INTRODUCTION
CAHEEP - Kenya is a community based organization that operates in Uriri Sub-County within Migori County towards the western part of Kenya, near Lake Victoria. The area borders Uganda to the west, Tanzania to the south and Kisii/ Narok to the north. The organization was registered in the year 2013 in Migori County, Uriri Sub County at the Gender and Social Services office as a CBO. The
organization is located along the Kisii-Isebania Highway. The organization has an established staff structure led by a Chief Executive Officer, alongside other professionals. The organization is steered by an Advisory Board drawn from varying professions and specialists on community work and programming. CAHEEP is currently focusing on implementing programs on education, health, environment & Eco-tourism as well as economic empowerment. The organization works with the youth, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) s, women with support from government and donor agencies. The unique strategies being applied to facilitate these programs include value-based partnership, resource mobilization, use of existing community resource persons, nurturing creative talents, use of information technology in agriculture & Eco-tourism as well as E-learning. CAHEEP uses challenges as opportunities to re-design, overhaul and re-focus on approaches and strategies to create higher impact within the community. The stand-out for CAHEEP is the promotion of culture and heritage of the local community where the organization operates. MISSION
To implement programs that aim at community empowerment through jobs creation, agribusiness promotion, tourism, providing educational needs, advocate for quality health and campaigns for environmental conservation and safeties. Purpose
CAHEEP works to facilitate positive transformation in the lives of communities in social and economic development through participatory and integrative approaches while building on positive aspects of the people’s culture. CAHEEP does this by sharing knowledge and skills, developing responsive interventions, enhancing the use of locally available resources and promoting networking as well as living within the cultural attributes of the community. Values
Equal opportunities: CAHEEP is committed to ensuring that opportunities in the community are equally shared with youth, children and women
Self reliance: CAHEEP recognizes social and economic independence are key in promoting self-reliance
Volunteerism: CAHEEP treasures the art of volunteerism as a sustainable way of encouraging communities to engage in their own social transformation
Self-determination: CAHEEP recognizes the rights of children, youth and women to determine and develop their own future
Commitment
CAHEEP will:
Promote and protect the rights of disadvantaged and marginalized children, youth and women
Design and implement programs that are effective and impact driven to improve the lives of children, youth and women
Work with relevant partners to address marginalization and pull resources together
Engage in the development of favorable policies and advocacy platforms to address children, youth and women’s rights and develop a common voice in line with CAHEEP's shared mission and values
Respond and adapt to development challenges
GOALS & OBJECTIVES
• Community mobilization to participate in income generating activities through agribusiness, tourism, waste management, tree planting, talent and creativity
• Enable healthy and safe community through sensitization on the best health practices
• Create sustainable empowerment to the community through well designed creative programs on health, environment, education, agribusiness, village saving and loaning associations, tourism and culture.
• To form farmer field schools(FFS)
• Education provision on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and environmental conservation
• Identify and support orphans and vulnerable children.
• Family health education programs.
• To collaborate with like-minded personalities and organizations to participate in community development. PROGRAM SUMMARY
The programs run by CAHEEP are summarized as follows;
A. Education
• E-learning, promoting girl child education, advocating for the best practices in education and creating awareness and sensitization of the society on the importance of education.
• Partnering with donors and other like-minded organizations to support and provide basic educational materials, i.e. books, school uniforms, sanitary pads and school feeding programs
B. Environment
• Solid/liquid waste management, tree planting and beautification
• Community sensitization on environmental conservation
• Improvement of houses using locally available solutions and materials
C. Health
• Promoting Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) practices in schools, community.
• Agitating for zero stigmatization, new infections and new HIV/AIDS related deaths for Kenyan’s vision 2030.
• Sensitizing community on communicable disease control – malaria, diarrhea, respiratory infections, skin infections
• Promoting maternal and child health
D. Agriculture
• Sensitization of farmers on modern practices in agriculture
• Sensitizing community on appropriate nutrition for children, maternal mothers and HIV infected persons
• Integration of information and communication technology in mainstream agriculture
E. Tourism
Eco-tourism, conference tourism, cultural tourism, cruise tourism, tour & travel tourism. CAHEEP plans to implement the programs in a stepwise manner and phases. The organization has started with education and environment programs in phase one for the next two years. The other programs listed will follow suit as stated in the phase-in strategy. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION & PARTNERSHIP
CAHEEP harnesses locally available resources within the community through community involvement and participation to ensure problem solving through community owned solutions. For instance, house improvement will be through modern knowledge but using locally available resources – walls and floors smearing, adequate lighting and ventilation, non-leaking roofs, rubbish pits in the compound and a pit latrine. The organization will deliberately and earnestly carry out fundraising to increase her program approach and intervention, expand her geographic coverage and reach more number of women and children, hence a wider community outreach. This fundraising and resource mobilization will be done through professional proposal writing to donors locally, regionally and internationally focusing on CAHEEP programs and projects. Partnerships will be embraced with similar organizations in the hope of resource sharing. Resource mobilization will also focus on private corporate companies like banks, drinks-producing firms, and state corporations like Kenya Pipeline Company, Ken gen or Kenya Ports Authority. Others include Safaricom, Airtel, Yu or Orange. Initiatives to do marketing of CAHEEP and fundraising will be done through media relations, inviting celebrities, walks, marathons, talk shows, radio shows, exhibitions and the like. In addition to providing satisfactory report to our project donors and partners, we aim at leaving the communities we interact with through our projects better than we found them at exit point. Identifying the top five community needs through the needs assessments, match these needs with our projects mission, search for possible long-term friendly partners to work with and mobilize for human and financial resources locally and internationally. Based on developed model and approaches, we remain flexible and open while seeking funds for our projects. We remain accountable and open for one phase, two phase and three phases fund distribution as deemed appropriate by the donor and project model on a signed memorandum between the donor and us. SUSTAINABILITY
CAHEEP’s programs will embrace sustainability mechanisms as a clear way of ensuring that the programs initiated will not collapse after donor funds are exhausted or if the organization folds up. This will be mainly enhanced by the various partnerships with key stakeholders, especially the government. The government will be involved in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation as well as sharing audit reports. This will ensure a smooth roll-over of the programme and promote ownership within the government; an everlasting entity. The involvement/participation of the community in planning, monitoring and evaluation will be a sure way of ensuring sustainability. Structures will be formed within the community that are representative, all-inclusive and gender sensitive to represent the voice of CAHEEP at ground level. These approaches will work even at exit point. CAHEEP-Kenya promotes communal ownership and participation through dialogue, forums, and interview. Identifying community problems through needs assessment, using Arts, for disseminating key messages, engaging participants, and building rapport between, community, partners and project donor. We are committed to solving problems within the community by engaging the community in income generation activities for self-sustainability during project exit. MONITORING & EVALUATION
CAHEEP will initiate a standardized monitoring and evaluation system that will have a snapshot of activities, successes and challenges. The system will show ‘red flags’ and will provide a platform for planning and re-planning. This, in essence, means that a baseline survey will have to be done to for scientific verification of the current status through qualitative and quantitative research that will form the bench-mark for implementation and measuring the journey of intervention. The syste will provide a basis for documentation of all materials and publications within the organization. This system will act as the main source of information to justify new funding or further fundraising thru
