enough to eat. That every day is another day they wake up unsure if they’ ll be able to have a meal. That every day could be the day that challenges them past the point of survival.
And that is why I’ m in Kenya. I’ m here with Send a Cow, a 30-year-old non-profit organization based in the U. K. I’ m on their U. S. Board of Trustees. In my life in New Albany, I’ m a public relations and social media consultant with a heart for nonprofit work. I’ ve done a lot with the Presbyterian Mission Agency as a client and continue to seek out such work. I’ m a mom of three girls. I’ m 45. I do CrossFit when I get there; that’ s usually three times a week. My world is beyond comfortable. It’ s luxurious. And now, I’ m ashamed and not quite sure what to do about it. It was just day one of a week-long trip to Kenya.
FIRST VISIT TO AFRICA
I’ ve never been to Africa. Heck, I’ ve never set foot in a developing country, save for a January afternoon in Tijuana, Mexico. I’ m here to learn about Send a Cow and to understand the work this nonprofit is doing to lead Africans to teach each other about agriculture.
I’ m involved in Send a Cow because a dear college friend, Douglas Smith, asked me to get involved. Doug is an extremely intelligent, progressive Christian, like me, and when he asked me to join Send a Cow’ s board, he told me it was low commitment and an interim appointment, just until they could decide on strategy for the U. S. group.
But I don’ t do anything halfway, and suddenly, I was holding small meetings for Send a Cow supporters in Louisville and committing to a trip to Kenya.
What sold me on Send a Cow was the research I did before I committed. I poked around Send a Cow’ s website. I watched videos that explained their work. I read about them. Everything I saw confirmed what I want to see from nonprofits and ministries: their work is done in partnership with people who live and work in the countries they serve.
This means that the organization doesn’ t show up with 200 cases of food, shoes, Bibles – whatever – and drop it off and leave. And it also means that the organization hires and works with native people, who know best the culture, language and nuances of the people they serve.
Send a Cow employs about 250 people in Africa; all but three are Africans. They work in
Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. The workers there are peer farmers who go from farm to farm offering help and advice on raising livestock as well as crops. They are helping farmers in Kenya move away from tobacco, which provides no nutritional value, strips the land of valuable nutrients and no longer brings in the cash it once did. They teach farmers specific farming methods, such as keyhole gardens, which include a compost pit in the center, and plants positioned around it in a ring. It holds water well and keeps crops alive during times of drought. They also provide vital training in gender and social development so that husbands and wives can work better together.
The name suggests that Send a Cow sends cows to developing countries. When it started almost 30 years ago, that’ s exactly what the organization did. Send a Cow is finding now that the organization can have greater impact in some areas that they serve by training people in agriculture, rather than or along with giving cows, goats or livestock. The Kakrao project will work directly with 600 farmers in Africa; if the organization attempted to give livestock instead, it would take far longer and the cost would be prohibitive. Also, the organization doesn’ t ship cows over any more; they buy local livestock that will fare better, since it is native to the country.
Livestock – particularly cows – are a wise investment, though, for Send a Cow. A cow provides dairy, and the manure will enrich the soil on the farm and allow crops to flourish. Then the cows breed and the offspring are passed along to another farmer through Send a Cow. We had the opportunity to attend a passing ceremony, and it was lovely to see the joy in the faces of the farmers receiving a cow.
But it’ s not always the right choice, and I love that Send a Cow evaluates carefully what farmers need before working with them.
Kenya varies in climate and soil, so needs vary. But one thing that affects all: Kenya is often stricken by drought. The country depends on the“ long rains,” but they did not come consistently this year. Some places we traveled had had too much rain to grow what they called ground nuts( perhaps peanuts, I wasn’ t really sure). Other places were so dry they had struggled to keep banana trees alive.
PREPARATIONS FOR TRAVEL
In preparing for my trip, I listened to a podcast called“ Otherwise?” that was created by a Kenyan journalist. She spends 10 to 15 minutes each week exploring an aspect of modern Kenyan life. Hearing her talk about drought and famine in Kenya helped prepare me for this trip, as did her discussion with a medical student about the doctors’ strike that had occurred earlier in 2017. In Kenya, public hospitals are run by the government, and doctors were striking for better pay and working conditions for themselves, and for better patient care.
I also sought out Kenyan-born authors to read and understand more about the country. One thing to know about Kenya: it was a British colony until 1963, and you can see this influence throughout the country. While the native tongue is Swahili for most of the country, many people we met, even in the most remote parts of Kenya, spoke English.
I’ m not really interested in the stories of the white colonists who came to Kenya, no matter how benevolent. Out of Africa doesn’ t interest me. What do those who are truly born of Kenyan soil have to say about their world? That’ s what I want.
Many of the names of people we met were downright Biblical: Titus, Nicodemus, Isaac, Sarah … and that directly reflects the high number of Western missionaries who came to Kenya. Some early missionaries erased some of the native culture of the country and contributed to the westernization of Africa.
I saw some of the worst parts of U. S. culture popping up all over Western Kenya as we drove through small towns: Coca-Cola ads at nearly every stop. It bothered me deeply to see this country with high rates of malnutrition advertising so heavily for soda pop.
But back to Philister.
BEFORE SEND A COW
We started our first day at Philister’ s home, meeting her granddaughter and her mother-inlaw, who told us she was 97 but none of us were quite sure of that. She seemed more like a tough 75. This is a place where people may not even know their own birth dates.
From Philister’ s, we drove to the home of Caren, who spoke to us brightly about her life. Caren lives in Kakrao where HIV rates are twice as high as Kenya’ s national average and most of the population lives on less than $ 1 per day. On this day, she seemed almost perky as she told us how her children remind her it’ s time to take the medication. Later, we learned that she was probably putting on a good face for us. Her three children, the oldest of whom looked about 10,
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