KIBISOM: Come and Learn

“To mobilize global and grassroot responses to address the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, people living with HIV/AIDS, and local, neglected, illiterate women.”

The view from the top of a hill near KIBISOM.

To the novice eye Rusinga Island looks like paradise. The hills rise majestically from the blue waters of Lake Victoria and seem to beckon one to explore and to learn about the people who call this place home.

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KIBISOM (Kiagasa Breast Feeding Single Mothers/Orphaned Child), translated from the local language, Luo, means “come and learn” and is a registered women's group project and community based organization. It is located in the middle of Rusinga Island, approximately 8 kilometers from Mbita, on the shores of Lake Victoria.

Esther Evelyne Odhiambo

KIBISOM was founded by Esther Evelyne Odhiambo and her friend Elizabeth in 1996 and aims “to mobilize global and grassroot responses to address the needs or orphans and vulnerable children, people living with HIV/AIDS, and local, neglected, illiterate women.”

According to Esther, when she moved to Rusinga Island from Nairobi in 1995 deaths from AIDS were so common that up to 6 people were perishing in the community daily.

Most of the people dying from HIV/AIDS were young parents who left behind their children to be cared for by their already overlooked, food insecure and oftentimes illiterate grandmothers. KIBISOM was established to help support these grandmothers through health trainings, income generating activities, and other forms of gourp counseling.

Nelrcilla is pictured here with four of the eight grandchildren who she supports next to her outdoor kitchen where she is boiling maize.

There are a number of sources of food insecurity in this region which include: HIV/AIDS and other diseases such as malaria and TB, limited access to water, healthcare, and education, and limited economic activity to increase self-reliance.

Kibisom Making a Difference

HIV/AIDS: This illness has literally removed an entire segment of the population and has left the older generation behind to care for the young children. KIBISOM undertakes activities that check the spread of STD/HIV/AIDS among these widows, single, abandoned mothers and children who drop out of school.

THE KIBISOM RESPONSE:

1. KIBISOM provides trainings using extension workers from local and national NGOs, videos about HIV/AIDS prevention, information about condom use, natural medicines, use of bed nets to prevent malaria, and kitchen gardening to improve nutrition.
2. Recently the International Medical Corps (IMC) has created a new VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) site a KIBISOM where members of the community can be tested for HIV anonymously.
3. KIBISOM provides home-based care and makes daily visits to those who are too sick to care for themselves.
4. Local and visiting volunteers are encouraged to share their knowledge and provide literacy, agricultural, and health training.

ACCESS TO WATER: The subsistence farmers in this community are highly dependent upon the long rains (March-June) for a successful crop. Unpredictable rain patterns, linked with climate change, lead to food insecurity and hunger in this region.

THE KIBISOM RESPONSE:

1. KIBISOM works with CARE Kenya to bring large rain water tanks to the community.
2. KIBISOM recently received a donkey as a donation. The donkey can be trained to carry drinking water from the lake when the rain tanks are empty.
3. Surveying for a bore hole that would located centrally for easy community access is currently underway.

ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE: Access to clinics in Kaswanga (3 km away) and Mbita (8 km away). Currently, KIBISOM must depend upon dry roads and public transport.

THE KIBISOM RESPONSE:

1. KIBISOM has a small dispensary at its main base in Kiagasa. KIBISOM provides natural medicine and other medications.
2. KIBISOM is saving money to buy a small 4 wheel drive pick-up to increase access to town.

ACCESS TO EDUCATION: Illiteracy hinders access to information regarding health, nutrition, disease prevention.

THE KIBISOM RESPONSE:

1. KIBISOM provides a kindergarten at the KIBISOM base, a school for Standard 1 and 2 aged children in Kaswanga center (KIBISOM 2), and a youth center in Loure (KIBISOM 3). These centers provide safe and structured learning environments for over 100 children. These children are exposed to Montessori and Waldorf school philosophies and are given the attention needed to become self-confident and begin to learn the values of education. Those students who score well in primary schools are then sponsored by KIBISOM to attend secondary schools.
2. KIBISOM provides school uniforms and other school supplies to children when possible to enable them to attend primary schools and encourages them to work hard and attain good grades in order to qualify for scholarships to attend secondary school.
3. When funds are available from donors KIBISOM sends teacher candidates to trainings in Nairobi, and sponsors as many children with good grades as possible so that they can attend secondary school.

ACCESS TO FOOD: KIBISOM is aware that direct food aid is only a band-aid solution, but can provide basic foods when necessary.

THE KIBISOM RESPONSE:

1. In times need, KIBISOM provides 6 kg of food to each of its members. These foods include rice, maize flour and sugar. While this is not a long-term solution, it ensures survival while the members continue to work on more sustainable projects to create lasting food security.

INCOME GENERATION: The main livelihood activity is subsistence farming. Thus, if there is a poor crop generated from the one long rainy season people will not have enough food for that year

THE KIBISOM RESPONSE:

1. Activities include soap and papermaking, tye-dying cloths, sewing school uniforms, handicraft production, tree planting, garden work, etc. Most of these activities are carried out during the dry season when there is less work at the home gardens (“shamba”).
2. KIBISOM provides small loans to start small kiosks or purchase and re-sell items from Mbita in the community.
3. KIBISOM provides fishing nets and access to a boat to trusted fishermen in the community who will report their catch and share/sell their fish.

Since 1996, Esther has worked daily with KIBISOM members, which now comprise over 150 people, to help create an empowered, educated, healthy, self-reliant, and food secure population.