Governor’s Press Service
November 5, 2018
By Lizzy Muthoka
Governor Kaluki Ngilu has challenged non-profit organizations to strive to empower communities to be productive to end the culture of receiving handouts.
Kitui Policy advisor to the governor hon nzungi ngwele speaking during the functionShe specifically singled out organizations working with communities to eradicate poverty in Kitui and urged them to invest more in developing the locals’ productive capacity using locally available resources to create wealth for themselves to end the culture of dependency
The governor said this in remarks made on her behalf by the Policy Advisor in the Kitui County Government Mr. Nzungi Ngwele during a stakeholders’ forum for the financial graduation project of Care International at Kyuso in Mwingi North Sub County. Governor Ngilu stressed that poor people have ideas and energy which they can use to pull themselves out of poverty if skills training, technology and investment capital were made available to them.
The financial graduation project is a pilot programme that is being implemented by Care International Kenya with the support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Kenya. In Kitui County the project is being implemented in six wards in Mwingi North and Mwingi Central Sub Counties, where it has seen 1,000 households in the region benefit from health access, assets development, enterprise training and mentorship, financial literacy and life skills training.
Speaking during the forum some of the beneficiaries of the project expressed their gratitude to Care Kenya for their support, which they said had transformed their lives from being a laughing stock in their communities to respectable individuals leading descent lives.
“I feel respected by the community now. My friends come to borrow loans from me unlike before when most of the community shunned me because they saw me as a burden,’’ said 42 year old Ann Kangali, a mother of three from Tseikuru Ward.
Ms Kangali was enrolled into the financial graduation program after loosing her eldest son whom she had invested all her hope into as the family’s bread winner. Her life changed drastically after receiving salon materials and seed capital to start a business that now generates income to provide for her family.
Agnes, another beneficiary who is a resident of Gai Market in Kyuso Ward testified that her life changed after joining the project where she was trained on business management and given seed capital for her business starter.
‘’I had no confidence and I was embarrassed of my home because I didn’t even have basic things like seats and utensils. Now neighbours visit me, they invite me to their homes and borrow money from me when in need,’’ said an excited Agnes.
Mr. Ngwele said that Governor Ngilu was in full support of the project, but would like to see it expanded to reach more households, Wards and Sub Counties across the County.
He said that the findings of a baseline survey conducted by Care at the start of the project where the NGO identified the most pressing needs in the community as food poverty, poor access to healthcare and extremely low household incomes, actually validated Governor Ngilu’s 5 pillars in her election manifesto.
“Your findings actually confirm that Governor Ngilu was dead right when she identified the five issues that need to be tacked in Kitui County, namely food and water, healthcare, education and youth empowerment, women empowerment and wealth creation,” he said.
The forum was also addressed by the Mwingi North Sub-County Administrator Mr. Stephen Matei and Care Kenya head office staff, among others.
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