In the hot, dusty village of Kirindo, where electricity and running water are luxuries the inhabitants can only dream of, one woman is slowly building a community which can offer progress and hope to the people who live there. Margaret Kawala has been working with the people of Kirindo since 2004, when her husband passed away and she was left a widow with two children.
The village of Kirindo, though just forty minutes from the city of Kisumu, could not be more different. Water is taken from a bore hole for those who are willing or able to pay one shilling, or carried in buckets from the river by those who cannot. Sanitation facilities consist of pit latrines and food is prepared over an open fire. Here the Luo people still live in traditional mud houses, each family homestead arranged in a circle in the Luo tradition. Polygamy is practised and children have a wide circle of family members, regarding all of their father’s wives as their mothers. Sharing food and childrearing are a matter of survival in this community and so the idea of cooperative working has been taken up, as Margaret explains, fairly easy.
“My husband’s family came from this area and so we used to come and spend time here regularly. When I was suddenly widowed, I found many of the widows in this community to be a great support: after all, we have all been through the same experience. The main difference is that the widows here have lost their key breadwinner, whereas I was still in good employment, and they are struggling alone to bring up their children. Because I identified with their position, I wanted do something to help them help themselves, so we began the Kosimbo Widows and Orphans Group to share our resources and find a way of saving a little money together, to help individuals start their own businesses or send their children to school.”
Jennie and I were invited to a meeting of the Kosimbo Widows and Orphans Group to find out what issues they face and how they deal with them. Time and time again the women’s stories echoed a similar refrain:
“Hello, my name is Pamela Otieno and I was widowed in 2003. Kosimbo Widows has enabled me to buy seeds to plant tomatoes and onions to sell in the market so that I have money to feed my children.”
“Hello, my name is Alice Ondijo and I was widowed in 1994 with two children. Through Kosimbo Widows I have been able to buy dagga (small fish from Lake Victoria) and dry it to sell it in the market.”
“I am Teresa Opiyo. I cut papyrus reeds from the river and sell it to people to make mats. I was widowed in 2003 and have eight children.”
The meeting began (as with all proceedings in this village) with a prayer and introductions and then became surprisingly formal. Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed, a treasurer’s report confirmed and then each woman contributed something to the host of the meeting: usually a bag or sugar or some tea leaves. Next came the contributions: each woman put forward a small amount towards health insurance and another amount for their ‘table banking’. This process enables the women to build up a fund from which each can take a small amount of capital when they need to buy resources to start a business: needles and thread for the group’s tailor, maize and seeds for the farmers, a goat for milking. The money is also used for school uniforms, school fees, taking water from the bore hole and buying mosquito nets.
The success of Kosimbo Widows and Orphans Group has inspired Margaret to begin other CBOs (Community-based organizations) in the area and we counted nine in total: the Kosimbo Youth Group, the Milando Self Help Group (for planting trees in this treeless environment), the Kosimbo Adult Centre (for Education), the Kosimbo Catering Group (providing catering for groups and now for the functions of villages further afield), the Seme Women’s Group, the Kagmuga Judkali Youth group, the Ohas Youth Group and the Opendo Self Help Group. The groups cover four sub-locations in two areas: South West Seme and South Central Seme.
During our time in Kirindo, Jennie held a bead-making workshop to teach the women skills in bracelet and necklace making so that they can start a business making crafts to sell to tourists to raise money. Together we also taught a class for the Kosimbo Youth Group, who were very keen students . We gave the community toys, pens, school books and footballs, which Margaret cleverly designated ‘library resources’, promising the children the chance to play with them after they had visited the community library and read a book for an hour: “Reading first, football after”.
In a country where the current news stories we hear in the UK are those of devastation, hunger and corruption, it is heartwarming to find a community where people are learning to work together to build their own destiny.
Rosalind Camp
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