Bungoma Farmer Groups Showcase Smart Projects Courtesy of Ripple Effect

By Isabella Maua

Farmer groups in the Kibingei area, Bungoma County, have lauded Ripple Effect’s I4RR project for empowering its members with smart agricultural and entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.

Speaking during Ripple Effect’s visit to several households within the region, Caroline Wekesa, the peer farmer trainer of Chebukwabi Donkey Drivers, explained how the I4RR project has changed their lives.

“I lost my husband to an accident and was left with 2 small children with no job nor any form of income. When Ripple Effect came, I was the first to go and learn the skills they were offering,” said Wekesa.

Widowed at a tender age, she chose to engage herself with the trainings they were offered rather than stay at home feeling sorry for herself and her orphaned children.

“Many people didn’t appreciate the trainings since they wanted money, but since I had no choice, I embraced the knowledge, hoping that one day it would change my life,” she reiterates.

She now has a demo farm at her home where, together with her group members, they have planted many types of vegetables and Mombasa panicum grass and reared dairy cows.

Francis Wefukho, a widower and a host farmer for the Kibingei Widows and Widowers group, could not hide his gratitude as he walked the visitors around his farm.

He says, “Before Ripple Effect came here, widows and widowers were mocked and ridiculed. After my wife’s death, I couldn’t talk to any woman or even share ideas I had with them for fear of what people would say.”

Wefukho adds that “it was until Ripple Effect came in that we were empowered with great skills, and now we have over 20 widows and widowers here, and we earn a decent living from our projects here.”

Alice Nyongesa, the treasurer of Kibingei Widows and Widowers, says that before her husband died, they were farm labourers who could barely feed and teach their children.

“Shortly after my husband’s death, I learnt of Ripple Effect, and together with other widows, we joined it. Now we have used modern technology to plant vegetables, rear livestock and sell milk for a considerable good price,” divulges Nyongesa.

According to Beatrice Were, the project coordinator of the I4RR Project (Scaling Innovations for Reduced and Redistributed Women’s Unpaid Care Work in Smallholder Livestock Farming), the ripple effect is gratified with the progress observed.

“Today as we visit our host farmers within this area, we remain grateful to our donors, some of whom managed to visit Kenya and see for themselves how lives have been transformed.She also encouraged the farmers to keep up the good job and teach others in the community so as to fight poverty.