| One Village at a Time now sponsors 3 schools in rural Western Kenya. Starting in 2005 with two schools and $4000 we began feeding 400 children. In August of 2007 through the generous gift of a private family foundation we were able to welcome a third school into our program. That school has doubled the number of children we service. We are now working with over 2000 students but not able to feed them all. Dedicated to Community Empowerment in August of 2007 Our Director Returned to Kenya to teach business planning. Working with the teachers, local community leaders, tribal chiefs, and the District Officer of Education, the beginnings of a grain cooperative, and a cooperative dressmaking business have been planted. Using the concept of the micro-loan system One Village hopes to help the three schools launch their businesses in June of 2008 enabling them to feed all their children.
One Village is dedicated to a strong, steady approach to eliminating the burden AIDS orphans place on isolated rural villages. The center of rural African economic life is the family. So in addition to everything else, children orphaned by AIDS lose access to the economic engines which can sustain them. One Village helps their partner villages muster their own resources, increase the interdependence among the families, and increase the local economic resources so that all members of the community benefit. Programs which focus exclusively on the orphans further isolate them from their communities. Partnering with an entire village provides the orphans with the economic support and re-integration into community life they so clearly need.
In a three phase, ten year program, One Village partners with a village's local primary school to feed all primary school children one highly nutritious meal per day. Beginning with a subsidy which covers a quarter of the feeding program, One Village works with the village towards self sustainability. One Village?s Executive Director travels to the villages twice a year, relying on local staff to effectively administer the program to increase local participation and ownership.
Modeling Behavior: Years 1 & 2.
To maximize the village?s commitment to the partnership, One Village begins by setting up a partial feeding program. Instead of asking the village to work its way out of hunger, One Village helps the community experience what an end of hunger would be like, both in terms of benefits and costs. One Village provides a subsidy to cover the costs of beans and oil as well as the services of a cook. The village provides firewood as well as grain equal in value to the beans and oil. The schools usually elect to feed all of the seventh and eighth form students, so they will score well on their national secondary school entrance exams.
To continue getting the semi-annual subsidy, the school needs to provide reports on all the children. With details like weight, attendance, grades and orphan status, One Village can monitor the effectiveness of the program and insure that the AIDS orphans are not being discriminated against. The subsidy is transferred twice a year, so the beans and oil can be purchased on the local market.
Trust is key in this stage. Both partners must believe that the other is wholly committed to the program. To help ensure that the village has the ability to meet the reporting and feeding expectations of One Village, One Village also hires a local project manager. The project manager is usually someone from a nearby community, who has the respect of the village, but who does not rely on the opinion of the village for their stature. One Village is adding the resources of a board certified accountant to help the schools provide accurate and consistent reports.
There is a written contract between the school and One Village which lays out roles and expectations. Key to the next stage of the process is measurement and forward thinking, reporting requirements are introduced early.
| Village provides |
Firewood, grain, construction of the cook shack |
| One Village provides |
Subsidy for beans and oil, subsidy for local salaries |
| Village staff supported by One Village |
Project Manager, part-time Accountant, Cook |
| Annual financial subsidy/village |
$2,000 |
| Number of children fed daily |
150 (25% of school) |
Building Capacity: Years 3 - 5.
The sustainability of the program builds during this period. The goal of this phase is to expand the feeding program to include all the children. Rather than increase the feeding program subsidy, One Village partners with a local microfinance provider. One Village provides the seed capital for the micro loans; the village uses the loans to start small businesses. As those businesses begin to grow, a portion of the revenue allows the feeding program to expand to all students while the subsidy tapers off. Those businesses also provide vocational training opportunities for the majority of the children who will not continue on to secondary school. So long as the businesses are run through the school, they are exempt from the taxes and fees imposed by the Kenyan government, which greatly simplifies the start up process while maintaining local title to the businesses.
The trust built in the first phase is key to success in this phase. The Project Manager will work closely with the village and the microfinance provider to make sure that they develop practical, implementable business plans. Current business plans include a grain storage business, seamstress/tailoring and brick making.
The feeding program will continue as it has in the previous two years, with semi-annual subsidies from One Village and quarterly reports. In addition, One Village will partner with a microfinance provider, using their expertise to develop additional reporting channels to assess this phase of the program.
By the end of this phase, the village is fairly self sufficient, with businesses which are beginning to grow. While success means economic success, the final phase will help solidify the changes by providing the village with leadership opportunities.
| Village provides |
Firewood, grain, business plans for new businesses |
| One Village provides |
Subsidy for beans and oil, subsidy for local salaries, seed capital for microfinance loans |
| Village staff supported by One Village |
Project Manager, part-time accountant, Cook, partnership with microfinance partner |
| Annual financial subsidy/village |
$2,000 + $1,000 in Year 3 for micro finance seed capital |
| Number of children fed daily |
150 (25%) growing to 600 (100%) by the end of the period |
Celebrating Self Sufficiency: Years 6 - 9
With success, the village moves into a leadership role in the wider community. In Year 6, the current village selects the next village for One Village to partner with. It's a source of enormous pride and prestige to teach another village how to move to self-sufficiency. One Village relies on its self-sufficient villages to foster the learning and understanding needed for the next wave of growth.
In the original village, the feeding subsidy, which has continued at the year one level for five years is decreased by 25% each year. By the end of year nine, all the village's children are getting at least one full meal per day, provided by the village.? The village will also have small enterprises which are capable of supporting the feeding program based on local resources. They will continue to have reporting requirements through the period, so the effectiveness of the program will be assessed all the way to self-sufficiency. At the end of the period, the project manager for the sponsoring village will become an advisor to the sponsored village and their team.
The new village, who is just entering the program, will receive begin with a feeding subsidy of similar size. Their project manager will likely come from the sponsoring village. They will need to provide the grain and firewood for the daily meal as well as meet all the reporting requirements.
Thus the cycle will begin again, but with each repetition, the small scale changes will lead to ever continuing gains in self-sufficiency.
| Sponsoring Village provides |
Firewood, grain, revenue to support feeding program |
| New Village provides |
Firewood, grain, construction of cook shack |
| One Village provides |
Subsidy for beans and oil, subsidy for local salaries for both villages |
| Village staff supported by One Village |
Project Managers, part-time Accountant, Cooks for both villages |
| Annual financial subsidy/village |
$2,000 which declines to $0 over the period + $2,000 for the new village |
| Number of children fed daily |
600 (100% of the sponsoring village) + 150 (25% of new village) |
Lasting Change Requires Steady Effort
One Village believes that children orphaned by AIDS need thriving villages. By providing the catalyst for change at each stage, One Village is helping their village partners deploy their current resources in ways which benefit the whole community. In the early years, One Village provides the capital to challenge the village's self image. Instead of a village whose children learn hungry, the begin to see their children as learning better with full bellies. During the middle phase, One Village provides the liquidity needed to foster self-sustaining businesses. With only a portion of the new revenue flowing into the school lunch program, the village invests both in their personal prosperity and the community's commitment to the success of their students. Finally, One Village provides the platform for the community to see themselves as experts, able to show others how to make the most of their resources.
One Village's program combats the cycle of poverty with a cycle of community. Just as AIDS has deepened the impact of poverty on the children left behind by the disease, One Village partners to harness the resources within the community so AIDS orphans feel the benefits of the village's growth most strongly. |
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