In line with its mission to initiate and establish sustainable interventions aimed at addressing physical, social and economic well-being of vulnerable individuals, families and communities in Africa, a Kenyan Non-Governmental Organisation, Better Life for Women and Children in Rural Africa has distributed educational materials to school students in the Mulot and Lemek regions in Kenya.
Better Life for Women and Children in Rural Africa is a family-centred Not-for –profit organization that was established in 2007 to champion for the welfare of orphans and vulnerable children, at the same time transforming the lives of women in absolutely poverty to be self-reliant.
The Organization was registered under section 10 of the Non-Governmental Organizations Co-ordination Act in 2021 but it has been operational for many years.
The charity initiative came to be in the period 2008- 2010 through supporting different orphanage homes by distributing dry foods and hosting annual Christmas parties and whereby they went home with food supplies to last them three months.
In 2010, the food supply distribution didn’t stop even as the Christmas party came to a halt. We fed more than thirty orphanage homes and about 5000 kids. The homes we supported during that time among other many orphanage homes were;
1. Light and Hope for Disabled Children
2. Ngando Universal Centre
3. Neemland Queens and Kings Centre
From 2015 to date, we have been supporting the following homes with dry food stuff. These orphanage homes are;
1. MetaMeta Development Centre
2. Little Rock IECD Centre
3. By Grace Disabled Children Home
The orphanage homes outreach then inspired the Founder, Dr. Ann Vanlauwe, to extend her noble initiative to vulnerable women and children in the rural communities outside Nairobi. The rural communities that benefits from the support are; Sekanani, Mulot, Endonyo Erinka, Ewangan, Olesere and Orboma village, who are all based in Narok County.
In 2018, Better Life for Women and Children in Rural Africa began their sanitary package drive in the rural villages whereby more than 5000 girls have benefited from the drive. Every year, they distribute 500 sanitary packages to 500 school going girls. The schools that benefit from the one year supply are namely;
1. Olegero Primary School
2. Olekene Primary School
3. Oloolaimuta Primary School
4. Olesere Primary School
5. Nabosho Primary School
6. Sekenani Primary School
7. Sekenani Girls High School
8. Uturosho Primary School
The provision of the sanitary towels has helped reduce the number of girls missing school during their menstrual periods hence improving their school attendance and class performance. This project seeks to eliminate the myths, taboos and misinformation that people in such rural communities have about girls during their menstrual period.
With support from Donors, family and friends from local and international, BLWCRA has been providing basic needs like food, clothes, mattresses, sleeping kits, educational supplies and sanitary towels for more than 2500 kids in orphanage homes within Nairobi and outside Nairobi.
Many thanks to our Donors like Sleeping Children Around the World (SCAW) under the leadership of Rotarian Salim Mohamed, Rotary Club of Muthaiga led by Rotarian Agnes Kariithi who donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and medical supplies that has gone a long way in protecting the medical officers in Sekenani District Hospital and which played a big role during Covid-19 pandemic in improving health services in Sekenani village.
During Covid-19 peak, the Organization distributed monthly supply of 600 sanitary packages to the girls, Food worth of Ksh25, 000 was distributed to the elderly women and pregnant women in Orboma village while COVID relief food worth over Ksh 5000 was distributed within Sekenani and Talek villages.
Additionally in 2020, the organization established a community mobile library where the children can get access to reading books, play with toys and have educational stationeries supplies which plays a key role in child development. We saw the gap between the urban children who had online classes through access of computers and internet and the children in rural villages. This disparity is what informed us to open the mobile community library to keep the children busy and not left behind during the long COVID break at home.
The community and the schools got to practice safety measurement under the Ministry of Health guidelines through the supply of face masks and sanitizers.
Our Partners like Rotary, Premchand Foundation and Kam Pharmacy made it possible to do the outreach through their generous and continued support in donating food items, masks, hand sanitizers and soap and other basic needs.
We have continued distributing clothes worth of Ksh10, 000 to the whole family members in Talek, Sekanani, Mulot, Endonyo Enrika, Ewangan, Olesere and Orboma villages. These bale of clothes are used by the whole family members while some are used for re-sale by the women in order to get money to feed their family and support their activities.
The organization has grown into supporting and taking care of the boy child by supplying hygiene kit for school going boys. The hygiene kit contains petroleum jelly, bar soap, towel, toothbrush, toothpaste and a comb. The principals of the boys’ school have noticed a huge boost of confidence from the boys and their hygiene standards have improved.
Additionally, the organization started a kids mentorship program. The project is a peer-peer based interactive initiative for children aged 9-18years of different genders from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds. The program is aimed at giving opportunities for participants to be exposed to different aspects of life and become inspired as well as develop a heightened sense of responsibility and empathy.
The first cohort of the kid’s mentorship program had the opportunity to visit and interact with H.E William Alexander McDonald who serves as the High Commissioner to the Republic of Kenya and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Nairobi and on behalf of the Government of Barbados.
It was important that the Kids learned about different cultures and world outside what they know and to be inspired by mentors who continue to make a difference in their country and their spheres of life just like H.E Alex McDonald.
Better Life for Women and Children in Rural Africa are good at measuring outcomes to their beneficiaries. Our projects have a direct impact on alleviating poverty in rural areas hence promoting socio-economic wellbeing to the community. Our passion and actions create lasting change in the lives of women and children.
We believe we can achieve more in partnership with others than if we act alone. We partner with businesses and social enterprise organizations to create and deliver custom-made solutions in the community.
