The site offers basic information on the non-profit’s vision, objectives, and projects. It also features a blog section offering information resources designed to counter popular misconceptions that currently promote vicious cycles of poverty, raise critical questions affecting education in poverty-stricken regions in Kenya, and provide a portal for interacting with the stakeholders and ordinary people.
Ukarimu has been keenly involved in running regular feeding programs for hundreds of schoolchildren in Homa Bay County since 2012. Currently, the organisation looks to engage the website to harness programs intended to equip school-going children and to empower them to make informed career decisions through workshops, counselling, clinics, sports events, talk shows, and social advocacy using inspiring stories.
In collaboration with school authorities, parents, religious institutions and career counselors, Ukarimu.org will introduce school-going children to an array of career alternatives as well as expose them to life skills, careers, and the roles they can play in advancing better social causes.
“The site will provide a strategic advantage to engaging collective efforts towards lending the organisation a right bearing and necessary support,” explains Dalafin Ogweno, the patron of the Homa-Bay-based non-profit.
The non-profit seeks to break the cycle of poverty through education and other similar programs that create opportunities for the less fortunate.
Winnie Ojanga, a Swiss-based fashion designer, model, philanthropist, and the founder of Ukarimu, said: “I believe great things will spring from Africa as we continue to harness the region’s future human resources, and hone and re-direct our collective efforts towards social progress. This has to begin with our children.”
Mrs Ojanga acknowledges that the provision of education is connected to the realization of the Kenya’s Vision 2030. In her view, some challenges of equity exist for people to contribute towards the envisaged goals because of poverty, which denies many children in the country an opportunity to attend school.
“We provide nutritious meals to participating schools two times a week. This provides the children with an enticement to attend schools and gain basic education that would allow them to escape from poverty,” she says.
A meal at school acts as a magnet to getting children into the classroom. But the benefits of school-feeding go beyond the schools as they also serve as safety nets that enable poor families to keep their children in schools to focus on their studies. This in turn increases school enrollment and attendance, cuts drop-out rates, and improves pupils’ cognitive abilities.
“We must speak about the value of education if we have to break the vicious cycle, education is the solution to unlocking that door. There are many various cycles we can address that come under education, but, generally, when an individual is educated, they tend to walk away from many misfortunes associated with education…as education enables us to decide on what is right and wrong,” adds Ogweno.
This initiative comes in the wake of an upsurge of reports showcasing the shocking cases of malnourishment in Kenya and how they distress children’s performance in schools. Last year, the country was ranked sixth among top 10 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with large populations living in abject poverty. Current estimates also show that 1.6 million Kenyans face hunger. Around 48 percent of the Kenyan population, especially subsistence farmers and pastoralists, live in poverty while just about 40 percent — some 16 million people — are undernourished.
“Ukarimu’s efforts to create a scenario where the schools and hungry poor access educational and nutritional opportunities are critical in building a foundation for future generations to grow and prosper,” Ogweno says.
“We’re proud to have helped hundreds of Kenyans through our integrated nutrition, food security, book programs and water programs,” concludes Ogweno.
Ukarimu’s pilot project was conducted at Pedo Primary School in Homa Bay County in 2012, where more than 200 children benefited. At present, schools that benefit from the program include Yawoo primary, Radiro Primary, Got Kochungo Primary, Lieta primary, Kabunde primary, Homabay disabled school, and Pedo Primary School.
Ukarimu also equips pupils with learning materials and backpacks. In 2014, Ukarimu partnered with Primar Schule Dielsdorf in Switzerland to donate backpacks to bright/orphaned children in 10 primary schools in Homabay County, including Asego Primary, Homa Bay Primary, Lake Primary, Yahoo Primary, Radiro Primary, Homabay Disabled School, Shauri Yako Primary School, and Pedo Primary School.
In 2014, Ukarimu also partnered with a U.S.-based organization to organize a free medical camp in Homabay County (Kenya). More than 600 people benefited from the medical camp. Ukarimu also runs a water project in Homa Bay, in addition to girl-child Sanitary towel program, mentoring, and books donation Program. Other programme include Ukarimu Education Fund Program for the bright and needy students was started in February 2013, and Ukarimu School Library/Books Donation Program.
Ukarimu envisions that similar projects would be replicated to other poor communities across the country. The new site will encourage public discussions on the politics of education and malnutrition as well as initiate communal actions that advance the well-being of children, women, and the youth. The site will also provide real stories on the real African situation.
