Walking the Community Towards Greater Access to and Better Utilization of HIV treatment for PLWH

HIV/AIDS is the 4^th world’s largest killer according to the 2007 WHO report. The report indicates that 1.4 million people in the world are living with HIV/AIDS and ⅓ are youths of between 15 - 24 years.

Another research report released by KAIS (Kenya Aids Indicator Survey) body in the same year indicates that HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Nyanza province proved the highest in all the eight provinces in Kenya. This was one of the reports that never went down well with most the lakeside community members prompting it to be a kind of a stage managed political score planned by unidentified person of which we learnt it wasn’t.

Maybe you too might be wondering why all this; today being 25^th September 2012, we were humbled to organize and host a community HIV/AIDS training in support of WOFAK (Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya) organization to sensitize our people under the theme ‘Walking the community towards greater access to and better utilization of HIV treatment for People Living With HIV and AIDS’.

From the wonderful sessions that we had about HIV/AIDS, the facts remained almost the same, but WOFAK took a very unique angle that to us was the most ignored bit; ARVs and how they work. They mentioned on the stages of HIV/AIDS, symptoms and drug adherence.  

The workshop had brought together over 47 members (22 F & 29 M) from 18 different groups in the district with the oldest members being of 61 years. Otherwise the lessons learnt were beyond our expectations making a whole day seem like two hours.

Groundnut Production and Technology

Pure stand production methodology among the legumes is a rapidly spreading technique honored by most producers for its definite outcome performance. Beans and groundnuts are the most common kind of farming where most advancing farmers having place in effort and appreciated their yields in comparison the common practice of mixed cropping.

On the 22^nd of August 2012, Got Kowiti Livelihood Group couldn’t resist a smile as they harvested their pure stand project. It is a common practice in the African culture to intercrop various products in the farm as a ‘security belief’ in case one product fails but still the yield hasn’t been of much benefit. These are some of the immediate testimonials the group members and even the passerby   kept on revealing even without being asked. I believe that even to us as extension officers who had visited the farm in July 4^th 2012 didn’t imagine it could have done this great by just estimation of the number of pods per plant.

I believe it is high time farmers change their trend of production and try out pure stand for the legumes if they are really out to take farming as a business. It only requires 2 small pieces of plots to prove these results in one season. In one plot of 2 meters by 2 meters, intercrops the legume with maize and on the other one just plant pure stand groundnut or beans; you will notice a difference. Hope to see you join the likes of got Kowiti livelihood Group in terms of earning from your efforts and skills. Remember to watch out a video of the same on our site for further information.  

Ndhiwa Youths Showcase their Talents

 In every living creature, there is a gift of talent from its creator. 19^th September 2012 was the day set for the youths from Ndhiwa constituency to showcase their abilities in a stiffly contested competition; organized by Ndhiwa Ministry of Youth, Aphia II USAID and ALIN.

For you who has no hint this constituency's profile, what you need to know is that Ndhiwa district is found in Western Kenya, Nyanza province in Homa-Bay County and it comprises of 6 divisions with a total population of 172,212 in an area of 7,112 Square kilometers; with youths forming the highest percentage.

We took a different angle in terms of the allowed participants whereby only those youths out of school participated, unlike the common one for schools. Present were more than 200 attendants with a representation of 8 youth groups contesting for the first prize per category.

We appreciated very creative pieces of work during the process but only the 1^st runners up were allowed to proceed to the county level that will take place on the 5^th of October 2012 in Homa-Bay town.

“This event has just marked the beginning of better and involving things to come in the county”, the district Youth Officer Mr. Joshua Kaluoch assured the congregation. 

ALIN representative also had the chance to brief the team on the need and urgency of embracing ICT especially with the 21^st Century changing trends. A good example was during the IEBC recruitment where youths who were to work as clerks during the By-elections were to be computer literate.

Ndhiwa Peacefully Ushers in the New Area Member of Parliament

Looking back in the past three months, various contesters showed diverse interests in serving the people of Ndhiwa constituency after the passing on of the former Member of Parliament and assistant minister in the Ministry of Internal Security, honorable Joshua Orua Ojode, in a tragic chopper crash.

The past by elections that took place on the 17^th September 2012 and saw Hon. Augostino Oyugi Neto emerge the final winner was a litmus paper to the community and the entire nation. We would like to fully appreciate the voters and the politicians for having firmly taken their roles especially in promoting a peaceful electoral process and refraining from activities that could have breached peace in the constituency.

To the entire district administration department, the neighboring districts, the office of the IEBC and everyone who preached and ensured we survived the shame, we would like to apprehend your great efforts, but remember that still as we walk towards the 2013 general election, we still call upon each one of us as an individual, a body and a nation to make it his/her role in ensuring that we meet the most peaceful election ever in our history come March 4^th. May the spirit of tolerance and accommodation dwell among us.

Literacy and Peace

 The theme of International Literacy Day 2012 is Literacy for Peace. This theme was adopted to demonstrate the multiple uses and value that literacy brings to people. 

Literacy contributes to peace as it brings people closer to attaining individual freedoms and better understanding the world, as well as preventing or resolving conflict. The connection between literacy and peace can be seen by the fact that in unstable democracies or in conflict-affected countries it is harder to establish or sustain a literate environment.

In Ndhiwa district, all roads led to Kobodo division from where various community resource centre trainees, trainers, chiefs, departmental representatives and all the other developments partners came with the same message of literacy and development. Ndhiwa Maarifa centre was among the institutions that were present in the district in terms of adult service delivery.