Millennium Villages Blog

Amb. Phillips and his wife with community members

The first time that US Ambassador Earl N. Phillips heard about Marenyo, a community within Sauri Millennium Village (Western Kenya), was four years ago during a conference. Touched by the story, he decided to support the villagers to fulfill their objective of lifting themselves out of poverty and reaching the Millennium Development Goals. But little did he know then that four years later he would visit the village and witness an amazing transformation.

In late July, Amb. Phillips, who serves as the US representative to the Eastern Caribbean, travelled to Kenya with his family to meet the community, see how they have embraced change and hear from them about the challenges they face. One chilly morning, they all drove to Marenyo, preceded by light showers described as ‘blessings’ from the sky by community members. The visit started with a briefing by the Millennium Village team leader Jessica Masira. Amb. Phillips wanted to learn more about the status of the project and the community’s reaction to it. His step-daughter Emily Glenn asked how development partners were brought into the project.

In 2006, Amb. Phillips, Bennett College and student leaders from Duke University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the United States pledged support for Marenyo. Since then, students have held fundraisers and other events to help support the village and raise awareness about the MVP. Amb. Phillips and his wife have been instrumental in the fundraising efforts.

Fish pond demonstration

After the briefing, the delegation visited a farmer who has diversified into fish farming. The farmer proudly displayed a generator he bought from his first proceeds which he uses to pump water into the ponds during dry seasons. The next stop was at a health facility where Amb. Phillips interacted with patients and community health workers (CHW) who make home visits to assess malnutrition among children under five, conduct rapid malaria test and administer medication upon advice through rapid SMS. Then the visitors went to a primary school where they observed 900 pupils have a hot, nutritionally balanced lunch. With support from parents and MVP, the school has a computer lab with ten computers, as well as a television and DVD player used as learning aid tools for children to benefit from educative and entertainment programs such as parliament sessions. The head teacher cited an increased enrollment right from the early childhood level where before the project he had 46 pupils but now there are 149 in early childhood development alone.

At Marenyo cereal bank, the delegation met with its chairlady Mary Asiko and learnt that, through capacity building in building linkages, networking and business skills management, 209 cereal bank members had won a tender worth millions of shillings to supply cereals to the World Food Programme for five years.

At the tree seedling farm

The Ambassador also visited a farmer who is planting tomatoes in an irrigated green house, another who has a tree nursery and a community-led microfinance institution. The tree nursery farmer, Jennifer Awuor, a single mother of five is a member of Muungano women’s group where each member raises tree seedlings and fruit trees for sale. From the proceeds, she has acquired sewing machines, beehives and piped water. The delegation urged the farmers to continue working hard to eradicate poverty and hunger.

Amb. Phillips with John, the community fund manager

The Ambassador and his family confessed that they did not know what to expect initially. But after the visit, they were very impressed with the industrious and motivated community members. ‘I must say, you have given us more than we have given you,’ said Kim Phillips. ‘We appreciate what you have done for us as a family. You have gone all the way to deny yourselves of what money can help you. Let us also have that heart to help others. Our children are eating in school, neighbouring schools don’t feed. I am eating fish from my own fish pond and soon I will harvest tomatoes from my green house,’ replied Mary Asiko.

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