Past Projects Kenya

Here are some of the projects that our volunteers have completed as part of the WYI Overseas Action Programs (OAP). The OAP is a team program for 18 - 30 year olds which focuses on community development. Each project aims to build a structure which the community desperately needs, in the areas of Primary Health Care, Income Generation and Education & Training.

The Rang'i Orphanage is tucked away in a dark and forgotten pocket of Kenya, close to the Tanzanian border. The poverty there is extensive, and with one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world there is an overwhelming number of orphans in the area. The Rang'i Orphanage relies on financial support from outside to supply the children in the orphanage with food, shelter, clothing, medical treatment and education.

Our team of seven girls constructed a Posho mill, which is used to grind maize and millet, the staple food basics of Kenya. The Posho mill not only provided a small income to assist in the running of the orphanage but provided a service for the locals too. When constructing the mill we worked over four weeks with the much needed assistance and guidance from a local Fundi (builder). While we worked, we lived in the orphanage with the kids. There was constant laughter and fun, usually at the mzungus (white people's) expense!

In our spare time we worked in and around the community with women's groups, the local hospital and baby's orphanages, learning about their lives and how they live day to day. Rang'i is a work in progress, and since WYI has been visiting the orphanage and with the help and support of others, it has become a stable environment, with all the necessities a child needs to grow up happily and healthily.

Rhiannon Quigley, past participant

Welcoming a child into the world should be an incredible experience. For the most of us, we make our entry into the world surrounded by qualified health professionals, trained to deal with any situation that threatens the wellbeing of both mother and newborn. Unfortunately, for many expectant mothers in Kenya, childbirth is a traumatic and often life threatening experience! Heath care and health insurance is an unobtainable luxury, so home births or deliveries in ill-equipped, unsanitary makeshift maternity huts are a mother's only option.

In January 2007, we were given the opportunity to become a part of a project to turn a beaten up, decrepit mud hut in the heart of Kisumu's slums, into a safe, sanitary place for the next generation of Kenya's iconic smiling children to be born. With enthusiasm, an audience of local orphans supervising our progress and an enormous amount of elbow grease, we transformed the once filthy, dark room, into a beautiful, sanitary maternity room. I am now truly inspired to think that due to our own personal efforts, and World Youths dedication to Kenyas future, many mothers and their beautiful babies will be given a much better chance at life!
Chloe Morgan, past participant

In January 2007, we undertook a project to build a kitchen for HOVIC thus enabling the centre to make their own food and operate their feeding program internally. We lived in the outskirts of Kisumu city in a rural town called Alendu. Each day would catch the local public transport - a matatu - into the city and then bodaboda (catch a bike) to the HOVIC centre. We worked at building the kitchen and played with the street children, giving them a chance to be kids without the pressure and stress of street life.

As my individual project at this time I chose to involve the boys in painting a mural around the inside of the main hall of the HOVIC centre. The boys loved taking part in this as it made them feel 'more at home' as well as brightening the hall into a happy productive area. Upon finishing the kitchen we painted it to match the colours of the mural and threw a big opening day celebration, making the kids a big Australian BBQ. We then took them down to the near by sports grounds for a big party with dancing competitions and games. The exposure this party got meant more of the locals were able to see the street children as people and educated other children about the HOVIC centre. The following day there more children turned up for breakfast and classes.

The lasting impact the kitchen has had is that economically HOVIC is more secure. The outside expose this project gave the children empowerment and made everyone at the centre proud of what could be achieved.
Jessica Stevens, past participant

Photographs by Jessica Stevens © All rights reserved.