When the Long Rains Come –Health, Farms and Schools

The long rains have come to Esabalu which means that everyone in the village is planting. The nearly 1000 trees that were planted by the Esabalu youths in anticipation of a good growing season are all doing well. (see Dec 14th newsroom -Reforestation Round 2).

Baby Chicks – first hatching!

Also the community incubator has just hatched 565 baby chickens! The chicks are being raised for 30days at the hatchery and will then be sold to supply a  poultry raising initiative funded by the World Bank. The object is to provide income and more dietary protein for local women who will raise the chicks to maturity.

The long rains also bring waterborn diseases such as typhoid, e. coli and cholera. The planting of native trees eventually leads to better catchment of water and prevention of both flooding and drought.

Washing for Health

In the meantime the Jidavee Youth Health group are hard at work. They are cleaning and sanitizing the collection tanks at schools in the village. Amesbury for Africa has purchased 20 L of chlorine solution to be used in disinfecting water. In case there is flooding,  contaminated water can be treated with chlorine to combat any outbreak of diarrheal illness. Teachers at the primary and secondary level will reinforce the message of drinking only boiled or purified water and always washing hands.

Ebussamba School Uniforms

All schools in the Esabalu area will open on May 10th. This year Amesbury for Africa will be providing school uniforms for 151 orphans at Ebussamba Primary School. (Students without a school uniform are sent home and cannot attend school – see  School Uniforms of Esabalu





 

 

Reforestation – Round 2

Jidavee Youth Group with Seedlings

Amesbury’s Sister village of Esabalu in Western Kenya has been losing its forests!  Trees in the tropics protect water catchment areas to keep streams and springs from flooding during the rainy season.  (And from drying up when the seasonal rains end).  The planting of tree seedlings native to the Western Kenya region began in 2019 as a local initiative to combat global climate change while addressing local problems of water supply and drought.   (See the AFA  post of  November 7, 2019 — Jidavee Youths Tackle Deforestation )

Last year, the Jidavee Youth group distributed 417 seedlings.  Eight churches and schools were selected as beneficiaries.  After training, the young volunteers gave practical workshops to instruct the members of the school and church communities in the importance of the project  and how to properly plant, water and care for the seedlings.

Subsequently, the Jidavee youths re-visited each planting site several times during the year to see how the small trees (and their caregivers)  were doing.  At the last survey in October  they reported that 85% of the seedlings survived and the young trees are florishing. 

This year the reforestation program planted 365 new seedlings, replacing the trees that did not survive as well as developing additional sites for planting. The Jidavees completed the second round of the two day re-forestation program on December 13, 2020.  They  hope that this will be an annual event.  Survival of the local forests may depend on community education about the care and value of trees. 

After all, a tree a day keeps disaster away!  At a net cost of less than $1 per tree, a healthy forest is a rare bargain. 

COVID Health, A First for Lunyore and More Soap

Link

Black Lives Matter

The summer of 2020 has been a busy time in Amesbury and in Esabalu.  The maize harvest was good in our Kenyan sister village and food security has improved greatly!   Meanwhile, Amesbury has acquired a Black Lives Matter sign.  It is prominently displayed at the adopt-a-spot planter in front of town hall.

Covid19 continues to be a problem in both countries.   Kenya is doing way better than USA – less than 1000 deaths from COVID  for the whole country of 70 million people.  The Esabalu youth volunteers are going house-to-house to provide information about social distancing, hand washing and wearing masks.  Schools are closed and will not reopen until January.  And the 7 PM curfew remains in force.

Why the Tortoise has no Hair

The first children’s book in Lunyore  (Esabalu’s mother tongue)  has now been published online.  Maxwell Abwamba, a young neighbor of Shery Otwoma,  wrote and illustrated the book “Why The Tortoise is Hairless“.   You can read the book in English at: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:d0967112-af98-47b2-b9b3-2e6dc25c4e39

And don’t forget the soap!  So far this has been one of the most valued initiatives taken by Amesbury for Africa to combat the spread of Covid19.   AFA received simultaneous requests from the Bailey Whaley Clinic, the Esinamutu Widows and Jidavee Youths for more soap to wash hands.   We were happy to send funds to purchase 70 liters of soap solution to refill the bottles that were given out in June.  Meanwhile, residents continue to socially distance and wear the “Amesbury Masks” that were produced by the tailors’ group.

 

Community Policing in a Time of Trouble

Security Volunteers Receive New Supplies

Community policing has  been in the headlines a lot these past few weeks. Fortunately, community policing has been a reality in Esabalu, Kenya since 2014.  In that year, Esabalu’s first female chief Leonida Okemo (of blessed memory) joined with Julius Owuor, a schoolteacher at Ebussamba Primary School, to propose a volunteer force of young men to protect the village at night.

Julius himself was an exchange teacher at the Cashman School in Amesbury in 2015.   While in Amesbury he met with Amesbury PD’s Officer Ozzie Morrill to develop the idea.  The Esabalu Volunteer Security Force was formed in 2016.  This group of young men patrols the village at night in pairs looking for suspicious activities.  Their main anti-crime technology is the smartphone.  If the volunteers see something, one of them phones a dedicated number at Luanda Town headquarters and police officers are dispatched to the scene. (The volunteers are trained by the police department and carry official community police ID cards.)

Black Lives Matter! Amesbury for Africa Adopt-a-Spot in Front of City Hall

At the onset of the COVID19 emergency on March 15th a curfew was imposed nationwide.  Nobody is allowed outside the home between 7 PM and 5 AM.  An unintended consequence of the curfew has been a big increase in robbery and house break-ins at night.

Two weeks ago the Esabalu Volunteer Security Force sent a proposal for funds from Amesbury to increase the size of the force from 10 to 20 members.  Luanda PD will provide training and ID cards. Amesbury for Africa was asked to provide equipment: boots, raincoats, whistles, flashlights for the expanded force.  Blowing the whistle alerts neighbors that suspicious people have been sighted. The bad guys tend to take their leave when the whistles blow.

Funding was e-voted by the Amesbury for Africa Board of Directors.  Yesterday the group received the new equipment.  Amesbury for Africa demonstrates once again that Black Lives Matter!

Don’t Forget the Soap!

Oooops!  We forgot the soap.  Our recent activities in Esabalu during the  COVID 19 emergency included setting up hand-washing stations in locations around the village and having local tailors make 2000 masks instead of school uniforms this year (see previous 2 posts at this site).  The washing stations in public locations have soap but individuals who are too poor to afford a mask are also stretched to buy soap for home use.

Our Community Health Coordinator, Jacktone Ambole,  contacted us urgently.  Jack was besieged by all the mask recipients who had a new cry,  “Where’s the Soap??”.   We quickly located 70L of soap concentrate which properly diluted and distributed  in recycled 500mL squeeze bottles served 186 families that had received masks.  Names were taken and we did a second purchase of 150L of soap to serve the homes of all the remaining poor families.

Amesbury for Africa could definitely use some help with these unexpected expenses.  We don’t know how long the emergency will last but we do know that the soap will eventually run out.

Please go to our Donate button on the Amesbury for Africa homepage (lower left hand corner) and contribute $5 or $10 to the soap fund. A soap refill costs about 50 cents. Mungu akubariki!  Which means God Bless You in Swahili.

 

 

Amesbury Masks – Protecting Esabalu from Covid19

Health Volunteer Distributing Masks

As part of the Covid emergency, all Kenyans without exception are required to wear masks when out of the home.   And there is a country-wide curfew – no one outside the home between 7 PM and 5 AM.  The deadline for this mask & curfew order  was Monday April 13th.

Yikes!  This was truly an emergency — how were the men, women and children of Amesbury’s  sister village of Esabalu going to get masks in time.  Where would they find them and how would they learn to use them properly?

It just so happens that Amesbury for Africa has a long-standing program of providing uniforms for primary school students in Esabalu so that kids are able to attend school — (see https://amesburyforafrica.org/school-uniforms-of-esabalu/).  The uniforms program usually takes place in the month of April.  However, since the Kenya-wide Covid emergency was declared on March 15th,  all the schools have been closed.  No uniforms this year!

We had Jacktone Ambole, our Jidavee Youth Coordinator contact Sister Rachael Tailoring, a group of 8 tailors that usually make the uniforms for us, and asked the owner if she could switch to  making masks.  Yes!  She was already on it.   Her group of 8 tailors could produce 600 handsewn re-usable 3-layer cotton masks per day at a cost of 90 cents apiece.   In addition, Sister Rachael is a nurse!  She  offered to educate our Esabalu Health volunteers  in proper technique for wearing the mask, cleaning it daily and caring for it.

Amesbury Masks Are For Kids Too

The initial test run of 100 masks was used to train the Jidavee Youths, the Esinamutu Widows, the Readers Group, the Bailey/Whaley clinic staff, and church leaders as volunteers so that the masks can be distributed  throughout Esabalu.   Amesbury for Africa voted that the money be diverted from the uniform fund and applied to producing masks.  House-to-house distribution began just 6 days after the initial visit to Sister Rachael Tailors.

So far we have provided about 1900 masks to people in the village who otherwise would go without.  They are distributed at no cost to the recipients.   Now ordinary people can  can go about their business while protecting their families and the community from the Covid19 virus.   By the way, the new masks are called  ‘Amesbury Masks’  by the people in the area.

 

Esabalu Health Volunteers Tackle COVID-19

Portable Containers for Hand Washing

Kenya suffered it’s first three Covid-19 infections on March 13, 2020.  By March 15th the government had declared an emergency, sealing the borders and closing all schools and non-essential businesses.  All social gatherings such as churches, markets and even weddings and funerals are banned also. Talk about social distancing!  Even money has been banned (cellphone only for all cash transactions).

After social distancing what is the best defense against Corona virus?  All health authorities including the CDC and the World Health Organization agree – it’s HAND WASHING!!

Esabalu knows a lot about handwashing!  In 2017 a break in the sewer main from Maseno University led to a deadly epidemic of cholera.  The Bailey Whaley Clinic health volunteers sprang into action distributing chlorine bleach house-to-house  to treat drinking water. They also instructed affected families  in washing hands to prevent spread of the bacteria by the caregivers of infected people.  The epidemic caused serious illness and killed many people.  But in Esabalu and the area served by the Bailey/Whaley Clinic there were no deaths.

Handwashing Station Installed and In Use

Students at Amesbury Middle School learned about the importance of clean water in Africa as part of their social studies classes with 7th grade teacher Kristen Bilodeau.  They held a book fair at the school library with librarian Lori Byman to raise money to help the children in Esabalu learn about the importance of washing hands. Hand washing stations were purchased with the proceeds and  installed at 14 pre-schools where the little ones continue to learn how and when to wash hands.

When the Covid-19 emergency was declared on the 15th of this month the health volunteers and youth groups in the village knew exactly what to do.  Amesbury for Africa approved emergency funding on March 25th and by March 29th hand-washing stations were purchased and installed in 26 locations in the village.  Each station is brought inside at night by a volunteer and put out the next morning filled with a mix of soap and water.  The health workers will supervise and address any problems that occur.   They are working with the Kenya Ministry of Health to arrange for training in the principles of taking care of viral pneumonia.

Amesbury for Africa wishes Esabalu well.  Afya sana (good health)  to our sister villager friends and families!

Out of Esabalu – Two New Books

By coincidence two authors have recently published books about their experiences in and near Amesbury’s  Sister Village of Esabalu.

The Long Road Home is by the Reverend Dan Schmeltzer.  Dan and his wife Patty have been working for more than 20 years to help street orphans in Western Kenya.  A work of fiction, the book tells the story of a street orphan, Timo, with a natural talent for drawing.  After his father dies in a robbery, Timo and his Mom move to the Luanda town where Timo enrolls in Ebusakami Primary School in Esabalu.  (Ebusakami School is one of the schools in Amesbury for Africa’s school uniform program!)  When Timo’s Mom remarries, his new stepfather refuses to pay Timo’s school fees.  Timo runs away and becomes a street boy in the city of Kisumu.

The Long Road Home is the story of Timo’s redemption through the Capstone Ministry and Capstone’s Pastor Isaiah.   Although the book is fiction, the situation described is real and the locale is accurately rendered.  The book is a fascinating read for those of us who have been to Western Kenya.  I learned a lot about the cultural, social, tribal and gender issues in our Sister Village by reading this book.

Incidentally, the cover painting and charcoal illustrations of The Long Road Home are by Maxwell Abwamba – a former street orphan who is an excellent freelance artist.    He works for Vibrant Villages – an American NGO in Esabalu.   He also has a natural talent for drawing and is a freelance artist!

John Dracup, PhD, is an engineer who has taught water resource engineering and  hydrology at University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles for more than 50 years.   His new book is Clean Water for Developing Countries.  It is simply the greatest book that I have seen on how to plan and mobilize resources for clean water in places like Esabalu.  If you want to provide clean water for a village, be it in Kenya, South America or elsewhere, this is the book to read first!  It’s a concise how-to manual full of advice for getting a water system off the ground plus examples of successful projects from around the world and lists of resources of people and organizations who can help.

After our 2011 trip to Esabalu, Jack Christian, a plumber from Salisbury and Mark Bean, a physician from Amesbury joined John and his wife Kathy on a Rotary International project to design a clean water system for Remba Island in the middle of Lake Victoria.  Professor Dracup describes it in the intro to his new book:

“In her book The Moment of Lift, Melinda Gates describes the moment of lift as the one that occurs when the plane has rolled down the runway and begins to rise into the sky.  My personal moment of lift occurred on Remba Island.  On the first day of the system’s operation, hundreds of people rushed to the kiosks and filled their 20 liter jerrycans.”  John reports that to this day the system continues to perform efficiently providing clean water and improved health to the people of Remba Island.  Jack and I are thrilled to have contributed to John’s “lift” moment.

Both books are available for purchase at Amazon.com  (Just click):

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Road-Home-Daniel-Schmelzer-ebook/dp/B07VPT49XL/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1583166181&sr=1-6

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=John+Dracup&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

In the Beginnings – Growing Maize

Hybrid Maize Project – 1990

I was looking through some old photos during the recent holidays and came across a picture of Jairo Akanda – one of the original participants in the Amesbury for Africa program. Our first project together was to improve food security of the farmers (and their husbands) by improving the yields of maize. The harvested maize is ground into white corn meal.  Corn meal is cooked into a thick porridge called Ugali  which is a staple of the diet in Esabalu. Each farmer in the program was advanced the cost of fertilizer and hybrid maize seed. Jairo and his children are holding the result of that first harvest. The ears of corn hold 14 rows each on an ear (instead of the 8 rows of traditional maize strains). And the ears of corn are twice as long as the local variety.   The increased yield of maize from hybrid seed was more than enough to feed the family and  pay back the cost of the inputs.

Many programs since then have also centered on food security —

  • Heifer Project International – provided cows to improve milk production. Each recipient of a cow with calf paid back her gift by donating the first female offspring to another village family.
  • Agroforestry – planting of indigenous trees for flood control, animal fodder and fuel (firewood)
  • Beekeeping – for honey and wax
  • Aquaculture – fish farming for tilapia, a source of protein and calcium
  • Integrated pest control – using environmental and natural methods to reduce harvest losses due to insects and disease.

Most recently both the Widows Group and the Jidavee Youths have been growing market vegetables and fruits such as mango, avocado and papaya.  The Jidavee group is experimenting with processing and selling fruit juices.

As a result of all these efforts, the men and women of Esabalu have become better farmers.  Their diets are more diverse.   Food security, although still a problem, is much better than it was when our partnership began!