THE CONCEPT

One thousand acres of land, located 3 hours east of Nairobi, was donated by the Kitui District County Council to be used for the Nyumbani Village.  The site is within the poorest division in the Kitui District and has the highest number of AIDS orphans and HIV/AIDS cases.  When completed, the Village will accommodate between 1280 – 1600 individuals. There will be 100 dwelling units each with a grandmother/caretaker to look after 7 to 10 children.  

Also included in the Village will be:
• A Community Center, which will act as the Village central meeting and celebration place.
• A Health Centre containing all the necessary facilities to deal with medical emergencies.
• A Nursery and Primary School for the very young children, with the older children attending surrounding schools.
• A Technical Training Unit intended to be a self-sustaining polytechnic in which learning, apprenticeship and industrial production shall take place.
• An Administrative Police Post to establish a security presence in the area.
• Staff Housing to accommodate a maximum of 4 staff members.
• A Guest House to accommodate visitors and volunteers.

It is the Village project’s cardinal principal to use locally available resources.  With the exception of steel sheets used for roofing and glass for windows, the materials used for construction are locally sourced and manufactured on site by local labor.   This has led to creation of employment, transferring of technology, instilling a feeling of achievement and fueling the local economy.

The concept of training initially unskilled local people to perform the Village construction (versus bringing skilled masons from outside) has created a sense of pride and ownership in the local community.  Amazingly, only 6 of all the people working on this complex project are not from the immediate locale.  When the project is complete, virtually everyone who has worked here will have a skilled trade to offer.  This will enable them to get decent jobs as masons, block makers, surveyors, etc. This concept may be as important as providing orphans with homes.

In addition to offering some solution to the serious orphan problem, the project as designed will have income generating components such as food crop farming under irrigation (from wells and two boreholes), dairy farming under zero grazing, a major forest that will be used for bee keeping and hand crafted items.