Passing It Forward Through Agriculture

Vincent Mutambi, secretary of Mukomari Youth Bunge, shows the soap made from sweet potatoes.

In rural Kenya, it's not so unusual for very low income residents to lack the nutritional basics. It's a hard land from which to eke just a basic living. The soil itself has been depleted from years of growing sugarcane on plantations, without bothering to rotate the crops to allow soil recovery.

This is the area to which Vincent Atitwa devotes himself. He comes from a large and loving family, a family of subsistence farmers. Life wasn't easy, especially in the face of lacking proper nutrition, so Vincent was determined that others, especially children, wouldn't have to experience what he experienced. So he got an education, courtesy of a government scholarship, and earned certificates in business management and economics.



Vincent founded a charitable enterprise, MATUNGU COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CHARITY (MCDC) to address the needs of vulnerable residents of rural western Kenya, particularly the sub-county of Matungu. This is one of those grassroots groups that provides the impetus for self-help and starts setting up basic societal structure for community members.

Much of its work has been in the area of agriculture, since most of the residents have engaged in subsistence farming and there are very few employers in the area. The focus has been on converting residents to growing nutrient-rich crops. The original focus was on being able to produce nutrient-enriched flour, maize meal, and other nutrient-infused grains that are also affordable to people with limited incomes.

The vision was that there would be a core group of farmers who would plant sustainable crops on demonstration plots. Those would show locals how to grow sustainable crops organically and be utilized to educate both children and adults. Eventually, the plots would become a source of seedlings that would be shared with other community members, generating more nutritional food sources and providing a living for these other families. The fortified grains are marketed and provide a source of revenue for other projects sponsored by MCDC.

At this point, MCDC has now trained 30 residents in mixed use farming, organic farming, agro-forestry, and aquaculture. There are now five demonstration plots growing watermelons. There are youth groups growing sweet potatoes on leased land for flour and to supplement the local diets. Another youth group has been utilizing their sweet potato crop to make soap. The Munani Brothers Youth organization has been utilizing the sweet potatoes to make a refreshing juice drink, which is then sold to villagers at a local market.

A mother and child tend the cassava crop.

Just in the area of agriculture alone, MCDC is making positive changes in western Kenya and showing subsistence farmers the way to make a better living - and also supplementing their diets with more nutritional foods.

A woman readies the ground for planting.

Thanks to this article from Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Youths-fight-poverty-with-sweet-potato-venture/-/1248928/2136360/-/75nwhyz/-/index.html; this article from Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/vincent-atitwa-fortified-staple-flours-in-kenya/; and the above link.

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