A move for social change in Kenya is taking root with the help of local volunteers.
For retired teacher Donna McFarlane and Wellington Heights Secondary School teacher Barb Cowen and their network of Mount Forest and area volunteers, work done in the village of Osenetoi is improving the lives of its inhabitants and in particular its young women.
Through the Free the Children (FTC) organization and its mission statement to create a world where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential, the local group set out to adopt a village and help its people through the organization’s fundraising arm Me to We.
FTC has five “pillars” for change: education, health, water, agriculture and food.
Local efforts to work toward social change and improve the lives of children in a Third World country started about five years ago. It would eventually lead to the group choosing to adopt Osenetoi, a remote Kenyan village.
Life in Osenetoi was completely different from what members of the local group have ever experienced. Women and girls do much of the work, while the husbands and fathers tend to their cattle. If the girls were needed to do some of the farm work or travel the 10 kilometers to collect water, they would not attend school, McFarlane said of conditions in the village.
Often girls were married off just as they were entering their teens. Properly-equipped schools were also lacking.
“The women did all the work,” McFarlane said.
“As far as selecting Osenetoi, this was done for us by FTC. We chose Kenya and they basically identified the community in need and that was ready to be developed,” Cowen added, of the process that would team up the local group and the village.
“There is a lot of planning before FTC officially enters the community. The elders have to agree to send their girls to school and not work, they have to be on board with boiling their water, they need to be committed to allowing the women to have alternative sources of income and promise that they will not take it from them, and promise not to marry the girls as children. There was also the need for guarantees on the government’s part that they will supply teachers for each classroom built and that the donated dollars will go directly to the cause.”
It was decided education would be the local group’s first goal. They raised, through a variety of fundraising efforts, $25,000 – earmarked to build a well to provide fresh water and a school. A majority of the fundraising effort was associated with students at high school and at Victoria Cross Public School, where McFarlane taught before retiring.
Today the efforts at the public school are handled by teachers Marj Small and Lene MacLean and parent Nicole West.
“I got people to start collecting pennies,” McFarlane recalled of the initial fundraising. “Everything in our community has gone to Kenya.”
Two years ago a group of about 24 people made the trek to Osenetoi to assist with the school building and well construction.
“It’s literally in the middle of nowhere,” Cowen said of the village’s location.
It took the group two hours to get to Osenetoi, a distance of about 35 kilometers, McFarlane said.
Up until the new school, which resembles a portable, was built, most students “didn’t get beyond Grade 7, so they couldn’t go to high school or university,” Cowen said.
Residents greeted the visitors dressed in colourful outfits and singing traditional songs. It was a greeting that humbled the group.
With English taught in school, communication between the residents and visitors was simple. The visitors also got a first-hand look at conditions, particularly of the drinking water villagers collected for their personal needs.
“It looked like you had taken chocolate milk and mixed it with the water and it had chunks in it,” Cowen said.
Before the school was built, children would walk 12 kilometers to get to the closest school,” Cowen noted.
Wellington Heights student Maryssa Eccles has been involved locally, but didn’t make the trek to Kenya. Instead she visited a community in India where FTC is involved and has been a strong supporter of the Me to We movement.
Eccles said, “As soon as I heard of Free the Children, I was instantly inspired,” which resulted in her travelling to the village of Kalthona in the Indian province of Rajasthan.
“This past summer I went on a Me to We trip along with other community members and families. While we were there we began to build a school, by having a groundbreaking ceremony. As for building, we started to dig the hole for where the school would be built and then fixed a wall to allow privacy at the school, and rebuilt latrines that were poorly made.”
The work they were doing drew onlookers and villagers.
“During the building hours, people would continue to come to assist and watch us build for them. You could see they were thankful that it was happening,” the 17-year-old said.
During breaks, they enjoyed playing games with the local villagers. They were also invited into the homes of residents to sample local foods.
”It’s heartbreaking to witness the terrible things that those families have to go through every day,” Eccles said.
“It’s hard to try and change the world, but I see the support of the community and it’s evident that we are making a huge difference. I hope that continues to happen as I continue to engage in Me to We trips.
“One thing I think is wonderful about Me to We, is that they empower women. Being a woman and having seen how they are treated in India is heartbreaking.”
As part of the work to improve the finances of women in Kenya and India, Eccles and many other supporters regularly purchase jewelry made by impoverished women there.
“By buying their jewelry that money goes back to the mamas who made them,” Eccles said. “They can then buy food for their families and allow their children to go to school.”
McFarlane believes improving the lives of their Kenyan friends is making an impact.
“Progress is changing reality,” she said of the efforts.
McFarlane and Cowen are planning to make a return trip to Osenetoi within the next two years to see how much progress has changed reality.
A major fundraiser hosted by the local group was a concert by the Kenyan Boys Choir held at the Mount Forest United Church earlier this month. The event attracted a full house.
