Empowering People Matters: Empowering A Community

The formula is simple:

Resources + Knowledge & Skills + Opportunities = Community Empowerment

Back to Basics
According to American psychologist, Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) humans have seven needs to ensure survival: air, water, food, sleep, clothing, shelter and safety.
Clean, unpolluted oxygen-rich air is essential. We cannot live for more than a few minutes without breathing. I’d like to expand water to include ‘clean water & sanitation’, which is desperately needed in poor countries where lack of accessible, clean water and toilets cause diseases in millions of people.
Lack of nutritious food leads to sickness and starvation. Sleep deprivation affects brain function and physiology. We need shelter from the elements and we need safety from all threats to our survival. In order to meet these survival needs, we need an income.In order to make an income, we need knowledge & skills + resources + opportunities.

People everywhere just want the opportunity to work to generate income to meet the survival needs of their families. And beyond mere survival we can all thrive with health, love and belonging, creativity and freedom.

Come with me to Chogoria

Let me share my inspiring journey of empowering the people of Chogoria in rural Kenya.

The story starts with an unlikely friendship. I met beautiful Millicent in July 2016. We instantly recognised each other as ‘soul sisters’.

Millicent from Kenya, a former nurse, midwife, hospital matron and courageous field health worker and me, an Australian living in the UK, a seasoned journalist and counsellor and aspiring community worker, shared common ground and core values.

The intersection of our dreams happened in Senegal at a dynamic training in grassroots community development run by the legendary Molly Melching, founder of Tostan, a charity leading a movement of social change to empower women and communities across West Africa.

Millicent and me at the Tostan training in Senegal in July 2016

Millicent and I planted the seeds of an ambitious dream: to take the empowerment movement to Kenya and East Africa.

As we brainstormed over several days, Millicent told me she ran a community centre for feeding and caring for vulnerable children in her hometown, Chogoria, set in the lush tropical farmlands on the slopes of magnificent Mount Kenya.

In 2003 Millicent personally funded the centre called Faraja – a Swahili word meaning ‘comfort’ – out of a deep sense of gratitude for being sponsored by the Chogoria Hospital to study her Masters Degree in Public Health in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Millicent and the Faraja kids

Since then she has worked tirelessly caring for children and their families in the humble centre as well as travelling far and wide on rough terrain to reach remote villages with vital health education throughout the Tharaka Nithi county.

Visiting the Garama family

Later that year, I kept my promise to visit Millicent and her devoted husband, Pastor Garama, travelling by matatu – a crowded public mini-van - four hours north of Nairobi to the a vibrant market town in the heart of Kenya.

When I set eyes on the Faraja Community Centre - a sturdy brick building with a huge open room, with several small rooms for offices at the back - the exciting vision for adding a kitchen, electricity and clean drinking water came into focus.

After two more planning trips to Chogoria in 2017 and 2018, in January 2019, with a massive leap of faith, I invested £7000 of my own money to install a modern galley kitchen in the empty corner of the Faraja main hall.

I hired the Streamline Designs kitchen company in Nairobi to make all the cabinetry, a local plumber to install a chlorinator, filter system and new water tank to provide clean, safe water and local electrician to bring power and lights. Local painters did a beautiful makeover, painting the walls and floor, and a sewing lady made stunning new curtains.

The empty room before the kitchen installation

Elias, the electrician starts the wiring job

James, the plumber, and the guys install a new water tank and filters

The painters, Collins and Kevin transform the walls and floor

Master Streamline kitchen installer, Fred and assistant Silas go to work

Fred and Silas making progress

The tilers add the finishing touches

Fridah sews aprons ready for the kitchen workers,
Me in the half finished kitchen, February 2019

Biggest Challenge of My Life

Supervising the installation of the modern kitchen in the rustic building was the biggest challenge of my life! I was propelled out of my comfort zone into hard physical work, tricky problem solving and daily decision-making over two solid months until finally, miraculously, we launched the kitchen with a joyful celebration party.

Making muffins with Millicent and Anne

Celebration Day, launching the kitchen March 16, 2019

Kuka leads the kids in singing and dancing at the party

The Vision

The dazzling new kitchen will be the catalyst for expanding the food choices for the Children and teaching kids nutrition and cooking, a Mums and Babies Group, a Women’s Health Group, a Men’s Health Group and a Youth Social Group serving up pizza and music, and a support group for the Elderly.

We plan to run a daily café, creating a vibrant meeting place for the whole community and international medical workers and visitors who come to climb Mount Kenya.

The Faraja Kitchen will be self-sustaining, making money from the sale of food to cover running costs, pay workers and fund further improvements to centre.

And we have many exciting ideas for income-generating small businesses including a Sewing Group making African fabric bags; the Malaria-prevention Soap-making Group and a Coconut initiative to transport coconuts from coastal Mombasa to Chogoria to produce nutritious coconut oil, milk, cream and cheese.

Garama, an agricultural expert, is in charge of the flourishing Faraja Vegetable Garden growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and herbs to supply the kitchen.

The Future Looks Bright

And in the future the Faraja Community Centre will provide training for local facilitators in health, human rights and stopping harmful practices such as female genital cutting and child marriage in villages all over Kenya.

All this transformation is flowing from the everyday miracle of a kitchen.

My soul sister, Millicent and I have realised our beautiful dream in the heartland of Kenya that started three years ago in Senegal!

Anything is possible when caring people join together to make a difference.