Institute of Social Transformation

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    The Participatory Integration of the Rural Youth in Sustainable Agriculture for Sustainable Development of Kamara Division, Nakuru, Kenya
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-04) Muchunguzi, Wilbert
    The right and obligation to authentic development is one of the principles enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human rights. And the issue of social integration of every individual, especially the disadvantaged people, in development was loudly expressed at the 1995 Copenhagen World summit for social Development' and later adopted as a guide by the Kenyan National Poverty Eradication Plan. These are just but harbingers that things, somewhere, were not moving the way they were expected to be. Looking back we see that, throughout history people have evolved natural units of settlement to meet their social, cultural and economic needs. This was the origin of rural communities where people strive for self-sufficiency and sustainability through available material, non-material and, most importantly, human resources inclusively. Today's rural communities seek to develop into more viable economic units within modernizing nations. How authentically this has to be brought about in the rural Kenya like Kamara division, remains the main concern. Contemporary popular development is mistakenly trapped in the local and global confusion characterized by economic, political and cultural dominance and influence that lead to social alienation. Those with no means of survival suffer deprivation the most. Unfortunately, the rural youth lie in this category. According to the Welfare Monitoring Survey of 1994, it was estimated that 12.6 million Kenyans lived below the poverty line. In rural areas, the incidences of poverty were 49%2. The effects of this is multidimensional destitution, which manifests itself in form of deficiency of material, social, economic and cultural needs and rights which an individual, household or community hold as vitally important for their survival. Deprived people experience food insecurity, insufficient income, deprivation of knowledge, low quality of life, lack of shelter, social inequality, lack of essential social services and reduced life expectancy. Since the youth constitute the biggest section of the rural population, they are the most suffering. Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihood for many of Kenyans. Since alternative sources of subsistence such as employment, industry, business and informal sectors outside agriculture are scarce, it employs more than 80% of the rural population. Small-scale farming, whose nature is subsistence (food security and reasonable income), dominates the Kenyan agricultural sector. Among the multipronged problems that face subsistence fanning are ecological, economic, political financial, sociocultural, technical, demographic, organizational and environmental. Inequalities in international trade policies also add fuel to the problems. Individually or combined, these problems destabilize the smallscale farmers and their ever scarce resources. This leads to unscrupulous exploitation of resources and unsustainable livelihood and future. We should not be shocked then to see poor fanning practices, forests and catchments inversion and destruction, environmental depletion, unpredictable weather fluctuation and recurring famines. The crown of all is rural massive unemployment, abject poverty and social alienation, which pave a way to rural-urban drift. Here begins people's vulnerability. Where does the future lie then? Which kind of legacy will the future generation receive; will they be able to meet their needs from the same resources uncompromisingly and live a decent life worth of their dignity if we fail to prepare now? What does all these call for? In fact this imposes a very serious social question for us all. It is a prophetic call requiring a critical listening in order to come up with effective interventions. The possible effective answer is participatory integration. Investing in people in collaboration and partnership should be the way forward. Proper mobilization and indiscriminate integration of the whole local population in harnessing the locally available resources) is essentially important to the sustainable agriculture and rural development process. Thus the youth will be able to act as carriers of the sustainable future.
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    The Challenges and Problems Facing The Elderly in Contemporary Kenya
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-03-31) Marango Wamalwa, Joseph
    Old age is inescapable if one's life is long. In the African setting as you mature in years, you become a reservoir of wisdom. Your next of kin will come to you for advice. In fact they would like to hear from you what you might say on many things pertaining to the family lineage, clan or the village as a whole. This comes to be realised of course if your life is exemplary. It is therefore not an accident for African people to have a proverb that says, 'Old is gold.' This sounds appealing and that is why the elderly were not despised in traditional Africa unless one was involved in unacceptable practices such as witchcraft. However, things have changed. To praise the elderly people today as a unifying factor in the community and to associate them with wisdom is downgraded as sacrilege. A certain dignified person in one of the top universities in Nairobi astonished many people, when he claimed that wisdom of the elderly is no longer functional due to modem education.' Just to answer him before going too far, let us think about the so-called industrialised countries. They are rich and literacy is almost 100 percent. But when you turn on the other side of the coin, you see that promotion of wars in other countries, breakdown of family cohesiveness and the lust to accumulate is the order of the day in their backyard. Now, is this wisdom? The wisdom we talk about is that which comes from the inside of a person for the common good of all. It is inherent. It permeates all spheres of life to bring about justice and peace. This is the wisdom that we derive from our elderly friends. Affluence is becoming the most honoured and adored commodity in the world. Definitely, Africa is not spared because this new culture is catching up very fast. The social and economic trends are not elderly friendly. Physical changes such as wrinkles on the face due to aging are not admired either. Therefore, there is a need to adequately put in place checks and balances to respond to these circumstances competently. Chapter one highlights the problem at hand. Chapter two is literature review. Chapter three explains the methodology used in carrying out the research. Chapter four is about data analysis that attempts to articulate the current situation on the ground. Chapter five contains the discussions and recommendations. Finally, chapter six presents a project proposal that may be useful to counteract this sprouting phenomenon.
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    Street Children in Nairobi: Case Study of St.Charles Lwanga School, Kibera
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-04) Gebrehiwo, Solomon
    The phenomenon of street children is almost a worldwide phenomenon, but prevalent in urban areas, especially in the less developed countries. In Kenya, street children were initially identified in the late 1960s as "Parking Boys"; but the problem of street children began to be explicitly felt in the 1970s. The word "parking" denotes the activity that these children were mostly engaged in, identifying and showing motorists empty spaces to park their vehicles and watching the vehicles to guard them against thieves. The motorists usually paid them some little money for such services. The term "street children" gradually replaced "parking boys", mainly because girls also went into the streets to join the boys and both of them now engaged in activities beyond just showing motorists where to park their vehicles and guarding them. Who is responsible for the creation of street children? Clearly, it is not just their mistake that explains their being on the streets. Nor can we say that their parents are solely responsible for their status. Rather, it is today's social setup and the manner in which one has been brought up. Street children hardly have a social status in the larger society. Existence is tolerated but not trusted, as their abode and background are not known. Many city dwellers would prefer street children not to be near their residential areas or places, even though most of these children are not delinquent and are safe to deal with. Attempt to seek better understanding of the street children's root causes is crucial. It is necessary to perceive it in the context of the various contemporary issues, such as added pressure applied on society by the structural adjustment programs (SAPs), particularly is the effect of shifting the burden of costs for social services to the user. This is probably a major cause of school dropout, some of whom sooner or later find their way into the streets. It is my hope that the developing world will soon come up with better economic policies and better legislation that favor the rights of children so that this escalating situation of street children may be curbed.
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    Solidarity with the Poor as a Poverty Eradication Strategy
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-03-31) Mulenga, Valentine
    This research, " Solidarity with the Poor as a Poverty Eradication Strategy: by means of Education," was aimed at investigating to what extent the O.L.N.primary school has influenced the students, parents, teachers and the entire community of Mukuru. In order for us to reach these results we used the See, Judge and Act method with the support of the qualitative and quantitative method of approach. These methods were used so as to collect the data, present it and analyze it and these methods proved to be varied and effective. The research revealed to us that there is a good level of participation and collaboration in eradicating poverty through education for the system of education or methodology used is that of calling all the concerned people in this slum area to be fully involved in the project. With this idea in mind, there were some challenges that came out as a result of this study. The main issue that came out of this study is that O.L.N. Primary School is doing a good job in educating the children for future alleviation from poverty. But this is not responding fully to the objective of the school for there is little done with children who go to form one. Only 5% of the total number of those selected to form one get to secondary school because the majority have no school fees for the same reason that they come from poor families who cannot afford to send them to secondary schools. As a result of this the research at the end has a project proposal. This project will be a secondary school, which will be run on the same basis like. O.L.N. for the poor, to alleviate them from poverty and give them a bright future. The project will be run on two phases with a three-year budget proposal. The first phase is researching (to see ifthis school is really needed) and building structures. The second phase is to begin the school with form ones and each year add the next class. This project is a felt need and was echoed by almost all the people related with O.L.N. primary school.
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    Mukuru Promotion Centre
    (Tangaza University College, 1998) Meheretab, Lula
    The project paper was-canied-eut-at the Mulcuru Promotion Center as a study case during the long holidays. The Mukuru project was very important for a social minister to be immersed or experience for future ministry. The project personnel is made up of social workers and community development workers. The project paper mainly deals with the different features that is; its history, scope of the study area, methodology study and analysis, problem factors or analysis, problem, organizational structure; long term and short term strategies, the project activities and planing approach, financial aspect, development of slums, etc.. In social ministry or mission, it is helpful to be able to deal with these issues. The paper will also mention the observation and recommendations and, analysis of the activities. In my view, the two months of experience at the Mulcuru Center was a very cresting one. It enabled me to understand the lives of the population; their strength and their weaknesses specially their needs. This project is an attempt to try to defend their right and dignity by working and living with them.
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    Some Causes of Poverty Among The SCC Members Op Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish
    (Tangaza University College, 1999-03) Oliva, Maria Rita
    Last year I met people from Our Lady of Guadalupe parish who lived in great poverty and I became interested in exploring the causes of their poverty. Our Lady of Guadalupe parish covers about 70,000 population with approximately 12,000-15,000 Catholics. It is impossible to have exact figures since the area covers 16 Small Christians Communities (SCCs) and people are constantly moving. At the present, the 16 SCCs are the following: Kianda, Olympic, Fort Jesus, Makina Sokoni, Makina Stage, Makina B., Makina D.O., Makina Makongeni, Karanja Road, Woodley/Kilimani, Dagoretti City Council, Jamhuri Park, Jamhuri Estate, Ole Odume, Ayany, Kenya Science Teachers College. Guadalupe parish caters for three milieux of people: 60% are very poor and predominantly from Kibera, 35% are middle class and only 5% are upper class. Thn poor living in the area of this cosmopolitan parish experience hardships due to various problems, such as single parenthood, unemployment, tribalism within the communities, street children and orphans, mostly left by AIDS victims. Poverty in its different aspects, that is economic, moral and spiritual is tackled by offering to the needy counselling, awareness programmes and small income generating projects as well. A Catholic movement called St Vincent de Paul Group is active with the purpose of helping the poorest of the poor residents in the area of the parish, regardless ai• their religious belief. However, the economic possibility of the group is limited since its main source of income is the monthly collection of the parishioners and a few donations from nearby religious congregations. The Social Group is another constituted group whose members are trying to find an answer to poverty by helping people to start their own small businesses. They think that providing financial help in the form of loans can be a possible answer towards sustainable development and financial self-sufficiency. So far they have helped a few people to set up their own small businesses and are in the process of monitoring the trend of this enterprise.