Empowerment Fund

  1. Organizational Information
  • Name of organization: 

ACK Thika Diocese – Kamwangi parish empowerment project

  • Project Name:

ACK Thika diocese Kamwangi parish empowerment project

1.3 Contact persons: 

  1. Rt. Rev. Dr. Julius N. Wanyoike – Diocesan Bishop – 0723 043172
  2. Rev Daniel Gachihi  – vicar, Kamwangi Parish – 0798 423770

1.4 Address and telephone number

P.O. Box 241– 01000, Thika

Tel: 0700 078 393

Email:

Website:

1.5 Physical location 

ACK Thika Diocese, Kamwangi parish is located at Kamwangi town along Thika – Magumu Road.

1.6 Total Amount of the proposed project

KShs. 3,408,000

1.7 Current legal status of the organization 

ACK Thika Diocese, Kamwangi parish is one of the parishes in ACK diocese of Thika which was incorporated in 1998. The Parish is mandated to carry out activities that are related to community service namely;

  • Giving social support to the needy.
  • Counseling the families in distress
  • Strengthening the vulnerable households economically socially and spiritually

1.8 Key areas of focus 

  • Training and supporting farmers whereby they will be equipped with skills and necessary resources that will enable them to increase their production and incomes in specific areas of intervention.
  • Capacity building for small entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs will be empowered through training, financial support and exposure visits
  • Psychosocial support whereby the beneficiaries will be put to groups and provided with counseling, therapy and team building activities.
  • Spiritual and social development of the community. Through the community groups the beneficiaries will be spiritually nourished and get an opportunity to develop social connections.

2.0 Background information 

2.1 Brief background information of parish 

The parish was established in 1998 when the ACK Diocese of Thika was created. It is in Mangu deanery in Gatundu Archdeaconry. Administratively it is located in Gatundu North sub-county in Kiambu County. The residents of this area and its environs relies on farming of coffee, dairy farming, tea, pineapples, horticulture, and poultry farming among others in small and large scale for their livelihood. Others are in business and formal employment.

  • Problem Statement 

Kamwangi and its environs is in the middle highlands where coffee farming has been the main activity. After the collapse of coffee industry able farmers started dairy and avocado farming. Many other people in this area have been relying on casual work either due to small land sizes or lack of business capital. The community was further made poor and vulnerable by HIV/AIDS epidemic. This pandemic had a negative impact on the area because it had the highest HIV prevalence rate in Kenya at 34% in 2002 leading to increased number of orphans and vulnerable children and youth. HIV in this area has a female face and is dis-proportionally centered among women. Prevalence in age group 15 – 19 being women at 6% and men at 1%; in age group 20 – 25, 9% of women are infected with HIV against 2 % men; among those aged 25 – 44, 13% of the women were infected, against 9% for men (Kenya Demographic Health Survey 2003).  With the death of energetic people, the burden of parenting was left to older persons thus making them more vulnerable.

As a result of high death rate so many Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) are under the care of their grandparents or relatives. Many other OVC have been left under the care of elderly caregivers due to alcoholism among young parents and death from natural atrocities. Due to low economic status of these people particularly older persons/guardians, many of these young people do not go beyond standard 8 or form 4 for those who managed to secondary school. It has also been noted with concern that many of these OVC who manage to go O-level they go to day secondary schools even if they had high marks in KCPE. They are unable to acquire employable skills hence making more vulnerable.

3.0 Objectives of capacity building program for Caregivers and OVY 

3.1.1           Empower 500 orphans and vulnerable youth (OVY) with technical, business and development skills within the next 5 years.

3.1.2           Provide psychosocial support to 500 orphans and vulnerable youth (OVY) within 5 years.

3.1.3 Capacity for 10 elderly caregivers’ groups with 150 members to engage in savings, credit & income generation activities is built in 5 years. 

3.2   Project activities 

3.2.1 Provide vocational training for 500 OVY out of school at Christian Industrial Training College (CITC) or through apprenticeship training. It will also involve creating career awareness among the OVY out of school.

3.2.2 Establish psychosocial groups for the OVY and caregivers, which will include guidance and counseling sessions and motivational talks.

3.2.3 Establish and train 10 elderly caregivers and vulnerable households support groups with 150 members. The groups will be encouraged to start savings and credit. They will also be trained in revolving funds and business management. The members will be supported to start rearing of goats for milk and meat, rabbit rearing among other income generating activities. The group members will e drawn from the caregivers/ guardians / venerable households of the selected OVY.

3.2.4 Formation of community committees. The constituted from parish council members and co-opted skilled community members who can offer expertise in project implementation. These committees will be empowered with project management, monitoring and evaluation skills. They will be expected to monitor the project activities and provide psychosocial support to OVY and elderly caregivers.

4.0 Key opportunities and challenges that the project wishes to address 

The project is designed to exploit the existing opportunities such local resources, local structures and systems, government devolved funds and community resourceful people. The project will also build the capacity of the people to enable them protect and be a voice for the OVY where they can help in recovering the property of those who are disinherited. If these opportunities are well exploited they will go along way to support and care for OVY. The project is expected to face challenges such as stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS, negative attitude of the community towards the poor, dependency syndrome, ignorance and high level of poverty. However, these challenges are not expected to hamper the progress of the project because the interventions proposed in here will internal and external skills and expertise. The external skills and expertise will increase and enhance internal skills which will be instrumental in sustaining project’s benefits after the project is phased out.  In addition, it will provide information aiming at empowering people to develop homegrown solution to their problems.

5.0 Expected Results

5.1 Concrete immediate, medium and long-term results that the    project aims to achieve

  • Skilled OVY through Vocational Training.
  • Increased capacities of elderly caregivers to support the OVC under their care.
  • Established and equipped caregiver groups with revolving funds for starting goat enterprises or other small businesses.
  • Capacity of community leaders to address OVC and poverty issues is build.
  • Community identifies and begins to address factors that make the community more vulnerable.
  • Increased capacities for OVY who are heads of households to manage homes, support and care for their siblings..
  • Key target group/community structures, partners and stakeholders that the project wishes to work with. 

The project will target the OVC less than 18 years, OVY who are between 18 and 25 years, the elderly caregivers, vulnerable households and church and community leaders. They will work through existing community-based organizations, churches, and provincial administration. The project also wishes to work with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development, Ministry of livestock development and the active NGOs. The ministry of social development will help in training and registering the groups on issues like cohesion and sustainability. The ministry of livestock will be instrumental in the project because some of the interventions will involve livestock. They will also be available for future consultations. The active NGOs will provide the much-needed expertise in their areas of specialization.

  • Strategies 
  • Build the capacity of community leaders to address OVC/Y issues. 

The community leaders will be identified and trained in various aspects of OVC/Y. This will be done through workshops and exposure visits.

  • Place 100 OVY in apprenticeship training per year 

In collaboration with CITC, ACK Diocese of Thika Kamwangi parish will identify 100 of the most needy out of school OVC/Y through established community structures, after which a selection process will take place and a list of the most needy OVC/Y created. This list will be verified with the administrative offices like the chiefs. The identified OVC/Y will be trained by Christian Industrial Training College (CITC) or qualified artisans for one year. During this one year of training they will be exposed to industrial attachment for one month.

  • Establish 10 care groups with 150 members 

Project implementation committee will identify and recruit 150 needy elderly caregivers. The caregivers will be encouraged to form support groups. They will be trained in business management and start a revolving fund. From the revolving funds the members will be expected to borrow and start income generating activities which include;

  • Rearing of goats for meat and milk
  • Rabbit farming and marketing
  • Rearing of pigs
  • Monitoring and evaluation 

The project will prepare from the annual plan, quarterly and monthly plans with clearly set out targets. Results achieved will be provided after every quarter. Resources developed for training in OVC/Y work by other projects will be used by the project in order to ensure that the quality provided reaches acceptable standards.

Key project staff will have regular meetings with partners and other organizations carrying out OVC/Y work in order to keep themselves updated and to learn lessons from others. Regular meetings with the community representatives, beneficiaries and staff will enable the project to weigh outputs on a quarterly basis.

The project will hold mid-term reflection meeting with people being served by the project, committee members and the community at large. The outcomes of these meetings will enable the project staff and committee members to re-plan the project in order to achieve the expected results. The project staff will report to the parish office on a monthly basis. Comprehensive narrative and financial reports will be provided to the Partners and concerned persons at the end of every month. 

  • Sustainability 

This project has been designed to build capacity of local organizations to continue with local action stimulated by the project. The project plans to impart skills for facilitating the various components, the resource persons created will continue to offer leadership and training to the community even after the funding period is over. The project will use capacity building and empowerment approaches that lay emphasis on enabling people realize the capacities and resources that they have and building on this. The consultations at the initiation of the project will provide an opportunity for the community to deliberate on the resources and skills that they could use for supporting and caring for OVC. This emphasis on the people finding solutions for their problems will be emphasized. The capacity of local leaders will be built and project responsibilities systematically phased over to the community leadership. The project will work with indigenous groups and identified Churches/congregations and skills transferred will remain in this community.

The project proposes to enable the community form partnerships, linkages and collaborations with the government, Churches and other development actors present in the neighboring areas. These institutions will be present in the location and will accompany the community in its programs after the proposed project’s life.

Identified Groups and Churches/congregations participating in this project will be expected to mobilize their own financial resources through church councils’ budgets to provide resources for programs initiated. These resources will play a key role after project phase out to sustain derived benefits. The skills introduced by the project to this community will remain in the community as a resource for the people even after the project-funding period, this will ensure that the benefits continue to multiply. 

  • Parish Governance and organizational structure

A Parish council of 12 members governs the Kamwangi Parish which is made up of Priest and parish elected members. The parish council meets on quarterly basis to receive reports and make decisions and policies relating to pastoral work, finances, administration and Christian welfare. The parish council will elect 5 members and co-opt 2 skilled community members to form the Project Implementation Committee (PIC). The project officer in collaboration with PIC will implement the activities. The project officer will give narrative and financial reports to the PIC on monthly basis and the PIC will submit these reports to the parish council on quarterly basis. 

10.0 Work plan

Objective Outputs Responsible person Time line
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Objective 1

Equip 100 OVC with vocational skills in one year

 Provide apprenticeship training for 100 OVC out of school. project manager & volunteers.                        
ACTIVITIES

1.1        Vetting out of school OVCs

  

100 Out of school OVC vetted

 “                        
1.2        Career Awareness training 100 Out Of School OVC placed “                        
1.3        Placement of OVCs 100 placed “                        
1.4        Conduct monitoring visits “                        
1.5        Identify and train 50 community leaders 50 leaders trained “                        
Objective 2:

Capacity for 10 caregiver groups to engage in savings, credit & income generation activities is built in a year.

 Establish and train 10 elderly caregivers support groups with 150 members. project manager                        
ACTIVITIES

1.1        Identification of caregivers

  

Caregivers identified & vetted

 “                        
1.2    Train the caregivers in business management, savings & credit Caregivers trained “                        
1.3  Establish caregiver groups Caregivers Working groups “                        
1.4 Monitoring and evaluation Project manager,  volunteers and committees                        
Objective 3:

Build capacity for the church and community leaders

                        
ACTIVITIES:

1.1 Formation of project committee

 Project manager & committees, Principal                        
1.2 Hold trainings for leaders Identify capacity gaps & carry out training “                        
1.3 Train the OVC in life skills 100 OVC trained in life skills “                        
1.4 Monitoring & Evaluation “