By Kelsi Hines and Rose Carr | Volunteer Coordinator and Communications Director
The Organic Health Response has been feeling the momentum of their work spread across Mfangano and the world. After the great turn out on World AIDS Day 2009, Organic Health Response celebrated the 2nd Earth Day event on Mfangano this April. The day was filled with events such as garbage pickup competition, tree seedling give away, organic pesticide demo, stone collecting competition, and Voluntary Counseling and Testing services. The event ended with the Radio Committee broadcasting earth friendly facts on the microphone and the declaration of Mfangano’s first Environmental Hero Award.
We are almost half way through 2010 and we’ve really been gaining ground. With construction soon coming to complete on the Ekialo Kiona Center, the building crew has been offered future opportunities to use and teach their skills of sustainable design around the island. A vocational school on Mfangano has hired the crew to teach their students the ferro cement technique and build additional living quarters.
We’ve hired community members from the surrounding communities representing Mfangano East to act as a secretary, groundskeeper, security guards, receptionist, and information technologist at the Ekialo Kiona Center. All were hired by January 2010 and have been helping the OHR Director get the Ekialo Kiona Center off the ground.
Beyond Mfangano, friends of the Organic Health Response across the globe have been sharing the mission with fundraisers and awareness events. This year events have taken place in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Hangzhou, China with a great response.
Plans are already moving forward for the summer in Mfangano with a group of students from the University of California San Francisco traveling to the island for research. They plan to evaluate program effectiveness and determine potential scalability of Organic Health Response pilot programs for similarly affected communities across Lake Victoria, sub-Saharan Africa, and beyond.
Thank you for your support and continued belief in our mission. The community of Mfangano and volunteers and staff of Organic Health Response genuinely appreciate your compassion and contributions. As one of the community members said “When I'm at EK (Ekialo Kiona Center), I'm feeling happy.” We feel it too!
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