Good Villages is a new non-profit organization registered in Miami, Florida USA with its operations in Migori County, Kenya. We provide economic and educational resources to help improve quality of life in rural villages.
Education
For a typical school-aged child in a Kenyan village, the day begins at 4:00 a.m. and school begins at 7:00 a.m. There are no school lunches, so children return to their homes for lunch.
After returning to school, children come home and do household chores. Many children do their homework by lamplight because there is no electricity. Almost nobody has or knows how to use a computer.
School supplies are nearly non-existent. Some families share one pencil between several siblings. Classrooms may have one textbook shared between several students.
Most children do not continue beyond primary school, due to family obligations or government academic requirements for secondary education. Girls are the least likely to continue their education.
For those lucky enough to pass exams, most families can’t afford tuition and boarding fees for high school.
Good Villages is helping by:
1. Creating scholarships for tuition assistance
2. Designing a Good Villages-branded African textile school bag, produced by women in the business mentorship program
3. Providing school supplies and teaching aids to village schools, distributed in our custom school bag
For a woman in a Kenyan village, the typical day begins with tending to a subsistence farm, fetching water, cooking, and occasionally selling excess produce at makeshift shops in high traffic areas.
After washing and cleaning, women help their children do homework by lamplight. Their work is vital to the family, but how does she help contribute to the village economy and improve the quality of life for herself and her family?
By expanding their business knowledge and acumen, women can play an important role in breaking the cycle of poverty in Kenyan villages. Women can then be greater contributors to the village and family economies, taking the lead in expanding farming plots and boosting their farm produce to benefit the entire village and eventually expanding to larger-scale commercial farming.
Good Villages is helping by:
1. Creating an agricultural and gardening program to improve self-sustaining and commercial farming through kitchen gardening
2. Introducing value addition and mixed cropping
3. Promoting knowledge of drip irrigation and hybrid seeding
4. Focusing on diversified production, including composting and poultry farming
Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable Agriculture
For a woman in a Kenyan village, the typical day begins with tending to a subsistence farm, fetching water, cooking, and occasionally selling excess produce at makeshift shops in high traffic areas.
After washing and cleaning, women help their children do homework by lamplight. Their work is vital to the family, but how does she help contribute to the village economy and improve the quality of life for herself and her family?
By expanding their business knowledge and acumen, women can play an important role in breaking the cycle of poverty in Kenyan villages. Women can then be greater contributors to the village and family economies, taking the lead in expanding farming plots and boosting their farm produce to benefit the entire village and eventually expanding to larger-scale commercial farming.
Good Villages is helping by:
1. Creating an agricultural and gardening program to improve self-sustaining and commercial farming through kitchen gardening
2. Introducing value addition and mixed cropping
3. Promoting knowledge of drip irrigation and hybrid seeding
4. Focusing on diversified production, including composting and poultry farming
Business Mentorship And Financial Literacy
Subsistence is critical to Kenyan villages, but there is untapped opportunity for economic growth and system change by embracing and supporting entrepreneurship, particularly for women in villages.
However, Kenyan villages lack the resources to support business development and entrepreneurship. Access to funding for business endeavors is virtually non-existent, as there is limited infrastructure to support even medium-scale commercial enterprises.
Migori County is part of an important trade region on the border of Tanzania, with important connections to Lake Victoria and Uganda. Villagers could take advantage of the goods moving through the region and re-selling them, but poverty prevents most from participating in the trade economy.
Good Villages is helping by:
- 1. Teaching basic financial literacy
- 2. Starting a training program in tailoring for villagers to earn money
- 3. Providing computer resources for business
- 4. Offering interest-free, rotational microloans of $2-$10 for village market-sellers to stock additional products
- 5. Offering interest-free, rotational microloans of $2-$10 for village market-sellers to stock additional products
- 6. Teaching business expansion and sales strategies
