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The Akhonya Trust Childrens Home at Ematundu
During his two year placement Richard spent a lot of time on outreach visits into small rural communities to raise awareness and carry out his work. Each community had extensive needs, and Richard received a lot of requests for help—many of them operating on the “handout” policy requiring no input from the individual or community. Many families and communities were in desperate situations due to disabilities and HIV/AIDS. During one of these visits, Richard came into contact with a special needs teacher named Mr. Amos Mtsotso, who worked at Ematundu Primary School. Amos showed Richard the efforts made by the community to support these children. Despite having access to no money, they had a strong community spirit. Committed to looking after each other, the community was determined to “better their situation” as best they could and support each other, and approached every challenge with smiles, a positive attitude, and the most generous hospitality to each and every visitor.
 Digging of foundations Richard and Amos’ friendship developed and with a huge amount of project management support from Richard, the community managed to build a brick building. The facility had a tin roof, windows, doors, and bunk beds, and became home to 25 children with disabilities to allow them to access the nearby school. This building is named “The Unclemac Small Home”. Before the dormitory was built, the children’s families were unable to transport them to and from school on a daily basis. The community-led project has grown since the first building was completed. The Trust purchased a piece of land adjacent to the school land where the Unclemac home is located and set out plans to build a community to house some of the many HIV/AIDS orphans in this area. The Akhonya Trust Childrens Home now has two dormitories, housing 130 children, to add to the original one at the school which is housing 25 disabled children. The boys’ dormitory is named the Squiggle small home and the girls dormitory is called the Biorad small home. The names were chosen by major funders but are testimonials to each and every person who donated funds. Friends and family of the trust sponsor these children individually on an ongoing basis.  Water Pump Construction if a 13,000 sq.ft resource centre with a workshop has been completed where children can learn marketable skills such as carpentry, metalwork, and knitting, in order to build capacity in this fledging rural community. Ematundu Resource Centre  Under construction
By also providing a space for community education, the Resource Centre will serve thousands of people a year in the broader environment. In particular, the Centre will also provide a space for organisations like SAIPEH (Support Activities in Poverty Eradication and Health) to deliver their educational messages when they visit this community. The Centre will also be used to educate the surrounding community about basic nutrition and midwifery, and to reduce the cultural stigmas that are attached both to HIV/AIDS and disabilities. Goals and Achievements of the Akhonya Trust Children’s Home Now the resource centre is completed and surrounding facilities, that include a football pitch and playground equipment. Now this has been completed, the focus is on nurturing the children in the homes. Every attempt is made by the Trust to encourage the placement of those children orphaned by HIV/AIDS with extended family members. However, this is not always possible. Street children as young as four years old have been brought to the orphanage. The Akhonya Trust Children’s home provides a safe and nurturing environment for children who are unable to be placed with local families to reach their individual potential. Upon entering the Children’s Home each child is assessed and given an Individual Learning Plans (ILP) The relationship between child and sponsor will be developed as fully as possible and the entire focus of the project will be on creating the most supportive environment and allowing the children to develop their own sustainable futures. Only once a child has completed their education and has voluntarily left the orphanage to make their own way in life, will their place be filled by another child. This ensures that the resources will not be stretched any more than is required and means every child will have every opportunity they deserve to allow them to succeed in life. Sustainability –The Key to Development Electricity
Quote from Amos Mtsotso, Project Manager:- The electricity has transformed the children home into a modern society as now the children have the use of lights , they are able to use electric sewing machine , typewriters and computers. It is a great benefit to the entire community. This has now made us access skills that were usually very hard to access without electricity. It has enhanced our vision. As we are also able to use electricity, to the posho mill, this has transformed the Children’s Home into a centre of excellence. Water Following on from the bore hole which we dug out in the grounds of the Children’s Home in 2006, which transformed the daily lives of children who otherwise were making a 8km round trip to the nearest water source three times per day. Following investigations we have discovered a deeper water table at 30 metres below the original bore hole shelf. This year (2009) we plan to tap in to this water source providing the most precious commodities for the children and surrounding community. Plans include installation of a submersible pump and construct a water catchment tank to ensure supply of fresh drinking water even in the driest of times. Posho Mill
Saw Mill We received a Saw Mill from the engineers of AEI Cables in Birtley, UK. This Saw Mill will now be put into operation, so that the local community can cut and prepare timber, again a huge labour saving. The Children’s Home will once again benefit by generating income from charging a subsidised fee for this service. IGA (Income Generating Activities) - Breeding Programme In a flash of inspiration we realised we should create our own breeding programme using the best pure bred cows and bulls. Future donations to Give a Gift will be purchased inhouse, therefore, the income will go directly to the running costs of the Children’s Home, thus, ensuring sustainability and substantial funding. Click here to view the acceptance document for cow ‘Rubycoo’ The sponsor a child scheme Sponsorship is envisaged as a long-term commitment for the child’s educational term enabling close ties between the sponsor and each individual child. The child and their sponsor are encouraged to communicate with each other by letters and hopefully develop a bond that provides some emotional support for the child. Two dormitories are home to 130 children orphaned by AIDS, with a third community housing 25 disabled children. Orphans are sponsored by donors at an annual cost of approximately £120 per child that covers school fees, school uniforms, food and a housemother who cooks and takes care of the children. Joining the projects in this manner enables orphans to access housing and education in a way that reinforces the impact of these vital resources and improves their chances of leading independent lives, and possibly accessing higher education in the future. Child sponsorship is a long-term commitment that extends far beyond the act of donating money. The goal is to provide children with extended, albeit long-distance, family, on a long-term basis. Correspondence and a long-term interest in the child’s progress and well-being is strongly encouraged. For further information, please contact us. |
The Akhonya Trust Childrens Home has been established at Ematundu village approximately 25kms from Mumias. The initiative is headed locally by Amos Mtsoto, a special needs school-teacher and community builder.
Amos showed Richard a piece of land attached to the school playing field destined for a home for disabled children. Although this seemed like an impossible dream, Richard helped the community mark out the building footprint, and set it the challenge of digging some foundations and contacting an architect to draw up some plans. Due to the location of Ematundu and the poverty of the local community, Richard doubted that this community would be able to rise to the challenge. However, Amos’ infectious positive attitude and absolute belief in the community and the good that this building would provide made Richard promise that if they managed to take the initial steps he would somehow find a way to match them and try and locate some funding. Richard recognized that Amos was a very engaging and inspiring person, and that this proposal would be different from many others.
Primarily the centre provides a vital communal space for the orphans. It generates additional benefits that spill over to the broader community in several seemingly small, but very important ways. First, the centre prides teaching and skill sharing jobs for members of the community. Second the capital costs of building have gone directly into the community in the form of building materials and labour. Local trades people hand-make the bricks and frames for the doors and windows from timber that has to be hand cut. This investment generates multiplier effects throughout the community.
The Akhonya Trust has been able to work with the Kenyan Government and have jointly provided electricity to the Children’s Home and neighboring community for the first time in their history.
The Akhonya Trust is now proudly in possession of a Posho Mill. This provides the vital and necessary ‘Kenyan cake’ (Ugali) which is the staple food of Kenya. The Posho Mill grinds the maize which is usually carried out manually, not only is this a huge labour saving for the cooks at the Children’s Home but also the local community are now benefiting by bringing their own maize to be ground. A small fee is charged for this service which is offset to pay for the electricity at the Children’s Home providing essential sustainability. |
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