Imani Rehabilitation Home

In the previous blog "Amasiko 2008" I wrote about African values and that it seems that these are getting lost. Yes it is true, the influence of Western culture and especially Western media is very big and pulls people away from traditional values. Many young people want to live a modern life, with all those interesting gadgets seen on CNN, MTV etc, that make you a "real" person: modern clothes, mobile phone, ipod, vehicles........ The sky is the limit. But what else can we expect in a country where foreign organisations and institutions are enforcing the search for permanent economic growth and instilling the need for completely free markets as the way to development. BUT: How can we have continuous economic growth in a world with limited resources?
Recently I read an interesting book written by an economist: Richard Douthwaite, "THE GROWTH ILLUSION, How economic growth has enriched few, impoverished the many and endangered the planet".
It gives many explanations for the ever-increasing gap between poor and rich and many solutions for the creation of a more sustainable economy with a better and fairer distribution of wealth.

But back to the African values:
Last week I was invited for a graduation in Kampala. During a three days Journey seminar last year in Kenya I met a young woman working in an orphanage. She called me to come and attend the graduation. She had come with 8 other Kenyans to celebrate the graduation of one of her friends. One would say: well nothing special about that! But there was something special: All these kenians were actually orphans and grew up in a slum area. They live in the Imani Rehabilitation Home which was initiated some twenty years ago by a lady, Faith Imani. She came from a rural area and found so may children living in real poverty. She took some of them home, gave shelter, food and education. By now there are 6 children homes with over 350 children. One of the first kids, Julius Irungo, has now graduated at the Kampala International University with a Bachelors degree in business Administration (Bsc BA). What a courage and commitment to help the poorest in the society. The young man gave a speech where he expressed that he only managed to succeed because their Mother Faith Imani, had instilled values and principles into them, values of being honest, committed, have integrity and respect for oneself and others. Faith is religious person and attributes these values to the Christian religion, but are these not universal values, available in all world religions?

He described the temptations of the campus of much freedom, getting into alcohol, drugs, girls………which spoiled many of his friends. He himself only resisted because he had to think about the values of his mother, her sacrifices to bring him up to even University and all those brothers and sisters following him.

For me this was an extra ordinary experience, giving me hope for the future and showing me that there are people who do have values and principles, live according to them and try to hand them down to others. But all this is only possible if a secure and save heaven exist from where those values are practised. All in all Faith Imani is a good model for our project and example we should follow. I wish her all the best and hope she can find supporters to keep her good work up.

We got the ISSB brickmaking machine!

Good things are happening: We got a donation of one Interlocking Stabilised Soil Brick (ISSB) making machine! This is unbelievable and a real step forwards. With the donation from the foundation in the Netherlands and this donation, we start constructions in an environmental friendly way!.
What is an ISSB press? Well a lot of research has been done, e.g by an Engineer at Makerere University in Uganda. Soil from excavations is mixed with some cement and manually pressed into blocks. These are as strong as the burned bricks but don't need to be fired and therefore no trees need to be cut down and we save our environment.
Tomorrow I will travel to Kampala to collect the press. More info follows!

There is soo much to do!

All those good ideas are giving us a wonderful and exiting vision for the future. Imagine such a place, where people work (hard) to make a living in good harmony and sharing resources and income mutually.
A place where young people in need find a shelter and a home where to start a meaningful life from and all this with income generated from the organic farm and eco-lodge and with support of national and international volunteers, guests, visitors, tourists, well-wishers!
A community build on values of co-operation, harmony, sustainability and sharing instead of materialism, consumerism and greed!

What a challenge to get going!

As I have been working for many years in various development projects the most obvious way forward was to make proposals, and look for funding with some organisations. But soon I realised that taking about alternative ways of living is actually not part of the vocabulary of development organisations. Moreover, these days the North of Uganda is attracting a lot of attention making it difficult to find funding for Kabale area. An one has to realise that many families only eat once a day, and have problems to find even firewood to cook their food!

So friends in the Netherlands have started a foundation to support our activities and some small funding is coming in.
The first development is to construct a proper ecological sound ECOsan toilet. (sqatting on a locally made pit latrine is not everyone's favoured way of .........) We would like to construct with ISSB Blocs, as these don't need burning of bricks and need less cement than conventional building.
Now we are looking for a way to get an ISSB press, either on a loan basis or maybe as a grant from someone who is not using it any more.

Other plans for the near future are to get a camping site going, build a shower with a safari heater, renovate one house as a kitchen and build housing for chicken en goats.

An than we need visitors to enjoy the place, help building it, bringing in ideas, know-how, strong arms, making PR; training in cooking, catering, bricklaying, organic farming or permaculture ....................., and last but not least learn something from and about Africa and having a lots of fun.


After a good night sleep, a visitor comes out of our tent!

Visitors enjoying a canoe ride!

So lets put hands together and get this place going:

Even the kids from the neighbourhood enjoy some holiday work (collecting stones form surrounding fields) and to earn some pocket money for Christmas.

Amasiko in 2008

After buying our first piece of land many things happened. Neighbouring farmers offered us some more plots for sale and slowly we managed to buy 11 other pieces of land now totalling to one ha.

The initiators came together with some supportive friends (2 prominent business people from Kabale, one social worker, one Community Development Facilitator) and registered an Association. A lawyer is contracted for advice and help with all legal matters such as membership, landownership etc.

And work at the site has started:
A farm manager, a young woman trained in agriculture, is permanent at the site. She develops erosion control measures, vegetable gardens, plants (fruit) trees and takes care of some small livestock. She has a female helper who gets training in sustainable farming. Once a while youth from the surrounding communities come for some training.

Learning how to plant leguminous scrubs along contours to control erosion and as fodder

At the same time, ideas continue to evolve and we expect the whole project to grow organically. So far a few things are agreed upon:

Amasiko has to become an alternative community, living on an ecological farm where young people in need can get a shelter, training, healing and hope for a better future. Training gives them skills in sustainable agriculture and eco-tourism such that they can become self-reliant entrepreneurs who take their knowledge back to rural communities.
The centre has to be self-sufficient, producing organic agricultural foodstuffs for home consumption and sales. Also the eco-farm has some accommodation for visitors and opportunities for a relaxed vacation, as well as a chance to engage in some activities and to interact with the members and trainees.

But we want to be more:
In the last 10-15 Uganda has embraced a free market policy and capitalism as way to develop the country. On one site this has attracted foreign investments and created some industrial production. But it seems that only a relatively small part of the elite has benefited. People in rural areas are still poor while the availability of consumer goods has increased the felt needs tremendously. We have noted that most young people are only having one real value left in life “Making money”. Where are those traditional African values left?

Amasiko wants to become a place where:

• traditional values are respected, embraced and promoted.
• economic and social sustainability is ensured without damaging our environment and without wastage of resources.
  
• people life in harmony and respect for each other and for the nature as a whole.
• Surrounding communities have opportunities to see sustainable organic farming at work, exchange experiences and acquire relevant skills
  
• Visitors are welcome for exchange, learning, healing.......................