During my home visits on Monday, I met one of the true strengths of the village – I will call it the XX Factor – the hard-working and enterprising women of the Kager community. Assisted by David K. during my home visits, I was able to make an appreciative inquiry of many women in the village by asking a few simple questions:
Can you tell me about your family?
What makes up your daily and weekly routine?
What gives you joy?
What are your biggest challenges?
How could the Jubilee Village Project best help you?
During my visits, I learned of the prevalence of polygamy in the region. This has resulted in very large families which give rise to economic and housing hardships. Below are some of what I learned from my home visits and profiles of a few of the wonderful people I was blessed to meet.
Kerina
“My name is Kerina and I have one daughter that lives alone with me. The joy of my life is seeing the fruits of my hard work and to be productive. As a farmer, I raise maize, ground nuts and beans. My typical day is working in my fields from 6 to 11, coming home for lunch and housework from 11 to 5, returning to my fields from 5 to 7 and then having dinner after that. Farming is the backbone of Kager, so any help in farming will lift up the entire village. I gather water 7 times a day and my work is very hard. My joints are sore very often and I sometimes have headaches from carrying loads on my head. We can be helped by having access to better seeds, fertilizers and equipment. Although I have access to an ox, I do not have a plough, so I have to do all my field work by hand.”
Rose
“My husband is a pastor and we have nine children. Because he is a pastor and has no income, we rely on two ways of making income: creating and selling charcoal from sticks and making and weaving sissel ropes. I am part of a woman’s merry-go-round where 15 of us put in 100 schillings each week and one of us gets to take home 1,500 each week – I have two positions on this merry-go-round and it helps me save money for clothes and other things for my family. I am a good business person and if I had access to more money, I could grow my income. Today, I buy oranges from other villagers and resell them in the city of Kisii (Rose walks to Kisii which is 28 kilometers away). While at Kisii, I buy sweet potatoes and cabbages and bring them back to sell them at a profit to other villagers. If I were able to get a loan for 5,000 schillings ($77), I would be able to buy more oranges and pineapples to sell them in Kisii and make my trips more profitable.”
Karin and Eunice
“Our names are Eunice and Karin and we are the first and second (of three) wives of our family. Together, we have 21 children and are primarily farmers while our husband works in the city. We raise pineapples, but we have a need to be educated to know how to grow them much better. We have a huge need for water as our nearest well is over 30 minutes away. We must make three trips a day and we do all we can do to capture rain water, but in the dry season we are desperate. We farm many pineapples, but we know with more water and farming equipment we could be growing much more. We are also not able to send all of our children to school because we can not afford the fees. We are interested to know how Jubilee can help the poorest people get their children to school.”
Jen (and Elida)
“I work with 2 other women and we grow and sell pineapple, watermelon and butternut (squash) in the city (Kisumu) where we get much better prices. We borrowed 10,000 schillings from the Kenya Women’s Trust Fund for the first time this last season. We had to provide 1,000 schillings down payment and pay back 12,000 at end of the season (the effective interest rate on the loan was close to 40%). After paying for the produce, paying the pickup transportation fees and paying the loan back, we were able to make about 2,000 schillings ($31) each. It would be great if we could get more training on how to grow crops and also be able to get bigger loans so we could buy and sell more and different goods.”
Can you tell me about your family?
What makes up your daily and weekly routine?
What gives you joy?
What are your biggest challenges?
How could the Jubilee Village Project best help you?
During my visits, I learned of the prevalence of polygamy in the region. This has resulted in very large families which give rise to economic and housing hardships. Below are some of what I learned from my home visits and profiles of a few of the wonderful people I was blessed to meet.
Kerina
“My name is Kerina and I have one daughter that lives alone with me. The joy of my life is seeing the fruits of my hard work and to be productive. As a farmer, I raise maize, ground nuts and beans. My typical day is working in my fields from 6 to 11, coming home for lunch and housework from 11 to 5, returning to my fields from 5 to 7 and then having dinner after that. Farming is the backbone of Kager, so any help in farming will lift up the entire village. I gather water 7 times a day and my work is very hard. My joints are sore very often and I sometimes have headaches from carrying loads on my head. We can be helped by having access to better seeds, fertilizers and equipment. Although I have access to an ox, I do not have a plough, so I have to do all my field work by hand.”
Rose
“My husband is a pastor and we have nine children. Because he is a pastor and has no income, we rely on two ways of making income: creating and selling charcoal from sticks and making and weaving sissel ropes. I am part of a woman’s merry-go-round where 15 of us put in 100 schillings each week and one of us gets to take home 1,500 each week – I have two positions on this merry-go-round and it helps me save money for clothes and other things for my family. I am a good business person and if I had access to more money, I could grow my income. Today, I buy oranges from other villagers and resell them in the city of Kisii (Rose walks to Kisii which is 28 kilometers away). While at Kisii, I buy sweet potatoes and cabbages and bring them back to sell them at a profit to other villagers. If I were able to get a loan for 5,000 schillings ($77), I would be able to buy more oranges and pineapples to sell them in Kisii and make my trips more profitable.”
Karin and Eunice
“Our names are Eunice and Karin and we are the first and second (of three) wives of our family. Together, we have 21 children and are primarily farmers while our husband works in the city. We raise pineapples, but we have a need to be educated to know how to grow them much better. We have a huge need for water as our nearest well is over 30 minutes away. We must make three trips a day and we do all we can do to capture rain water, but in the dry season we are desperate. We farm many pineapples, but we know with more water and farming equipment we could be growing much more. We are also not able to send all of our children to school because we can not afford the fees. We are interested to know how Jubilee can help the poorest people get their children to school.”
Jen (and Elida)
“I work with 2 other women and we grow and sell pineapple, watermelon and butternut (squash) in the city (Kisumu) where we get much better prices. We borrowed 10,000 schillings from the Kenya Women’s Trust Fund for the first time this last season. We had to provide 1,000 schillings down payment and pay back 12,000 at end of the season (the effective interest rate on the loan was close to 40%). After paying for the produce, paying the pickup transportation fees and paying the loan back, we were able to make about 2,000 schillings ($31) each. It would be great if we could get more training on how to grow crops and also be able to get bigger loans so we could buy and sell more and different goods.”
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