Ken and Teresa Mellish of New Perth, P.E.I. have visited Kenya since Farmers Helping Farmers was founded in 1981.
Here are three posts from them, from their most recent visits in January and February 2024, highlighting some of the success stories that they have seen during their latest trip.
How these Grade 8 graduates are inspiring hope in Kenya
These are some of the ten girls in the Grade 8 graduating class at Kamuketha Primary School
By Ken Mellish
We recently had the opportunity to visit the Kamuketha Primary school in Meru county, Kenya.
The school has been a partner with Farmers Helping Farmers for many years and is located in an area which has been hard hit by the recent drought. The rains have come back, and things are green, and the crops are growing, but there is yet no harvest of staple crops. Farmers Helping Farmers supports a feeding program at this school. When we were there, the school was closed for Christmas break but the morning porridge was still being served to fifty students who did not have food at home. Porridge, locally called “uji” is a liquid mix of sorghum, millet and maize flour with milk and water added. We joined them for a cup.
In addition to the younger children, there were eight girls who had recently graduated from grade eight at the school. This was a very moving moment for us. The class had twenty students, ten girls and ten boys. All had passed the national grade eight exam.
This is a great achievement from a school when we first visited them years ago was struggling to keep children in class and academic performance was weak. These girls were tall, healthy-looking and full of plans for high school and professional careers in the future.
We thought of the many things that FHF had contributed to their success. The Village Feast in Souris had provided money to build the cook house to cook two meals a day. Farmers Helping Farmers had put a garden in place to provide fresh vegetables every day.
FHF provided milk funded by the Holiday Campaign to improve the nutrition of the porridge every day. The added calcium, vitamins and protein from milk made a great contribution to the growth of these girls.
A huge contribution was made by FHF member Nancy Russell who built three new class rooms in memory of her son Callum. This gave them a pleasant well-lit place to study.
Many of their mothers are members of FHF partner women’s groups. At home, they would have had water from a FHF tank, meals cooked on a FHF stove and a solar-powered light to study by. Global Affairs Canada had contributed to this success through several cost-shared projects.
The staff at the school were present and their hard work and FHF staff had contributed to this successful graduating class. Seeing these girls we thought of our granddaughters who enjoy the support families can provide here in Canada. Through Farmers Helping Farmers, this support was shared and we took great pleasure in seeing this group of girls ready to make a contribution to the world.
A visit to the The Grace Sisters self help group in Meru County Kenya
By Ken Mellish
We had visited The Grace Sisters before, as they are one of Farmers Helping Farmers partner groups.
The Grace Sisters live in an area which is very productive when they get rain but they had experienced a three year stretch of poor rains when we visited them last. Rain had started about six weeks before we visited, and crops were starting to grow.
They survived because of two water lines, which bring water from high on Mount Kenya. These lines are limited and FHF had made it possible for them to maximize the use of the water. First, each of the members was given a 5,000 liter water tank to collect water at their houses. This collects roof water when it comes but can be used to store water from the intermitted supply from the water lines. Also, they were set up with irrigation for an acre of farm land to grow crops in the dry seasons.
Since we started to work with them they all have established grow bags to produce greens for their families. They had produced tree seedlings from a small nursery for their members. On the irrigated land, they had produced a crop of onions, and used the profits from these to produce a crop of potatoes.
The potato crop was reduced because of low water supply, but they had a crop to sell when there were no other local potatoes. As a result, the crop was profitable, and they replanted to onions.
We met with them at the Chairlady’s home. The first impression was the green vegetables at her home. They were producing enough for her family, and giving surplus to their neighbors. A big boost to vitamins and minerals in the diet.
We then sat down with the leaders of the group, and we were very impressed with their plans. They want to continue farming the irrigated land. They will work cooperatively, and this will bring them money to grow their group. They plan to buy a milking goat for each member to improve family nutrition.
They fed us a wonderful meal. It was rice, chicken, kale and cabbage, skillfully prepared.
Now they needed the food more than we did but it was paid for by potato money, and in Africa it is an honor to feed guests. We were also able to leave them a huge bag of vegetables gifted to us by the Kendi Geetu women.
They asked if we would help them to establish a catering business. We encouraged them, based on their cooking, and promised to put them in contact with The Destiney Women’s group which we work with and who are successful caterers.
I think we were most moved when we asked them what they needed. They asked for water tanks for their neighbors. With their limited resources, their first thoughts were of helping others.
After a discussion on health issues, and on family life, we said “Kwaheri Aquanana” which is “see you later”. We came away enriched and with renewed appreciation of what these women’s groups can accomplish.
Two schools sharing a kitchen
By Teresa Mellish
I was so pleased when I visited the King-O Primary School last week and learned it was sharing their kitchen with the King-O Secondary School.
There were two pots of githeri cooking in the kitchen, one for each school. The porridge was cooking outside for both schools.
The Primary School has 120 learners and the Secondary School has 240 learners. They are located next to each other on the same property.
Each school grows enough maize and beans on the school property to feed the children each day.
We have tried to get primary and secondary schools to share a kitchen previously but have never been successful until now.
Asante to these two schools for making this a success story!
P.E.I. Kenya 2024 