6 SDGS NALSA-KENYA WORKS TOWARD IN RECENT PROJECTS
In 2015, the United Nations came up with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) meant to address some of the biggest problems we face in the world. These range from ending poverty and hunger to addressing climate change and gender inequalities. These goals are to be achieved by 2030. With only 15 years meant to achieve the 17 goals, the UN asked that all sectors of society – governments, businesses, nonprofits, and even individuals – work towards achieving them. As we support our spouses in their roles as members of the national assembly, we at NALSA(K) also try to align our projects and programmes to the SDGs because we, too, want to play our part in the quest for a better world. Here is a look at how our members have worked towards these goals in the various projects.
SDG 2: ZERO HUNGER
Old Kihumbuini Primary School received a new kitchen courtesy of NALSA(K) Chair and Westlands Constituency representative, Electina Wanyonyi. The school’s headteacher, Mr Hassan Tala, noted that most of the students in the school come from low-income households and that their parents relied on the school to ensure that the children received at least one meal a day. The new kitchen is to ensure that the one meal the children have been receiving so far, porridge at breaktime courtesy of the Asian community, will be prepared in a more sanitary environment. The new kitchen can now comfortably serve the entire school population and facilitate requests for additional foodstuff. It is a small but important step in ensuring that children have access to safe and sufficient food throughout the year and also serves as a motivating factor to ensure they show up to school.
SDG 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
NALSA(K)’s Vice-chair, Salome Atandi, has launched two projects to ensure that the people in Siaya County can easily access quality healthcare. In Mur Malanga, Alego-Usonga Constituency, Mrs Atandi helped facilitate the installation of a maternity wing with beds at the local dispensary. Her intervention helped boost the facility, which serves residents of three different sub-locations, into a level three facility. In addition, Mrs Atandi is fundraising to build a health facility in Got Nyapong village, Bondo Constituency. The project’s groundbreaking was held on May 4, 2022, at what used to be a nursery school but has been unused for years. The health facility will be a timely intervention for the residents of Got Nyapong as their nearest health facility is currently five kilometres away.
SDG 4: QUALITY EDUCATION,
The number of projects focused on promoting education, shows that NALSA(K) members know its value. Members have found creative ways to encourage students in their constituencies to attend school. Embakasi West representative Cynthia Theuri, through her nonprofit Embakasi West Eagle Mamas Association (EWEMWA), launched the ‘Back to Dignity’ programme to tailor and distribute school uniforms to students in primary schools. Over a week in March 2022, they fitted 2200 students from 11 public primary schools with uniforms. In Kaloleni Constituency, Thelma Katana has facilitated the distribution of sanitary towels to over 3000 girls across 15 primaries and four secondary schools. The project helps ensure uninterrupted learning for the girls who would otherwise have missed out on classes during their periods. Mrs Wanyonyi commissioned the refurbishment of learning facilities in both Kangemi Primary School, Westlands Constituency, and Milimani Primary School in Dagoretti North. The schools’ facelifts included paving pathways, staff room renovations, repainting of buildings, ceiling and roof repairs, and donation of desks. Finally, our Sirisia Constituency representative, Irene Waluke, is working on a project to put up eight classrooms, an administration block, and a toilet block in Bukuyabi Primary School.
SDG 5: GENDER EQUALITY
Kilifi County has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Kenya. Thelma Katana is working to help teen mothers in Kaloleni reintegrate into society while economically empowering them. In November 2021, she launched a programme to facilitate the mentoring and counselling of a group of about 30 teen mums to help them deal with the stigma that comes with rejoining school and society. The mothers are also training in different skills they can use to help make some money. These include soap making and baking. The women also received a 10,000-litre water tank that they could use to collect and sell water in the semi-arid region. In Alego-Usonga, Salome Atandi’s Women United For Our Future (WUFOF) is training 50 women groups on the making and selling briquettes. The project will increase employment and income generation for the women groups and produce a low-cost fuel alternative. In addition to this, WUFOF will help make the briquettes marketable.
SDG 6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION
A 2016 report by the Ministry of Education stated that the pupil-to-toilet ratio in public primary schools was 29:1 for boys and 32:1 for girls. The World Health Organisation recommends a ratio of 30:1 for boys and 25:1 for girls. It’s no wonder several of our members focused on water and sanitation projects through our partnership with Proudly Kenyan. In Mbeere South Constituency, Embu County, Gladys King’ang’i commissioned the construction of a four-unit lavatory block at St Stephen’s Ngenge Primary School as part of her project. In Mbeere North, Daisy Muriuki’s project included launching an ablution block at Kamugu Primary School to replace the existing one. Priscilla Kimari of Mathioya Constituency launched a new ablution block for teachers of Ruru Primary School after the facilities they were using were washed away by mudslides in January 2022. The teachers had resorted to using washrooms in neighbouring businesses and homes. In addition to the construction of toilets, members have donated water tanks to help Kenyans in semi-arid constituencies such as Kaloleni and Mbeere South have easier access to water. At Thuita Secondary, besides donating tanks, Priscilla Kimari installed roof gutters to help the school take advantage of rainfall to harvest water instead of requiring students to fetch water from the river. One of the projects tied to water and sanitation yet to launch is in Agnes Lodepe’s Turkana Central Constituency. She has commissioned a project to see dilapidated washrooms rehabilitated in two public primary schools and have additional pit latrines built. The two schools are Loyo Primary – which currently has a pupil-to-toilet ratio of 30:1 for girls and about 50:1 for boys – and Lodwar Mixed. Teachers at both schools also aren’t fairing much better. At Loyo Primary, 20 teachers share two restrooms, while at Lodwar Mixed, the 46 teachers have to make do with just one lavatory. Additionally, in a quest to solve water shortage problems, water tanks, solar pumps, and handwashing kits will be donated to the two schools.
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SDG 7: AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
NALSA(K) Vice Secretary Daisy Muriuki launched a project installing solar panels for homes without electricity in Mbeere North. Salome Atandi’s briquette-making project in Alego-Usonga provides the people of that area with an affordable and efficient energy source, as the briquettes are from natural waste and farm residue. Both are essential steps in ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy.
Conclusion
We cannot overlook the role that partnerships and sponsors have played in the projects we have been able to carry out thus far. Our biggest partner within the last year has been Proudly Kenyan which has so far provided us with support for projects across 12 different constituencies. Our members have also been able to tap into their different professional and social circles to get support in different ways. For example, the Mama Twende table banking groups in Westlands constituency who came together to donate story books in support of our Chair’s projects, or the Milele Empowerment Network in Mbeere that brought together the women groups that benefitted from Daisy Muriuki’s projects. Without their support, we may not have been able to realise our projects to the scale we have. As we look back at what we have been able to do within the last year or so, we are proud of what we have accomplished. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the efforts toward realising the SDGs on a national and global scale, we managed to play our part in supporting the vulnerable members of our society. And this is only the beginning. Stay tuned to see what we come up with next!
Post by Sophia Wanyonyi.
Photography by Julia Laval.