Kitchen Gardeners International: KGI partner spotlight: The Organic Agriculture Center of Kenya

Name, address, and contact person:
Organic Agriculture Center of Kenya (OACK)
P.O. Box 6, 10218 Kangari, Kenya
Contact: David Karanja

Mission:
OACK is a registered non-governmental organization (NGO) whose mission is to raise awareness about organic agriculture in Kenya and to work with Kenyan farmers to empower them to achieve food security.

Funds requested:
$800

Project summary:
OACK is proposing to carry out kitchen garden educational activities for 120 farmers and 100 students from three area schools.

The proposed project builds on work OACK has done in the past. In line with its mission of promoting food security in the communities where it operates, OACK has been encouraging every one of its member farmers to plant a family kitchen garden. This has been done through the formation of small management groups of 20-30 farmers. Farmers gather in one area and are trained in different techniques for building productive gardens around their homesteads.

One member volunteers to give a small plot to the group for demonstration purposes. Participants then take the knowledge back to their own gardens for implementation. Follow-ups are done with all trained farmers at their homes to check the development of the gardens and to see whether they comply with what was taught in the demo plot. With this kind of training, OACK has helped more than 600 families plant kitchen gardens. The funds requested will be used to continue and expand this work.

In addition to its farmer trainings, OACK is proposing a new project to train young people in organic kitchen gardening by digging three new school gardens. It is hoped that this new activity will empower Kenyan youth to have a better sense on the importance of gardening for sustainable food production at the household level. Children will learn from the garden and then take this information back home for implementation thereby helping kitchen garden knowledge to spread within families and communities.

Project evaluation:
OACK will monitor and track the project's performance and development. Photos will be taken of the farmer trainings and school garden construction projects. These photos and written updates will be posted to KGI's website so that others can share in the lessons learned from this project.

Find more photos like this on Kitchen Gardeners

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Posted by KGI on June 5, 2008 1:56 PM to Kitchen Gardeners International
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