December 1, 2010 - World HIV/Aids Day

Today is World HIV/Aids Day, a day in which to raise awareness of the plight of those around the globe who are afflicted with HIV/Aids. This is a deadly killer which has left a great portion of Africa with the loss of a generation, those of middle age. Children have been left orphaned when young parents die from this deadly killer. Grandparents, especially grandmothers are then left with the challenge of raising young children as they enter their golden year. The added financial strain this puts on these older women is often overwhelming and even grandparents must pass the children on to other relatives, who in turn send the children out to fend on their own. Imagine your children being left to find their own food, clothes and support themselves and some of these children are also afflicated with HIV/Aids. In our village of Wongonyi in southeastern Kenya we have 100 orphans living without parental guidance.

When we were in Nairobi this past March, we had the pleasure of meeting Mama Caroline, the Chair person of the Jitolee Crafts group. This is a wonderful group of women who despite the stigma of HIV/Aids have banded together to create a business in order to generate income so that they can look after their families. The stigma of HIV/Aids prevents these women from getting normal jobs as they are considered unhireable. It is a shame and a human indignity that people treat others in this manner. These women are like any other mothers world-wide who just want to provide the best for their families. In most cases, the husbands who have actually given these women HIV/Aids because of the husband's roving behaviour, then leave the families when they learn of the HIV status of the wives. The women who in many cases have stayed home to look after the family are now left with no income, children to feed and clothe and school fees to pay.

Upon meeting in a support group for people with HIV/Aids, in 2003 the 6 founding women of Jitolee Crafts acquire the skills and supplies to make traditional African crafts. The same year Jitolee Crafts created an HIV/Aids Awareness pin that was worn by the Kenyan President. Today the group has expanded to 15 members and continues to innovate new deisigns. The group of women live in Kibera Slums in Nairobi and work out of Mama Caroline's small tin shack.

Jitolee Crafts main goal is to provide HIV positive women with the means to reduce the stigma of HIV/Aids within their community, build a support network that encourages healthy decisions and generate income for themselves and their children. Jitolee Crafts aims to do this through making and selling traditional African crafts raning from necklaces, bracelets, beaded items like keychains, sisal beaded bags and various wire crafts. Some of the products focus on Kenyan identity and HIV/Aids awareness. To learn more about this wonderful and engaging group of women check out the Jitolee Craft website at www.jitoleecrafts.webs.com

World Toilet Day - November 19

I know that it is not common to talk about our personal hygeniene methods and toilet talk but on World Toilet Day - it's quite OK. Did you know that their are 2.6 billion people worldwide who do not have a toilet and 1.2 billion who defecate outside. Not only is it unhygenic but it can also lead to the spread of serious disease. And have you ever had to squat over a whole in the ground to perform you daily functions. I can attest to the fact that it is not the most pleasant experience, especially when you have bad knees as I do.

And imagine those living in the meg-slums in our world - in Kibera and Mathare slums in Nairobi or the slums of India and Brazil. Here there are only a few public bathrooms. Sewage runs in ditches throughout the slums. Imagine the fear of women who have to use public facilities only to be raped on the way to and from the toilets. Even when our HIV positive friends tell their rapists they are HIV positive, the men don't really care and rape anyway. So instead, some of the women must perform their duties in their one room shacks in front of their grown children - imagine the loss of dignity these women experience. And not to mention getting hit by a flying toilet - a most disgusting event. When people do their business indoors, they bag their feces in plastic bags and hurl them out their doors. Unsuspecting individuals walking by can be hit by these "flying toilets" which often break open covering the person hit.

In Wongonyi Village, Kenya most of the homes do not have bathrooms or if they do they are not in good condition, much like the original pit latrine at the Mdawida home in the top photo. After having attended a Water and Sanitation Workshop (led by the CAWST - Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) teaching Biosand Water Filters and proper pit latrines, Ronnie taught local youth to build proper pit latrines. You can see in the next two photos the beautiful new pit latrine they built prior to our visit in 2008. A proper western style bathroom with adequate ventilation meant that local families could now exercise proper personal hygiene.

On World Toilet Day we are trying to raise awareness of the importance of proper toilet use and techniques which in turn leads to improved health, and less days away from work and school because of illness. For more information on World Toilet Day, check out the website http://www.worldtoilet.org/

November 15 - National Philanthropy Day

"I never look at the masses as my responsibility. I look at the individual. I can only love one person at a time."

Mother Teresa

"Ronnie gives vegetable seeds donated by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds to Monica, a microfinance participant."

Wow - did you know that today, November 15th is National Philanthropy Day. Now you might think that a philanthropist is someone who has a lot of money, so much so that they have extra to give away to charitable causes. But not so, each and every one of us can be a philanthropist - it only takes a small act.

On Friday we screened the documentary "a small act" about how one woman's small act of a monthly donation to sponsor a young boy in Kenya resulted in that boy, now a man, starting his own small act of an education fund for the students in his small village. We showed this film because it mirrored our own small act of starting The Ronnie Fund for our "Kenyan" son, Ronnie Mdawida, by simply saving pennies in a jar for Ronnie's university education. Now four years later and through the generosity of others who have participated in their own small acts by partnering with us we have been able to effect great changes in Wongonyi Village, Kenya. But there are still more challenges and issues to face. Our message with The Ronnie Fund is that it doesn't take great wealth to create change, each of us has the capacity to make a difference in just one other person's life and like drops of water that create ripples, the generosity will be spread.

As individuals we cannot solve world poverty, HIV/Aids or the plight of orphans in Africa, India or South America but each of us can make a difference by our own small acts and those collective acts can help achieve positive global change. Each of us have the capacity to help someone in need be it at home in our own community, our country or around the globe in a developing country to change a life for the better. For us, it was as simple as saving pennies in a jar.

Today on National Philanthropy Day, think about how you can change the world and donate today to your favourite cause (and remember philanthropy doesn't just mean money, it also includes your talents, skills and time).

"Change the world with a giving heart."

Microfinance - Small Loans, Big Impact

"Winnie - one of our microfinance recipients was able to expand her village shop."

Sometimes it is hard to imagine how a little financial boost can have such a huge impact. Microfinance is the term for small loans to business people who otherwise would not qualify for funding. In our village of Wongonyi, Kenya the local bank had few funds available for loaning out to those who wanted help to improve their businesses. So The Ronnie Fund started a Microfinance Program.

Through the generosity of a donor with an interest in Microfinance, we launched our program with six recipients. A year later we are pleased to report that the original six have repaid their loans and we recently provided another 12 participants with funding for their business projects which include a poultry business, grocery and cereal shops, goats, dairy farm, barber, tree nursery, carpentry, agricultural inputs, butcher shop, agrovet store, sewing and farming.
Ronnie meets with potential participants to determine their eligibility and assess their business plan. Once selected the participant signs documentation agreeing to a repayment plan. Ronnie also arranges for training in business skills so that we achieve a 100% success rate in repayment. This training also assures that our participants have the needed business knowledge to ensure a successful and expanding business.

For many of the people in our remote rural village, Microfinance has been just the impetus they have needed to move forward in their lives creating much needed income so they can support their families with food, clothing and school fees. We have found that our Microfinance Program is the perfect tool for helping to move people from poverty to prosperity. It truly is a testament to the fact that a small amount of money can have a tremendous impact in changing lives.

Thanksgiving - A Time for Giving Thanks

"As Christians, we can't love the whole world. But we should remember that God has placed us in a specific community at a particular time. We're called to love those around us. Loving them means serving them - and in doing so, we become the best citizens."

C.S. Lewis

It's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and a time for giving thanks - for all the blessings that we have. I for one truly understand C.S. Lewis' quote for I feel that I have been placed on this earth to love and serve others and in doing so become the best citizen I can.

I am truly thankful that I could cook my family's turkey in an oven and not over the smoky fire that my friend Getrude has to cook over in her tiny windowless kitchen building in Wongonyi Village, Kenya. I'm thankful for being able to flick a switch and have light at night instead of having to use a fumy paraffin lamp that causes respiratory problems. I give thanks that our family can afford school expenses and food each day instead of having to worry where our next meal is going to come from or having to send my children out to work because we can't afford school fees, uniforms and textbooks.

There are many in the developed world who really don't know how truly blessed they are with what they have. In the developing world around the globe, there are millions of people who struggle each and every day just to have basic necessities of life like clean, safe water, education, food, clothing and a safe roof over there head at night. There are millions of children who have been orphaned as a result of HIV/Aids, other diseases and simply poverty - families who have to give up their children because they can no longer afford to provide for them.

On this Thanksgiving holiday, we ask you to remember those who have so little and we who have so much. Life is about gratitude and sharing the great riches we have with others in your own community and around the globe. Love others - volunteer at your local Food Bank, an Out of teh Cold Program or give generously to Share the Warmth programs and if you have been touched by others in the developing world, volunteer and share your talents and expertise around the globe like teaching business skills, working in an orphanage or help building a school in Kenya, Guatemala, India, China or Ecuador.

Thanksgiving - it's a time for giving thanks!

August 19 - Humanitarian Day

The dictionary defines a humanitarian as being a person who is devoted to the welfare of all human beings and being helpful to humanity. Most people are humanitarians they just don't know it. Many people think a humanitarian has to be working overseas, in poverty ridden areas or with folks who have serious basic needs. But a humanitarian can be working in your own neighbourhood, helping those around you who require assistance like a hot meal in winter through an Out of the Cold Program or Meals on Wheels, perhaps helping provide craft instruction at the local seniors citizens home or long term care facility or maybe even a child who simply helps an elderly neighbour by bringing in the newspaper or shovelling their walk in winter.

And yes there are those of us who do work in foreign countries trying to help those who may have been oppressed or lack opportunities for a better quality of life. For me, being a humanitarian is simply that I and my family, through our family charity The Ronnie Fund, want to help create a peaceful world where all people are equal and have the basic necessities of life. Even though we are just an average middle-class family, we feel we are so blessed by what we have and how easy life is for us while there are so many around the globe who do not have access to clean, safe drinking water, the ability to send their children to school on a regular basis or have enough food for the table. In Africa, it is a real challenge for most people to provide even one meal a day for their family.

August 19th is Humanitarian Day - it is a time to think about how you can make the world a more humane place by using your actions to help those in need, at home, around the corner or around the world. Each of us has the capacity to help all human kind. Support Humanitarian Day by helping someone in need - you'll be glad you helped to contribute to making the world a better place to live.

The Value of Volunteers

Mama Pads - reusable sanitary napkins for girls and women of Wongonyi.

Our volunteer crew included our selves, Kathy and Peter Wood, son Jeremy, his girlfriend Sarah, our friends The Evans-Lucy family (Don, Jan, Omar and Vincent) along with our friend Russ Van der Jagt.

This past weekend we were given the opportunity to raise funds for The Ronnie Fund by helping to clear tables at the Snyder/Montgomery wedding in Bracebridge, Ontario. In exchange for helping at the reception the Montgomery family made a donation to The Ronnie Fund. Without the assistance of our friends we could not have undertaken the job and raised these much needed funds. It is the value of volunteers that we treasure. Our friends were happy to be able to assist us in this way. Sarah and Omar were able to get 4 hours of volunteer hours they need for their high school diploma, so it was a win-win-win situation. And as Omar told his mom, "Hey, I'm actually have a good time."

With that donation, we have purchased an overlocking treadle sewing machine for our new project in Wongonyi Village, Kenya. The girls in the sewing class at the local Polytechnic are making Mama Pads, resuable sanitary napkins which they will sell as a micro business. They have already received training in sewing the pads and in business skills but needed an over locking sewing machine to make a quality product. Ronnie has purchased the sewing machine and it is on its way to the village now. Ronnie will present it to the Polytechnic class when he gets there this weekend. The Polytechnic instructors will be so surprised as they had told Ronnie that they did not have funds to purchase a machine at this time. We can just see their faces when Ronnie shows up with the gift.

The availability and use of sanitary napkins is a big issue not only in Wongonyi Village but in most parts of rural Africa. Disposable sanitary napkins are very expensive to purchase and as a result most girls and women use rags. The girls are very self-conscious and do not go to school during their period, losing valuable education time. Last year the Bracebridge Pathfinder group made some Mama Pads for the girls of our Sere Girls Club and they were well received. We have no doubt that our Mama Pad project will be a great success for the Polytechnic Institute and bring self-confidence to the girls and women of Wongonyi.

We all have special gifts and talents. For some, they have a gift of funds to give charities in need and for others, it is the gift of their time to volunteer during a special event. We thank all our donors and volunteers for their special gifts for together we are making a difference in the lives of those in Kenya.

Day of the African Child - June 16

The Watoto of Wongonyi Village, Kenya. Watoto is the Kiswahili word for "children".

Yesterday was a great day to celebrate children , especially the children of Africa for June 16th has been declared the Day of the African Child.

For those of us who have been to Africa, we have experienced the beauty of these children. Their shy smile as they greet you on the road on their way home from school, the giggles and laughter as children see their own image displayed on the back of a digital camera and the happiness when they are presented with a gift like a new school uniform, textbooks or a solar reading light to assist them with their education.

Kenya and all parts of Africa are home to a great quantity of forgotten children, those whose parents have succumbed to the ravishes of Aids. These children have been shuffled from relative to relative hoping to find support and love or been taken in by someone else in their community only to find that they are put to work or that in the end, the family does not have food or financial resources to care for them, so the orphans must subsist on their own. These forgotten children lack food, clothing, sometimes even a proper home or shelter not to mention the inability to afford school supplies and fees. In Wongonyi Village, Kenya we too have our issues with orphans who lack the love of a family or caregiver, a problem we are working to rectify.

So on this Day of the African Child, we ask that you think about these children and how you might help them to live by supporting initiatives like The Ronnie Fund as we facilitate programs to assist orphans and children by providing food, school uniforms, fees and textbooks, or other programs like Sleeping Children Around the World that provides bed kits and malaria bed nets, or Grannies to Grannies which supports grandmothers who are looking after their orphaned grandchildren.

These vulnerable children deserve our care and assistance. Their gentle ways and beautiful smiles hide the real reality of their lives but we can make a difference in their lives. Please help today.

Bega Kwa Bega Fair Trade Group Offers Hope

It is amazing how simple things like life skills and craft skills can produce hope for those who previously had none. Bega Kwa Bega, a fair trade organization located in the Korogocho District of Mathare Slums in Nairobi offers much to those in need.

Employing between 40 and 90 men and women, the most important feature of their program are the life changes they offer former prositutes, drug users and alcohols who have found a new meaning in life and a way to support themselves and their families. Along with life skills, they learn essential business skills which provide them with dignity. Although the manager Ignatius did point out that a few of the people do relapse into their previous lifestyles, most people welcome the opportunity to create a better life for themselves.

At Bega Kwa Bega, a happy atmosphere ensues where women are gainfully employed in the sewing area making shoulder bags, dolls and stuffed animals. In the beading section, a group of four women chatted in Swahili as they prepared an order of 1,000 beaded cross necklaces for an order for Italy. Upstairs, the men were busy cutting leather and stitching sandels and shoes that comprise part of the standard school uniform for Kenyan children. They even use recycled tires for the soles of the sandels. The other necklace beading area and tie-dye sections were closed the day we visited.

Bega Kwa Bega belongs to the fair trade organization selling their products worldwide. in Japan, Italy, Spain, Canada, the U.S. and Germany. Providing much needed employment is truly the way for people, especially those living in the slums to enjoy a better quality of living. Please support fair trade organizations when making your shopping purchases.

The Value of Volunteering

Volunteering can open you up to a host of new experiences, whether here at home or abroad. It's a way of sharing your talents with others in need, be it the local food bank, tutoring adults to read or helping those in developing countries learn new skills.

We are very fortunate to have our own charity, The Ronnie Fund, working with Wongonyi Village in southeastern Kenya. We just returned from our second trip to Wongonyi and feel blessed to have been able to take our teenagers both times. It has been an opportunity for them to see and live in another culture, to see just how blessed they are and the share the simple pleasures with other children. For our children , they learned that receiving a gift means the giver didn't rush out to a store, for in Wongonyi a shop may just a little stick kiosk by the roadside, but that a gift comes from the heart - a basket woven by hand from sisal or palm fronds or perhaps even a live chicken. And for people who earn only a $1.00 per day, the gift of a chicken is huge, so graciously receiving it is important. Even though you might want to give it back to them for you realize you might be taking their food source this would be an insult. But instead you take it back home (your African home that is!) and kindly share it, where it becomes dinner for all the next day.

If you are bringing others over to help volunteer for your organization, there are a few key points to remember. Create a volunteer package with information on what types of shots, visas, and other documentation they will require to get into the country. Host an evening to inform your volunteers of the cultural differences they will experience (ie. women not wearing tank tops and shorts, purchasing a kanga to wear when in a village location). It is important that you and your volunteers are culturally sensitive, that you fit into village life and not stand out, it will help you be accepted by the people you are working with.

And most importantly, you need to inform your volunteers of the mental challenges they may face and experience. There are vast social differences you might experience - staying in a mud hut with no electricity, no running water (the joys of a sponge bath), eating foods you are not familiar with (goat stew anyone!) and perhaps only one meal per day, washroom facilities (squatting over a pit latrine or even having to go in the bush), and the abject poverty of those living in the slums. Without informing them of what they will see and experience during their stay, it will be a shock to them and they may have great difficulties in readjusting once they are home.

However, when your volunteers are well prepared, the benefits and values they will experience far outweight the challenges they may face. The joyful spirit of people who are living one day at a time, the smiles, hugs and laughter from children when you take their picture and you show them. The welcome songs and grateful thanks when you provide tools and gifts that will improve the quality of their life.

Recently, some volunteers heading to Kenya for a voluntourism trip told me they felt uneasy and a bit nervous because they really weren't sure what to expect when they got there, the unfamiliarity of being in a strange place initially without charity sponosr being present. By taking the time to fully inform your volunteers prior to travelling, you will allay their fears, make them feel more comfortable in the new land and make their experience of volunteering for and with you a pleasureable and profitable experience for them, your organization and the people with whom you are working. And if they have a great experience the first time, you'll find they want to come back and continue sharing their blessings with your organization.

Kenya - Subsistance Farming versus Market Gardening

"Travel can open up a window on the world - it expands your horizons and shows you that the world the media portrays is not always as implied. Often we only hear about the poverty that is Africa and yet there are areas of great beauty and wellbeing."

We just returned from a two week visit back to Wongonyi Village in Kenya to check up on our projects that The Ronnie Fund has been supporting. It's been one and a half years since our last trip and once again, our children Martha and Jeremy accompanied us. What a fantastic opportunity for them to see another part of this great planet earth.

I noticed new changes in Kenya this trip - for me it seemed in Nairobi that the city was cleaner (not as many small piles of smouldering litter at the roadsides) and the Mombassa-Nairobi highway was so much better than the last time. Only one small detour hindered our trip to Wongonyi. But still the road up to Wongonyi Village was the same, a rocky road of deep gulleys that meant 10 km seemd more like 100 as the range rover inched its way up a road that was carved out of the hillside. My daughter Martha knew not to look out the window as we were sitting on the cliffside of the matatu. Thankfully the rain held off until later that evening when we were safely esconced in the village.

Although Wongonyi, located high atop the Taita Taveta Hills is a subsistence farming village where farmers have little access to markets in Voi and Mombassa, that would produce income from their agricultural efforts. The poor road infrastructure is a hindrance to producing more and in turn being more successful. And yet, a trip we took up to the Rift Valley lookout showed us a different Kenya, a more profitable area shown in the photo above. The Rift Valley is much like our Holland Marsh, an area rich in agricultural fertility that thrives on market gardening. And easy access to a continuation of that same Mombassa - Uganda Highway means that Rift Valley farmers can easily ship their produce to markets in Voi and Mombassa on the coast. It is amazing that a simple thing like a proper road can mean the difference between profit and loss, subsistence and successful market gardening, even the distance from the Rift Valley to Voi is so much greater than from Wongonyi to Voi.

Although Africa and Kenya do have areas that where poverty and living on a dollar a day is the norm, where parents often cannot afford school fees or uniforms, villages rely on the World Food Program and subsistence farming means simply that, that people are just subsisting but there are also areas of Kenya where the quality of village life is improving and farming has moved into market gardening, a more profitable way of life. In Wongonyi, we are working in co-operation and collaboration with local farmers and village residents to provide them with the tools and resources they need to move ahead but they still have to rely on local government to provide them with the infrastructure like proper roads to access profitable markets. Hopefully, local governments will see the benefits to all people in providing these essential services.

March 22 - World Water Day

Zach, Eddie, Isaiah, Grandma and Chris show off Biosand Water Filters ready for distribution in Wongonyi Village.

Well, I know I am a couple of days late in celebrating World Water Day but we have just returned from a successful trip to Wongonyi Village in Kenya. Here in the developed world we are blessed to have water ready at our fingertips whenever we need it for drinking, bathing, watering our gardens. We simply go to the tap, turn it on and presto, water at our fingertips. And because of its easy access and availability we are wont to waste this precious natural resource.

Yet in the developing world access to water is not so easy. People often have to walk several kilometres each day to fetch water, carrying the heavy jugs home on their heads, compressing their spines or in wheelbarrows making for aching arms. And the water is not always clean or safe - sometimes it is muddy water from water hole that is also shared with wild animals.

World Water Day is a day of awareness of this important natural resource and the many people worldwide who go without safe, clean drinking water leading to intestinal illness and diseases that keep children from school and adults from their jobs. In Wongonyi Village, The Ronnie Fund is addressing the issue of safe drinking water by providing Biosand Water Filters in homes. These concrete filters are filled with sand and gravel replicating the earth's natural water filtering process. After two weeks from installation, the filtered water is ready to be safely drunk. We were able to see the difference that safe drinking water is having on the residents of Wongonyi. It's amazing how a simple tool like a Biosand Water Filter can have such positive impact on peoples lives.

Kenya, Here We Come!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow we leave again on another African Adventure. It's been a whirlwind month as we arranged for Visas, Kenyan currency, booking our flights through Fly for Good, meeting with folks who wanted to donate goods and funds for the trip and the daily e-mails back and forth between Ronnie and ourselves as we prepare for the journey and they prepare for our coming.

While we've been busy here, Ronnie has been busy ferrying volunteers back and forth between Nairobi and Wongonyi Village. And then he had to go pick up the oil press we ordered and send it ahead to the village on three different buses and then in land rovers up to the village, which has been a challenge in itself as the roads are in bad shape due to the rains. As well, Ronnie's wife Serah has been also busy checking out uniforms and the purchase of textbooks for the Sere Girls Club, all so that we can spend more time in the village and less time in Nairobi shopping for these items ourselves.

Back at home, our house is now filled with 12 large suitcases and chests, plus 3 carrying on bags, 3 laptop bags and one guitar all ready to be taken to Toronto's Pearson Airport tomorrow.
By travelling through Fly for Good (see my earlier post) which supports humanitarian trips with airline discounts, we also learned we could each take an extra checked bag, hence the 12 bags we are taking, filled with lots of tools and goodies for the village - soccer shirts donated by our local soccer association, items donated by our local hospital, farming tools, solar shower units supplied by the local Canadian Tire store, books, games and musical instruments for the primary school, fabric and sewing supplies for our ladies sewing groups, solar lights for students, and a solar room light unit from Light Up the World along with 60 T shirts for the Ikanga Scout troop and pencil cases donated by TerraCycle filled with pencils, erasers, sharpeners and notebooks from the Burks Falls Scout troop. And finally some personal gifts for Ronnie, Serah and their families - books and clothes for the new baby, Tim Horton hot chocolate, marshmallows, maple candies and a travelling coffee mug along with inspirational books the men had been searching for.

It's getting late and we have the final check of tickets and passports, yellow fever certificates and last minute essentials and then bed, because tomorrow comes quickly and there will still be the final checklist of items to complete before heading off.

As our Kenya friend Steve emailed us today "Karibu Kenya!!"

Mega-slumming - A Journey through sub-Saharan Africa's largest shantytown

A recent medical clinic held in Kibera Slums in Nairobi by Sandy Foster of North Bay and her team.

Recently Ronnie attended the launch of a book by Adam W. Parsons entitled "Mega-slumming A journey through sub-Saharan Africa's largest shantytown. The book outlines Parson's visit over a number of weeks to Kibera slum in Nairobi.

Adam describes his initial naiviete at being able to just wander into the slum to glean insight into its inner workings. Instead he learns the need to be dressed correctly (dirty not clean), to have local inside guides to ensure his security and to have access to businesses and organizations working on the inside.

It is a revealing study into a world onto itself. It highlights the extreme disparity between the rich and poor of Kenya and how those seeking a better life in the city have instead found themselves stuck in a life of extreme poverty, living without proper drinking water, sanitation and other basic necessities of life. What I found amazing was that some of those who inhabit Kibera are young people with university degrees but the lack of jobs has forced them into this situation of a vicious cycle of poverty with no way out.

Parson's book also takes a look at the historical factors that have led to the development of slums not only in Kenya but in most of the major cities of the developing world like Brazil, and Mumbai. The really scary part was that according to the UN's conservative estimates, African slum populations will double on average every 15 years reaching 332 million by 2015. That's only 5 years away. How can we in the developed world allow this many people to live in such extreme poverty without government assistance such as health care, policing, etc. (as the government doesn't recognize Kibera as developed lands) and most going without a daily meal? And remember that this is not only happening in Kenya but in India, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala. We need to send a strong message to the governments of developing countries that they need to encourage job creation, social justice and democracy to help lift their people out of poverty.

You can get a copy of this extremely eye-opening book from Share the World's Resources at www.stwr.org.

The End of Poverty - A New Era

This banana nursery is providing jobs and nutritional food in an effort to end poverty in Wongonyi village.

Recently I've been reading a variety of books on poverty eradication. The scary part is that many of the books tell us that without serious intervention, poverty will continue to increase in the coming years on a grander scale in many of the world's developing countries. Through our work in Wongonyi Village, Kenya I have seen poverty first hand and viewed extreme poverty that exists in Kibera slum in Nairobi where everyday is a struggle to survive.

But there are those of us working in the developing world who are helping to equalize life around the globe, eager to ensure that everyone has the basic necessities of life. Jeffrey Sachs, an economist who wrote "The End of Poverty, Economic Possibilities of our Time", advocates for the Big Five development interventions that would be instrumental in decreasing poverty:

1) Agricultural inputs - water harvesting and small-scale irrigation, improved high yield seeds, use of green manures and cover crops, composting

2) Investments in Basic Health - village clinics, trained doctors and nurses, treatments of HIV/AIDS, anit-malarial medicines, skilled birth attendants

3) Investments in Education - school meal programs, improved teacher training and resources, expanded vocational training for high school students, access to technology

4) Power, transport and communications services - solar and wind power, village transport for getting produce and products to markets, modern cooking fuels and stoves, improved cell phones

5) Safe drinking water and sanitation - more water points for acces to water, rainwater harvesting, biosand water filters for safe drinking water, proper latrine facilities

In Wongonyi village, we are already addressing each of these issues by invitation and in consultation with the residents of this community. The villagers know what it is they require to move ahead but they lack the resources, tools and education to actually make the move. Through programs like The Ronnie Fund's Biosand Water Filter project we are already distributing home water filters that provide safe drinking water improving health of families. A new double seater western-style pit latrine at Wongonyi Primary School means better sanitation and allows special needs children to come to school. Our Money Maker Irrigation Pumps mean farmers are increasing their crop production because they can water greater field areas and as a result are making money by selling their surplus produce.

Poverty can be eradicated if we are sensitive to the needs of the communities in which we are working. I'm not saying that it is without difficulties as some people resist change out of fear of the unknown, even if it will benefit them with improve health and financial gain. But with careful education and by showing and explaining the benefits, people will eventually embrace change for the better. Those of us who live in the industrialized world really don't know what it means to struggle to survive every day, to have to beg for money to feed our children but that is the reality of life for millions of people around our globe. Here our biggest concern is whether to get a new car or a bigger flat-screen TV to keep up with our neighbour.

As Jeffrey Sachs says. "Eliminating poverty at the global scale is a global responsibility that will have global benefits. No single country can do it on its own. The hardest part is for us to think globally, but that is what global society in the twenty-first century requires." Poverty eradication is up to each and every one of us.

Proper Stoves Mean Better Health

Zach Withers, an American volunteer, helps repair Grandma's kitchen, a smoky enclosed building, that is the cause of eye and respiratory problems. But this new year will see new properly ventilated stoves being installed in homes in Wongonyi Village, Kenya.

In much of the developing world, improper equipment is the leading cause of health issues. We saw this first hand in 2008 in Wongonyi Village where women cook in separate kitchen building that have no ventilation or over outdoor wood fires, where windy conditions cause the smoke to chase one around the fire. The women who are responsible for most of the meal preparations complain routinely about their stinging eyes or their respiratory problems. Sitting in the smoky kitchen with Getrude and the girls each night, I truly wondered how they could stand it each and every meal they had to cook. Here in the developed world, we don't even think about such issues for when we cook a meal we simply turn on an electric or gas range or oven that is powered by a clean fuel source and we have no thoughts of how our dinner preparations might impact our health, not to mention that we don't have to go out daily and find firewood to fuel our stoves.

But 2010 is a new year, full of new promise and a better quality of life for those in Wongonyi Village, Kenya. We, along with Zach Withers of Kosmos Solutions, have been researching the construction of new stoves that will drastically improve the quality of life for women in this rural village in Kenya. New stoves will have proper ventilation and will allow the women to cook more than one item at a time in safety. One of the concepts are stoves that are currently being made in rural villages in Guatemala through the Guatemala Stove Project. The only challenge will be in educating the women on the benefits of these new stoves. It is sometimes hard to implement change when people have been conducting tasks in a certain way all their life and have known no other method. Change has to be done in a respectful manner by teaching and training the women on the benefits these new implements will have on their health, the health of their families and the quality of their lives. In the Guatemala project, they give a stove for one family, show them the benefits and then have them show it off to the rest of the community which results in buy-in when others see the benefits it provides. In this way change develops within the community, not as a result of being imposed by someone with greater knowledge (the outsider).

As 2010 begins to kick into high gear, we look forward to helping to be the change agents in Wongonyi Village, making a difference to others lives in a positive and respectful manner.