The learning and connection we have experienced already by being involved in organic permaculture have been transforming and my dream now is to build on that by becoming a qualified and experienced permaculture teacher myself.

Background

I left my county for the first time late last year to study permaculture design at LAIKIPIA with teachers from PRI KENYA after my Agricultural College Course and this was a life-changing experience for me! I am already teaching and sharing the ideas in my community near Lake Victoria and my ambition is to become a better and more effective teacher.
When I came back from the PDC I managed to mobilize the community members and formed a CBO (Community Based Organization) and Organic Food Kenya is the name of this organization it is run by 10 volunteers that are:

• Raymond Orenda who is the founder of the CBO,
• Grace Oyoko who is the secretary,
• Jackeline Atieno who is the treasurer,
• David Omondi who is my vice,
• Pauline, Benta, Hellen, Raphael and Rose

Our focus is to develop a working organic farm that not only provides organic food but aid in the education of farmers in organic practices and the importance of clean and safe drinking water sources.

 

The importance of Organic Permaculture education in communities lies not just in the creation of clean food but in the creation of community. People naturally gather around water and food and it is the base of all civilizations and a clear path to the future is created in the process.

Organic Food Kenya is teaching the community members to become SMART FISHERMEN/WOMEN, fishing themselves and their families out of poverty, lack of food, minimal or no illness permanently, instead of giving them fish for a day. We are also developing a farm where sustainable agriculture and permaculture are put together and the community members participate, learn, work, see, feel, taste, eat and implement in their own farms under the supervision of (OFOK) in making sure we achieve the transformation. The farm is already working and a number of groups are participating. Its success lies on the fact that a human being is capable to accomplish everything he/she can envision.

Organic Food Kenya knows that no human being is useless thus all community members are welcome regardless of sex, age, race and status. The most marginalized groups of people like the orphans, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAS) and the old are all catered for in this project.

What we have accomplished so far

So far with donations from friends, we managed to

• buy a piece of land 0.25 HA,
• processed our Tittle Deed,
• registered our project with the government as COMMUNITY-BASED Organization (CBO),
• did the fencing of the land,
• build our guest house,
• put the doors,
• added the inner door frames bought a small water tank,
• put part of the gutters for the roof to harvest water when it rains,
• bought a one double-decker bed, a mattress, a net and a solar light for the guest house for the volunteers.

We have been working tiresomely with our volunteers both locally and internationally, planting our small food forest, planting sweet potatoes, kales, cowpeas and capsicum that dried up due to water shortage. We’re always updating our supporters/followers with pictures in every step we make.

Other ways to help

We are still in need of financial help, more volunteers to make our farm functional. We are having setbacks on water issues and we need to buy two more big tanks to store water for the farm use. Also, we need to renovate our guesthouse to make it fit for our volunteers; additional objectives are:

• put our compost toilet,
• put poultry and rabbit project to generate some income to help sustain our families and the project
• training hurt,
• drip systems for irrigation,
• shade net etc.

We are also in the lookout of welshers and friends to help drill a borehole, to get clean water for the community. This will impact many lives here. Remember over 3000 people will directly benefit from this water, thus reduce death rates of people dying as a result of water bone diseases.

Permaculture teaches how to learn from nature to build resilient systems that are more than sustainable; they regenerate degraded lands and also help build community. These are exactly the kinds of help we need in Africa now. Our aim is to create a beacon of hope, inspiration and learning for our brothers and sisters in Kenya and around the world.

---

---

We are in the lookout of people like you to help us transform our community. In return, other than being grateful, we will share this experience with as many people as we can.

You can learn more from our project website at www.organicfoodkenya.com and like our page for updates.

https://www.facebook.com/organickenyaproject/

Raymond, Jacky and Baby Allan (OFOK FOUNDERS) and OFOK TEAM.