we were very worried due to delayed rains in most parts of the country.   As previously reported, the rains had started sometimes in April 2019 and farmers were happy as this continued and they were able to plant their crops after a long wait.  The farms are now very green with a lot of crops doing great.  Our youth politics were excited to report back to school after April holiday and they immediately started working on their gardens.  We supported them with seeds and planting materials as earlier reported and they were very happy.  Their farms are looking nice with vegetables and other crops growing well.  Most of them are now harvesting vegetables and other short term crops like peas.  They are very excited also to have green vegetables in their meals and some of them are even selling surplus as they normally do when they have them in plenty for income generation.  In the previous report, we had reported that we will discuss the issue of rain water harvesting with the schools management to take advantage of the long rains.  Discussion was done in all polytechnics and the management liked the idea of doing simple rain water harvesting but most of them said they were not in a position to start due to the very many challenges they had.  They told us since it was very dry in the previous months, most parents were not able to pay school fees for their children in time hence very difficult moments for the schools to cater for the schools basic needs.  Most parents did not pay school fees for their children in first term and they had promised to clear fees balances once they start selling their farm produce.   There were some polytechnics who had installed simple water harvesting structures previously and we encouraged them to improve them for more benefits.  Our youth students were eager to learn on how they could install these structures in their school but unfortunately this was not possible this time round. The schools management promised to have meetings with parents to discuss how they can actualize this and improve the situation we will work with them once they start the process.  We are happy that our students are still interested in agribusiness and they are ready to learn and gain more skills and knowledge.  We appreciate the support given, thank you very much.