217.898.0425
3508 UNIVERSITY AVENUE, URBANA, IL 61802
Caring for kenya
What we teach is simple, sustainable, and affordable. Farmers learn to use the resources available to them to increase their food production reducing hunger, improving the health of their family, and increasing their income. Currently every 6 seconds a child in the world dies of hunger. 50% of all childhood deaths are related to malnutrition. One of every seven people currently goes to bed hungry. Lack of food kills more people than wars, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. Hunger robs the poor of a healthy and productive life and stunts the mental and physical development of the next generation. As stated in the September Rotarian magazine, food aid can save lives from starvation but only agricultural development, teaching people how to raise more food, can prevent the next famine. The World Food and Agriculture Organization says “the world needs to double food production by 2050 to keep up with the needs of a growing population. One of the keys to meeting this challenge is helping African farmers increase their food production.
Increasing food production starts with a stable water supply. Using drip irrigation results in maximizing production with a minimal amount of water. Caring for Kenya and Healing Hands International have created raised bed drip irrigated demonstration farms in Tulia and Nairobi, Kenya that includes vegetable production, rabbits, chickens, and fish. Together HHI and CfK have developed sewing, soap making, and farming cooperatives. Our goal is to inspire people before they expire… to provide hope for a better future. Justus says many people suffer from poverty mentally sickness; that is, they say, “I am poor. My family has always been poor and there is nothing I can do about it.” We work to change attitudes and give people life-changing hope for their future. Our Healing Hands Int. and Caring for Kenya goal is to “help people help themselves”.
To help stabilize the food supply we teach farmers how to have a second crop in the dry season and preserve the excess production in the rainy season. The composting, raised planting beds, drip irrigation, and mulching has moved hundreds of people from starvation to survival to productive living.