Mraphani Mother to mother is a group of women found in Tana River sub county, Dafoma village. The group was inactive over the years until PGI came in. they only came together during nutritional trainings that were carried out once in a while. They had neither any income generating activity nor any development activities. The group received several trainings on nutrition from government nutritionists but they did not have the knowledge on how to improve their diet to meet their nutrition requirements and that of their children.
AMAL project came to their rescue when they capacity built them on Kitchen garden setup and establishment. The training was done by government officers from the ministry of Agriculture. This helped them grow a wide variety of vegetables that helped them improve their diet hence meeting their nutrition requirements and that of their little ones. We also brought in nutritionists from the ministry of health to train them on nutrition and dietary diversity to help them know the kind of foods to take to get certain nutrients. They were also capacity built on dairy goat production by county livestock officers. Where they were supported with an income generating activity of 5 dairy goats. Where members buy the milk for their children to improve on their diet. The members are also planning to expand on their income generating activity with the sales they get from the milk.
So far the group have been producing their own vegetables from their kitchen garden. They consume and sell the surplus. They have also helped the whole village improve their nutrition since vegetables are easily accessible unlike before where one would walk for almost a kilometer to the farm to go buy vegetables. This was tiresome and most villagers preferred taking what was easily accessible. They have dag their own shallow well beside their kitchen garden from the money they got from the surplus. Their kids look healthier and nourished due to the improve diet that have been taking. 50% of the group members started goat keeping. This was as a result of the capacity building they got through the project. The group got motivated and became active whereby they now meet weekly and the turn up is always impressing, Unlike before they only met during nutritional trainings which were done once n a while Through the above mentioned activities the group was motivated and have also become open minded and are about to start more income generating activities. The group is planning to buy more goats from the income they are getting from the milk they are selling. The group is also set as an example to the village where other women also came together, formed their mother to mother support group and started their own kitchen garden.
At first it was difficult to set up the kitchen garden because most of the members were not willing to clear bushes as they referred to it as a difficult job to be done by men. We worked the ward agricultural officers and the community own resource person to convince them and motivate them until they came to agreement and established one. Each member was also required to start their own kitchen garden at home, but at the moment the weather is too hot and are waiting for the rains for them to set up the kitchen gardens.
“You can see how my daughter is happy and healthy due to improved diet” one of the members said looking happy and grateful.
“The goat keeping training motivated us to start goat keeping and also increase production to those who had goats already” another member added