February 04, 2010

• Updates from Kitui in Kenya

About 3 years ago we switched our support from a household name charity to a small, 100% voluntary charitable organisation called the Friends of Kitui. We know and trust the people involved and liked their practical, respectful and honest approach to making a difference in Africa.

Kitui is a part of Kenya with huge challenges and no economy to speak of. Friends of Kitui have a clear strategy that begins with providing water and goes on to support education and entrepreneurship. We have committed to funding a water project there every two years. This removes the travel time taken every day to access water, freeing people for education and work and providing them with the water they need to live and grow food. Last year we funded the development of a dam at Makonga which brought water to 500 people in the immediate area. The main thing we have learned from our involvement is how little money it takes to make a huge difference over there.

We recently received updates from Friends of Kitui. They are now exploring the development of a poultry project and we’re hoping to find a mechanism for contributing some skills and knowledge to help make it work. To us, entrepreneurship is a way to generate wealth. To them, entrepreneurship is a way to make a basic living. It puts our so-called recession into perspective and highlights the inequality inherent in our global economy.

If you are interested in the idea of enabling entrepreneurship in Africa, consider Friends of Kitui, you can be sure that your contribution is making a real difference there.