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A letter from Kenya
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We get amazing emails all the time, but this one stood out.
Hi KIVA.
My name is _____ from Canada. My sister told me about KIVA
and the good work you are doing. She lives in _____ and she is a new
lender to KIVA.
I am a Veterinary Doctor and I have always desired to make a
contribution in improving dairy farming in developing Countries.
I am currently on Holiday in Kenya. I visited the Masaai Mara games
reserve that has just been declared the new 7th Wonder of the World.
It's an amazing experience.
I then visited Lake Nakuru National Park that is reputed to be the
World largest birds' sanctuary. Its while in Nakuru that my sister
alerted me about a Nakuru based KIVA partner called Ebony. I visited
your Website and I was able to get Ebony's contact details. I asked
the Management of the hotel where I am staying to help me contact
Ebony. Surprisingly they knew Ebony very well. They contacted the
organization, which immediately dispatched a vehicle to pick me up
from the hotel. I wanted to visit small-scale dairy farmers and I
suspended my Holiday.
I was taken to their offices where I met Irene, Marion, William and
other staff. They were amazed that I came to know them through KIVA
and that I suspended my holiday to visit them. Irene took me through
what Ebony does. She then took me to a group of young people affected
by HIV/AIDS. They were making some beautiful necklaces made from beads
and timber waste. I was shocked by the poverty around them. I met
people who had not had a meal for two days and people who cannot
afford to take their children to school. These things sound
unbelievable to us in Canada but I came face to face with real poverty
and the effects of HIV to children in Africa.
However I was moved by the determination and creativity of these poor
people to overcome poverty. I realised just how my US $ 25 can make a
difference between life and death to so many people in Africa!
I learnt that Ebony has assisted the youths to secure contracts to
supply their beautiful products to tourist hotels and that their
request for funding would soon be posted on KIVA's site. (I could not
wait. I made a donation of US $ 2000 to help the group buy more
supplies).
I was then handed over to James who drove me to my dream destination.
I was taken to Donduri an agricultural area where I met peasant dairy
farmers. Here I came face to face with rural poverty in Africa.
Dilapidated schools with no classrooms, inadequate resources with one
teacher handling over 100 pupils, impassable roads, pregnant women
walking for miles to the nearest health clinic, lack of crucial drugs
at the clinics and massive unemployment among youths.
These problems co-exist side by side with rich but unexploited
agricultural potentiality.
The place is fertile, dairy farming does extremely well and the market
for milk is very huge here. I was surprised by the amount of technical
knowledge on animal husbandly these rural people posses. They have
looked after their dairy cows very well.
The biggest problem I noted was the quality of the cows. They are not
able to access quality artificial insemination and good animal breeds
are expensive here. Again they don't earn full value of their produce
because they sell all their milk in raw form.
No processing is done at all. The farm sizes are very small and many
are forced to practice what is called zero grazing.
I was excited to learn that Ebony has begun addressing the problem of
quality breeds and that a number of these farmers are already posted
on KIVA's site wanting to purchase quality dairy cows. It was
wonderful to meet some of the farmers currently featured on KIVA's
site.
I am resuming my holiday and I am headed to the coastal city of
Mombassa before flying back to Canada.
The visit to Ebony was an eye opener to my sister and me. I came face
to face with the poverty problem KIVA is addressing and I saw the
practical impact of a KIVA loan to the poor rural households in
developing countries. I am now a KIVA devotee and
I will mobilize my friends to help fund more Kenya people through
KIVA. Thank you very much for what you are doing. I will share some
Ebony photos when I am back. KIVA YOU ARE ON A MISSION FROM GOD!
_______
Hi KIVA.
My name is _____ from Canada. My sister told me about KIVA
and the good work you are doing. She lives in _____ and she is a new
lender to KIVA.
I am a Veterinary Doctor and I have always desired to make a
contribution in improving dairy farming in developing Countries.
I am currently on Holiday in Kenya. I visited the Masaai Mara games
reserve that has just been declared the new 7th Wonder of the World.
It's an amazing experience.
I then visited Lake Nakuru National Park that is reputed to be the
World largest birds' sanctuary. Its while in Nakuru that my sister
alerted me about a Nakuru based KIVA partner called Ebony. I visited
your Website and I was able to get Ebony's contact details. I asked
the Management of the hotel where I am staying to help me contact
Ebony. Surprisingly they knew Ebony very well. They contacted the
organization, which immediately dispatched a vehicle to pick me up
from the hotel. I wanted to visit small-scale dairy farmers and I
suspended my Holiday.
I was taken to their offices where I met Irene, Marion, William and
other staff. They were amazed that I came to know them through KIVA
and that I suspended my holiday to visit them. Irene took me through
what Ebony does. She then took me to a group of young people affected
by HIV/AIDS. They were making some beautiful necklaces made from beads
and timber waste. I was shocked by the poverty around them. I met
people who had not had a meal for two days and people who cannot
afford to take their children to school. These things sound
unbelievable to us in Canada but I came face to face with real poverty
and the effects of HIV to children in Africa.
However I was moved by the determination and creativity of these poor
people to overcome poverty. I realised just how my US $ 25 can make a
difference between life and death to so many people in Africa!
I learnt that Ebony has assisted the youths to secure contracts to
supply their beautiful products to tourist hotels and that their
request for funding would soon be posted on KIVA's site. (I could not
wait. I made a donation of US $ 2000 to help the group buy more
supplies).
I was then handed over to James who drove me to my dream destination.
I was taken to Donduri an agricultural area where I met peasant dairy
farmers. Here I came face to face with rural poverty in Africa.
Dilapidated schools with no classrooms, inadequate resources with one
teacher handling over 100 pupils, impassable roads, pregnant women
walking for miles to the nearest health clinic, lack of crucial drugs
at the clinics and massive unemployment among youths.
These problems co-exist side by side with rich but unexploited
agricultural potentiality.
The place is fertile, dairy farming does extremely well and the market
for milk is very huge here. I was surprised by the amount of technical
knowledge on animal husbandly these rural people posses. They have
looked after their dairy cows very well.
The biggest problem I noted was the quality of the cows. They are not
able to access quality artificial insemination and good animal breeds
are expensive here. Again they don't earn full value of their produce
because they sell all their milk in raw form.
No processing is done at all. The farm sizes are very small and many
are forced to practice what is called zero grazing.
I was excited to learn that Ebony has begun addressing the problem of
quality breeds and that a number of these farmers are already posted
on KIVA's site wanting to purchase quality dairy cows. It was
wonderful to meet some of the farmers currently featured on KIVA's
site.
I am resuming my holiday and I am headed to the coastal city of
Mombassa before flying back to Canada.
The visit to Ebony was an eye opener to my sister and me. I came face
to face with the poverty problem KIVA is addressing and I saw the
practical impact of a KIVA loan to the poor rural households in
developing countries. I am now a KIVA devotee and
I will mobilize my friends to help fund more Kenya people through
KIVA. Thank you very much for what you are doing. I will share some
Ebony photos when I am back. KIVA YOU ARE ON A MISSION FROM GOD!
_______
