Kithoka Amani Community Home (KACH)
- Location: Kenya
- Local Visionary: Karambu Ringera
- Partner Organizations: International Peace Initiatives & Skansen Foundation
- Total Raised: $104,000
- Partnership Established: 2008
Karmabu Ringera founded International Peace Initiatives in 2002 out of her desire to help women with AIDS send their children to school. The Kithoka Amani Community Home project began in 2006 with a vision of a community which nurtured and cared for children orphaned by AIDS and one that could break the cycles of poverty and violence by providing knowledge and tools of self sufficiency. The first home is located in the community of Kithoka outside Meru, and is now home to sixteen children. Over the last three years, AI has gathered financial support from the snow sports community and has worked hand in hand with the local community to build the kitchen, dining hall and surrounding gardens.
INSPIRE:
Karambu Ringera saw the opportunity for Kenyan orphans to be viewed as an asset, not a burden to society. Karmabu’s experience with one woman dying from AIDS drove her to create a program that would keep orphaned children in school. IPI now aims to create a model for self-sustaining homes that provide everything a child needs to insure a vibrant future. Her dream is for community groups across East Africa to replicate these homes. Seeing what Karambu has done and seeing her determination and motivation inspired the creation of AI.
CONNECT:
AI became involved with IPI in 2008 when Karambu asked Mikey Hovey to volunteer on her project in Meru. Mikey agreed to the challenge and roped several of us into joining him. Once on the ground, we began to see the abundance of available local resources and to feel the overwhelming love from the local people of Kithoka. With financial support from our mountain communities and by creating a team of local experts and contractors, we were able to meet Karambu’s challenge of building a kitchen, dining hall and supporting gardens. The Kithoka Amani Community Home is now a hub for the community and provides access to resources, such as an instructional library, a computer, and demonstration gardens showcasing organic, permaculture and bio intensive practices, traditional building techniques and alternative methods.
GROW:
As a result of the work from IPI, AI and our partners, twenty kids now have a safe, loving and nurturing home to call their own. The foundation has also been laid to create a sustainable model that can be easily implemented. With the help from local experts, we have provided alternative energy and water solutions to ensure a sustainable future for the home, including rainwater catchments, solar thermal, and drip systems for the gardens. More than four acres of land have been transformed into edible gardens for KACH. These gardens not only provide food for the kids, but the sale of excess crops helps subsidize the operating costs of the home. The project has created a local network of more than 100 farmers, who share traditional practices and implement bio intensive and organic gardens.
In order to increase the self-reliance of the Kithoka Amani Community Home, IPI and AI have partnered with the Skansen Foundation to build two guest cottages, which will provide housing for guests and volunteers. These accommodations will also generate additional income needed to sustain programs for the children.
Time-lapse recap of the entire first trip> Gardens &Kitchen construction, September 2008:
During our second trip in 2009, we sent out weekly videos to show the construction work progress to our sponsors and supporters. This is clip 4 of 6: