Program:
Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene (WASH) Program
- Budget:
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$10,000
- Category:
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Community Development
- Population Served:
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Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
Program Description:
Water, sanitation, and hygiene are all critical to reducing the burden of water-borne diseases.
We work with a community based groups to find effective sanitation approaches that will contribute to a world where children and families lead healthier, more productive lives.
We aim to develop scalable business models and technologies capable of moving communities we work with from unsustainable to sustainable sanitation services across the sanitation value chain.
We invest in technologies and methods for increasing sustainable access to clean water and hygiene.
Program Long-Term Success:
Our aim is the reduction of water- and waste-related disease and the optimization of the health benefits of sustainable water and waste management.
We work to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, and to promote safe hygiene practices.
We aim to support the health sector in effectively addressing water- and waste-related disease burden and in engaging others in its reduction. We also aim assist non-health sectors in understanding and acting on the health impacts of their actions.
All our WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) programmes are designed to contribute to the Millennium Development Goal for water and sanitation: to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and basic sanitation.
Program Short-Term Success:
Promotion of access to safe water supply and adequate sanitation as a major requirement to ensure a healthy life and enable the social development of the poor and unserved. Activities will focus on evidence-base policy development and are closely aligned with the millennium declaration goals.
- Initiate health-care waste management pilot projects.
- Develop best practices for the safe management of health-care wastes.
- Develop health care waste management training centres.
Program Success Monitored by:
Amsha Africa Foundation will closely monitor the management of the WASH project through frequent visits to the site and have a permanent representative in the with the community group that the project is launched who will be reporting to AAF.
AAF will also be conducting surveys and interviews within the communities that benefit from the project to see its effectiveness and success. From these surveys, AAF will be able to make an educated evaluation of the project's success.
Program Success Examples:
In the Water and Sanitation project that was completed in the Kawangware Slums of Nairobi, below were some of the examples of success we found from our surveys:
Education:
- Since the high level of school dropout was directly related to water shortage since kids had to trek for miles to fetch water, with water availability, parents were able to ensure that their children attend school.
Health
Major Health centers in the region have adversely been affected by lack of water and poor sanitation. Many area residents suffered from diseases that were preventable if they had clean water and good sanitation. When AAF completed the WASH project in Kawangware and followed up a few weeks and months later, we found significant improvement in the health of the area residents due to clean water and environment. The district health officer also acknowledged how the local hospitals and health centers had been revived and were operating well due to availability of clean water and lack of overcrowding since many residents did not suffer from the diseases caused by poor water and unsanitary conditions that were prevalent before the project.
Program:
Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect Program
- Budget:
-
$10,000
- Category:
-
Human Services
- Population Served:
-
Poor/Economically Disadvantaged, Indigent, General
-
Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
Program Description:
We work with our partner organization in an effort to stop child abuse and neglect and educate communities in Kenya.
We support children who are forced to work for their survival and work with schools in Income Generating Activities to support children under situations that would lead to neglect and drop outs.
Our program helps create child protection teams within rural communities and helps create an organization of lawyers that offer free legal services to children whose rights have been violeted.
We also participate in research activities on children's right, such as street children
Program Long-Term Success:
- Support children who are forced to work for their survival.
- Work with schools in Income Generating Activities to support children under situations that would lead to neglect and drop outs.
- Help create child protection teams within rural communities.
- Help create an organization of lawyers that offer free legal services to children whose rights have been violeted
- Create alliances between government departments and other groups at community level to address child labor.
- Participate in research activities on children's right, such as street children.
Program Short-Term Success:
- Involve communities in prevention of child labour and withdrawing children from work.
- Build the capacity of young persons as advocates for protection of rights of orphans and other vulnerable children in Kenya. It is a direct and practical approach to attaining child rights. By its very nature, children themselves are trained to advocate for their rights as opposed to waiting for the rights to be realized for them by others.
- Work to enhance knowledge and the capacity of various actors and strengthens their operational capacity for effective advocacy and execution of laws against violence on children.
- Work to minimize and eventually eliminate child trafficking. This program undertakes action-oriented studies on child trafficking, increase the level of awareness of child trafficking among different groups, builds the capacity of key actors, develops and enhance networks and alliances to effectively contribute to the fight against child trafficking.
- Identify vulnerable children and thereafter assess, train and supportfoster homes to take in the children, treating them as if they were their own by promoting their well-being.
Program Success Monitored by:
- Take surveys of foster homes to see how children are being treated.
- Work with schools and local authorities to access the the Income Generating Activities that Amsha Africa Foundation has started to measure the success of the children participating.
- Monitor reports by the child protection teams created within rural communities to see if there are any improvements or additional help that can be provided.
- Monitor monthly reports from the organization of lawyers that offer free legal services to children to see if the program is successful.
- Participate in research activities on children's right and interview children in the program to monitor the success of the program.
Program Success Examples:
- Amsha Africa Foundation has created an organization of 20 lawyers that offer free legal services to children whose rights have been violated in Kenya. These lawyers have successfully provided free legal services on 42 cases and have 120 cases that are being worked on.
- Amsha Africa Foundation has worked with over 12 community based groups and helped create child protection teams within rural communities. These child protection teams have helped reduce child in some rural communities by over 95% according to our surveys.
- The Foster care program has encouraged and facilitates foster carers to look after children in need. There are currently 6 foster cares that AAF has helped form and the success of the children taken in these foster homes has grown exponentially from their previous abusive homes.
Program:
"Dear Friend" Pen Pal Program
- Budget:
-
$5,000
- Category:
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Arts, Culture & Humanities
- Population Served:
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Children and Youth (infants - 19 years.)
Program Description:
The goal of the Dear Friend pen pal program is to sustain long-term, 1:1 relationships between as many pair of U.S. and Kenyan children as possible, and to help all participating children achieve literacy goals, heighten their cultural awareness, and feel the joy of knowing another child across the world cares about them.
This project will preserve the art of letter writing for our generation's children, teaching them to communicate well through the written word.
Program Long-Term Success:
The ultimate success for this program will be to help all participating children achieve literacy goals, heighten their cultural awareness, and feel the joy of knowing another child across the world cares about them.
This project will preserve the art of letter writing for our generation's children, teaching them to communicate well through the written word.
Program Short-Term Success:
Immediate outcome from children participating in this program will be to heighten their cultural awareness, and feel the joy of knowing another child across the world cares about them.
Program Success Monitored by:
Supervising adults will be sent surveys after every 3 months to monitor the programs success. The program success will be monitored by the number of correspondences between the participating children, the extent of cultural awareness from the participating children, and if the children are improving their communication and letter writing skills through the program.
Program Success Examples:
200 children from the Kenya, the U.S. and Europe are currently participating in this program and from the surveys their supervising adults have provided, the program is extremely popular and successful. A number of children have significantly improved their cultural awareness and letter writing skills. A mother in the U.S. said that her 8 year old child wants to grow and join the peace corp and is now immensely interested in helping other under previledged children from Africa from the experience gained from this program.