The Lemolo community was displaced during the Mau forest evacuation which is the main source of water in Kenya. The families lived in transitional camps on the roadside for 5 years before the Kenya government resettled them on their current land. There are 1,096 families resettled on Lemolo Farm. Each household was allocated 2 acres of land for farming and a quarter acre to build their home. Within the total 3,200 acres of Lemolo land, there were absolutely no social amenities such as school, health center, water and other basic human amenities
Students from Lemolo A pose in front of their new school.
VICDA’s Initial Involvement
After VICDA and her donors provided social amenties to GIWA Farm community in Rongai Constituency, Nakuru County, the organisation moved to Lemolo community in Rongai constituency, Nakuru County. Here they have been working to provide social amenities to Lemolo community such as construction of a complete primary school from class 1 to class 8, toilet blocks and administration blocks, fully funded by World Teacher Aid (WTA) in Canada. Now the Lemolo A children have access to the education and the school has 357 kids so far. The Kenyan government has been good enough to provide enough teachers. WTA in Canada has also been kind enough to fund the buying of text books and school desks. From Lemolo A we are now moving to Lemolo B to build another primary school.
Early Childhood Education & Feeding ProgramsLemolo students show off their new sweaters, thanks to Caring for the Children of Africa.
An Early Childhood Education Development school for children from 3 years to 7 years of age is generously Funded by Caring for Children of Africa in Australia. This has been followed by school feeding programs in both Lemolo A and B which has also been fully funded by Caring for Children of Africa. It has been very difficult for the families to provide meals for themselves because they have not yet settled and they have no source of income within the area. Their only source of income is through farming where they hope to have their first harvest in six years – projected in October 2014.
Caring for the Children of Africa has also provided sweaters for children in the Early Childhood Education program. Sweaters were provided before winter arrived to Kenya and now littles ones will remain warm in school.
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Water project
VICDA has also been able to provide water for this community through piping of water from a source 9 kilometers distance away. This project has been fully funded by Global Volunteer Network Foundation in New Zealand.. The project will be completed in early July 2014. At that time both lemolo A and B community will have access to water.
Residents from Lemolo Camps are cared for during a recent medical camp.
Medical Camp
Lemolo community A and B community are 13 and 17 kilometers away, respectfully, from the nearest health facility. In the month of June ,2014 VICDA provided a two week medical camp to both Lemolo A and B. The government provided medical practationers and VICDA volunteers from Mexico joined them for two weeks to assist. The health situation within this community is very fragile and still in need alot of attention.
Spirulina is a blue-green algae that is grown in shallow water and offers numerous nutritional benefits. Since May one of VICDA’s projects has been growing and harvesting this algae in order to help deliver sustainable nutrition to children in VICDA’s many projects. Through this project, VICDA hopes to assist up to 50,000 people this year.
Quick facts about spirulina:
Spirulina possesses nutritional qualities of both plant and animal proteins but lacks cellulose so it is easily assimilated into the body.
Fresh spirulina contains the most protein of any substance known to man – 20 times more than beef, 20 times more than soy and 40 times more than corn.
When harvested spirulina is like a green paste and can either be consumed that way or can be dried and consumed in capsules.
Spirulina consumed 5-6 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare and emits over 16 tons of oxygen annually. It also doesn’t require soil to grow, making it an ideal crop for communities with limited resources and increased population.
Though spirulina requires water to grow, it uses significantly less water than other crops and once the harvested the water can be collected and reused.
VICDA is very excited about this new, self-sustaining project. It will supply quality nutrition to so many hungry, malnourished children. In addition to being a good source of protein and nutrition, spirulina has been shown to boost immune systems, fight common illnesses and ailments such as anemia, acidosis and cataracts and has been shown to lower risks of strokes and cancer.
More information about the health benefits of spirulina can be found here.
VICDA 