Situation and context in Khachonge

Khachonge is a small rural village of about 2-3'000 inhabitants on the slopes of Mt.Elgon in western Kenya. (Click anywhere on the map to zoom in)

See it on Google Maps.

The closest town is Bungoma about 50Km away.
The majority of the residents belongs to the ethnic group of the Bukusu.

Pluviometry is sufficient and soil rich. In the beginning of the 19th century, the residents were cultivating millet, cassava and breeding domestic cattle.
Main crops are maize, beans and cabbage for food, sugar cane, coffee and tobacco as cash crops as domestic cattle.
The Bukusu resisted fiercly the British invasion around 1890 but had to give way in front of the difference of means (spears and shields against machineguns...) and the british were free to complete the railway connecting Mombasa on the kenyan coast to Kampala in Uganda. In the early 1920's, Bungoma was established as the last halt in Kenyan territory and as an administrative center for the region.

It was still a small town at the moment of independance of Kenya in 1963 but with one of the highest birthrate in the country, the village developped very fast into a major town of about 60’000 inhabitants. This very fast growth, combined with the fact that the local ethnic group has always been opposed (until the change of govermment in 2003) to the ruling party KANU, made the region fall behind in the matter of infrastructural development.

The village of Khachonge is one of the many peripheral villages of Bungoma. It represents a small agricultural community of about 2'500 spread on a rrather large land surface and using the few existing common infrastructures (schools, market, dispensary) available in the village. Polygamy being quite frequent, the families have many children sharing farm work and going to school when the families can afford to send them.

The traditional way of life based on agriculture has aged badly suffering from the splitting of large farms in smaller and smaller domains everytime a succession happens. The ever growing need for cash to acquire education, health and even first necessity goods has also complicated matters because employment is scarse and the cultures bring a meager income.

The low general state of health complicated by the strong prevalence of AIDS deteriorated the life standard by creating new financial needs that cannot be covered and by diminishing the already scarce source of income.

The community is of youg age, just look at the more than 1000 pupils in primary school and the active slice of the population does not suffice to provide the needed ressources to educate and take care of this young population.

Health care access is complicated, apart from cost questions, by the fact that the closest state hospital is 50km away on very bad roads. We thus have to develop a proximity solution that takes care of the emergency situations.

FAQ

Why the village of Khachonge ?

OK, Khachonge is Evelyne's birth place, but besides the strong links between us and the villagers, there is the clear advantage that we are well introduced in the community which allows us to act more efficiently and with much lower costs.

Yet another humanitarian association ! what makes you different ?

Our close links to the community, the high degree of involvment we get, allow us not to limit ourselves to humnaitarian help but to aim at more durable things like sustainable development.

We are efficient, because we are in the village during our holidays and volunteer our action. We have no salaries to pay, no offices or any other kind of fixed expenses. This allows us to ensure you that from the 100.- you give us, there will be more than 95 that actually reach the field and will be used for the project. The rest will most probably be used to cover some local administrative expenses of to give the small gifts that put oil in the gears. Our small size and our close integration offer you the best efficiency you can get.

But why Kenya ? isn't this country going well with all the tourism, safaris ... ?

Well, of course because Kenya is Evelyne's homeland. But also because regardless of what many might think, Kenya is not going all that well.

First, there is AIDS. Although the first official case was seen in 1984, it is not before 1999 (15 years later ...) that the government recognized officially the importance and urgency of the problem. At the time, some prevention was made but it mostly reached the urban people through the media (TV, radio, ...). The country folks barely received any information and still are not currently completely and correctly informed.

This situation has kept the prevalence curve in its climbing state while in neighbouring Uganda for instance, the quality of prevention has had a visible effect in the prevalence curves. There are now daily between 700 and 800 deaths due to AIDS within Kenya.

This situation is accompanied by the usual train of disasters with millions of orphans, a receding active population and a low agricultural production which creates poverty-

As far as the country ressources are concerned, including tourism, they do not create income that help populations, there is a huge gap between a tiny over priviledged class and the vast majority of poor people.

The rural areas, being remote and of little interest to the authorities, are poorer and do not get the help they need.

Khachonge is a poor rural community where people have no access to the very minimal infrastructures. There is no hospital close enough and health care is anyway much too expensive. The school is overcrowded and has totally inadequate means (10 teachers for 1000 pupils in average).

Rural Kenya resembles much any other poor black african region. You find there the same difficulties and the same needs. It stays true that the positive image given by turism and safaris maket it more difficult to pass the message to humanitarian business who is much more interested in more mediatic places.

You have no experience in humanitarian projects, can you be trusted ?

Ok, we are not professionnals in the humanitarian business. This sets a limit to the size of the projects we can reasonably manage. But, for the smaller projects we cannot be beaten in terms of efficiency.

For instance, digging a borehole did cost us around CHF 250.-. Such a cost would not even cover basic expenditure for a professionnal NGO in a similar project.

We think there is space for all kinds of development actions. We would not be able to manage a refugge camp for 100'000 war refugees. That is what the main NGO's are for but we are much more efficient in the small local development projects.

We are very close to the people we help and wish to be just as close to those who support us. This proximity creates the trust between us. We offer the best possible transparency, report on a regular basis with newssheets and pictures about the progress of our action and we encourage our supporters to go and see by themselves on the field what we do and what the real needs are.

Join us on any of the two annual events we organize (african supper in spring and afternoon tea in autumn) we will talk and you will judge by yourself.

I do not wish to give money but I can give you my spare time, is this possible ?

Yes, although we do not wish to have volunteers on the field anymore because the management effort is too important, it is possible to help us in Europe. In 2005 we will create an association and we will need members and a commitee. We are also always in need of helping hands for our annual events. So of course, you are welcome.