Why and How FOK Funds Projects in Kenya

Since the idea that became Friends of Kenya (FOK) first emerged at the 25th anniversary Peace Corps conference in 1986, support for human welfare and nature conservation projects has been among FOK's guiding objectives. Our first allocations in mid-1988--$300 to a Kenya YWCA rural women's training program and $300 to a semi-arid land use rehabilitation program--have multiplied, and today, our project contributions total more than $60,000.

Your dues and contributions have helped to build school classrooms; supply equipment for laboratories, workshops, and the battle against elephant poachers; purchase a water drilling rig; teach agricultural and micro-enterprise skills, family health and nutrition, and rhino conservation; train Kenyan scientists and researchers; provide start-up monies for small businesses; support conservation field research; assist refugees, street children, orphans and students with development disabilities.

In selecting grantees, the FOK Board has aimed for a mix of people-oriented and conservation-centered projects. This reflects the diverse interests and concerns of our members, and the Board's position that both nature conservation and more direct human-welfare projects ultimately benefit Kenyans and Kenya as a whole.

How FOK Helps Current Volunteers and Their Projects

Friends of Kenya has started reaching out to Peace Corps Volunteers currently serving in Kenya with small grants for their projects. The purpose of this grants program, which began in October 2003, is twofold: first, to provide a funding source to which Volunteers can have ready access; and second, to inform Volunteers about FOK and encourage them to join and assume leadership roles in the organization when they return to the States.

Volunteers learn about the grants by word of mouth or from the FOK website. They submit an application by email and include the name of a Kenyan who will be affiliated with the project after the Volunteer leaves. When possible, the actual grantee is the community group that is sponsoring the project, not the Peace Corps Volunteer. The maximum grant is $500.

The first Volunteer to request FOK assistance was Robin Rae Franko, who received $400 to facilitate production of tree-free charcoal in Makueni District, Eastern Province. Harvested to produce charcoal, trees are fast disappearing in this area. The grantee, the Nunguni Handcraft Women’s Group, learned to produce tree-free charcoal from water, dried leaves, newspapers, and shavings from woodworking shops, according to Franko. The women pound and mix the materials to form a mud-like substance; then they compress the material in a wood vice-like device, creating round bricks. After drying for four days, the bricks are used as fuel for cooking fires, replacing regular charcoal. Each brick burns for about 25 minutes; six bricks cook enough ugali for a family of six.

Franko said that the tree-free charcoal may eventually replace enough traditional charcoal to mitigate the effects of deforestation. The FOK grant will enable the women to build several machines and travel to other communities to promote the product and to train others to produce it.

Franko told Volunteers in the area about the FOK funding, which led Scott Bussell to ask for $500 to purchase a microscope for a new health clinic. “A microscope by itself is a small thing; but giving people the ability to know with confidence their health status is a great feat,” Bussell wrote after receiving the money. “Every time I visit the Timboni community I see children strapped to the back of bicycles on their way to the nearest health center, which is the only place in 12 km that they can have a blood test for malaria. Now the distance that people travel for treatment will be greatly reduced,” he said.

The third Volunteer to receive FOK funding was Jennifer Morris, who used a $500 grant to purchase teacher resource materials to enhance lessons for six teachers and 30 deaf students at the School for the Deaf Resource Center, also in Ogongo, Nyanza Province.

Morris spread the word in her area, which prompted Mike Kota, a public health extension volunteer in Ogongo, Nyanza Province, to request $213 to purchase heavy-duty bicycles. Kota said the bikes will enable a theater troupe trained by CARE Kenya to travel into rural areas to present performances disseminating HIV/AIDS prevention information.

Volunteer Aimee Schattner used a $500 FOK grant to purchase a more efficient and environmentally friendly pasteurizer for the Kaptumo Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society in Kaptumo Division, Nandi South District, Nyanza Province. The pasteurizer gives milk a shelf life of about two weeks, without the need for refrigeration, in case it can’t be sold immediately.

(All photos taken by Paula Hirschoff.)