Kenya: Community Development Projects
SVQF’s community development projects in the Narok South District of Kenya’s Masai Mara take a holistic approach to poverty alleviation, simultaneously providing health care, primary education, safe water and sanitation, and income-generating programs for the women of the community. The immediate improvements in health and social services, coupled with the long-term economic development initiatives, will enable the communities to independently maintain an improved standard of living once the project is completed.
In each project, SVQF’s primary partner is Free The Children, founded by international child rights activist Craig Kielburger. Free The Children and Craig Kielburger have been recognized on several occasions for the excellent work, receiving the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child in 2006 and three nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. SVQF also partners with other organizations to complement the work done by Free The Children: MoojAnimations has created educational animated children’s films to strengthen health and sanitation training in the communities; Doc2Dock has provided medical supplies and equipment for a mobile health clinic as well as for the District’s first permanent medical clinic; and PCCHF provided a medical team that included the first doctors and dental team to visit the clinic and treat members of the surrounding communities.
Salabwek
The first of SVQF’s community development projects was located in Salabwek, a Kipsigi tribal
community living in extreme poverty: the average household income was less than US $1/day,
90% of the population was illiterate, and children are not given names until they reach five years
old because so many die before then.
SVQF provided for the construction and furnishing of 8 one-classroom schools and teachers’
quarters, community safe water sources, latrines, a mobile health clinic, and an alternative
income program that created women’s groups that were provided with financial and business
training and micro-loans. In addition to physical infrastructure, the project provided educational
workshops and training. Drawn by the improved facilities and social services, people from
neighboring communities migrated to Salabwek over the course of the 3-year project, expanding
its population from the original 1200 to 5000 inhabitants.
Documentary on SVQF in Kenya 2009
Educational animations for Salabwek schools 2009
Shipment of medical equipment to Salabwek, Kenya, 2007
Progress Reports
Osenetoi
The second of SVQF’s Kenyan community development projects launched in summer 2010
in the Masai village of Osenetoi, which has about 2000 inhabitants. The village faces many
challenges:
• Approximately 70% of the villagers live on less than US$1 or $2 a day, and a third of the
villagers are in debt stemming from school fees, the cost of livestock rearing, and loans
taken to expand small businesses.
• The literacy rate in Osenetoi is 20% for adult men and 10% for adult women, and
approximately 20% of the village’s primary school-aged children do not attend school.
• Osenetoi’s infant mortality rate is 15%, and the mortality rate for children under five
years of age is 10%. There are no health care facilities within a 10km radius of the
village, nor are there any private practitioners available.
• Health problems amongst the villagers most result from poor water and sanitation
facilities and practices. None of the households has access to safe drinking water or
proper sanitation facilities.
Progress Reports
Regional Efforts
SVQF sends medical mission to Kenya 2011
Shipment of medical equipment to permanent clinic in Kenya’s Mara 2010
