Cincinnati
8/29/2018
Noreen Obilo, SOTENI Kenya’s Programmes Manager, has been asked to report on the vision for Mituntu of SOTENI’s Founders, of whom I am one. I wrote her today:
Thank you for your earlier question about the original vision that we SOTENI founders had for the Mituntu land. When the community donated the 52 acres to SOTENI, our goal was to use it to generate income to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation activities. We SOTENI founders held several barazas,[1] which led to the election of the inaugural Local Management Committee [LMC]. These community representatives served as true volunteers. The original LMC members were not provided any shillings for transport to come to meetings, allowances, nor any other remuneration.[2]
SOTENI worked with the LMC on a needs assessment, which led to the prioritization of education, and grand plans for a Centre of Academic Excellence, based on the Starehe School model, the excellent private school in Nairobi, which was subsidized by the Roman Catholic Church, provided free education for orphans, and became so well-regarded that wealthy families began paying tuition to send their children there.
We SOTENI co-founders thought that SOTENI Village of Hope – Mituntu Centre for Excellence would be the hub of diverse activities working together to prevent and mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS. Patrons with means would support SOTENI’s educational and public health mission because of Mituntu’s high quality of academic and medical services. A volunteer architect drafted an inspiring, off-the-grid, holistic rendering of the Village that would comprise housing, farming, a community centre, and health services as well as a school with dormitories, playing fields, vocational training sites, etc. Spectacular. “Orphans of AIDS Leading the Fight Against AIDS” was our motto.
I identified a wealthy philanthropist (in the million-dollar category) years ago who was interested in SOTENI, and possibly donating. This was 15 years ago – SOTENI was brand new and without a track record. Tim’s enthusiasm faded when he learned that SOTENI did not actually own the land. “Come back when you have the property,” he said back then. (He has since left Cincinnati, but if SOTENI ever does get a title deed for the Mituntu property I can follow up, depending on the community’s current priorities. The worst he can say is, “No.”[3])
***
So, what happened?
Does SOTENI own the land?
How close are we to a Centre of Excellence?
Ahhhhh….
***
The past 15 years have not gone to waste.
- The land has been developed: fenced, electrified, provided with a bore hole for dependable potable water.
- The land has grown maize, tomatoes, hay, watermelon, and chickens, all of which have provided income to SOTENI.
- The infrastructure includes 5 permanent structures and 2 latrines:
- The original office, now serving as overnight accommodations for the two caretakers and the daytime office for the principal of the SOTENI Mituntu Mixed Secondary Day School.
- Our large office, now divided into SOTENI’s headquarters and the single classroom for Form III.
- The original chicken coop, now refurbished, and serving as the single classroom for Form II.
- A new building, approximately 20 feet by 40 feet, serving as the single classroom for Form I.
- A new building, approximately 12 feet by 15 feet, serving as the kitchen.
- A dirt road now connects our property with a paved road.
- SOTENI has supported hundreds of orphans with education, psychosocial support, homes, health care, food and water, power, uniforms and other clothing, and launching of jobs and careers.
- SOTENI spent six years with a staff of over 300 women educating 3,000 women in civil rights under the new Kenyan Constitution, including their right to own land; business skills, including basic accounting and banking; and health, especially reproductive health, family planning, and HIV/AIDS. Our work led to hundreds of entrepreneurial activities, over 100 of which continued after the formal program ended.
- SOTENI has started a day school, adding one class each year. Our target student population are children who cannot afford the fees for high school, which can range from $100 to several thousand dollars per year.
- SOTENI has led behavior change communication activities targeting youth, sex workers, persons living with HIV/AIDS, among others.
…to be continued…
[1] A baraza is a public gathering, often near the chief’s compound, and led by the chief or the sub-chief, typically focused on speeches. Members of the community gather, women in western-style dresses or kangas (large swaths of cotton material, printed with technicolor designs and cryptic sayings in Swahili sitting with their legs straight out in front of them, often a basket or baby in their laps. Separate are the men, also dressed in western clothes, always raggedy, and the children, mostly in frayed school uniforms.
Barazas are well-attended, especially when the guest of honor, emcee, and/or special visitor provides sodas for all. The warm sodas arrive in wire cases: Coke, Fanta [orange, lemon, black currant], Sprite, and when I’m lucky, Stoney’s [ginger ale]. Teenagers carry around the cases to the attendees, one handing over the bottles, another uncapping the lids.
[2] Serving the community through nonprofit boards is not common in Kenya. Philanthropy, African Socialism is more common than American charity, but takes a different form. In Africa, any person who has attained the level of the currency economy – as opposed to the more common bartering economy of rural sub-Saharan Africa – is expected to support family and community members who now need currency to move up the socioeconomic ladder: school fees to be educated; costs to be transported; down payments to buy real estate, vehicles, and/or wives; etc. It’s not unusual for a businessman [sic] in Nairobi to be supporting ten or twenty children (not their own) back home and young adults trying to make a living in a difficult, corrupt economy.
Both Africans and Americans donate to their religious organizations. But, beyond the church or mosque, charity is meted out person-to-person in Africa, whereas in the US., institutions mediate the relationship between donor and beneficiary.
Board members of non-profit and other philanthropic institutions in Kenya expect to receive at least a token of appreciation for their time, effort, and cachet.
[3] Actually, there is a possible worse response than “No.” Some rejections can humiliate; that would be worse than a mere refusal.
VicWulsin 