IcFEM Gap Volunteers

Other than constructing cow sheds for orphans and widows we also provide practical care which is very similar to the practical care we give to the elderly. Most widows cannot afford to buy nourishing food for their children, buy good quality clothes to keep them dry and warm during the night, care for the children when they have an illness or afford to send them to school. So what the IcFEM Mission is doing is providing the parent with some of the resources to help both the widows and orphans. We would be grateful for your time if you could help us in the purchasing of the food, medicine, clothes, cleaning equipment for the house and just to be someone who could spend time with them and talk to them which would encourage them enormously.

Being a widow and orphan can be a lonely existence. Whereas many of the orphans go to school often the widow goes nowhere during a day. Getting alongside those who have lost hope and are experiencing difficulty is at the core of the Mission's work. Visiting by Mission staff often makes other things happen. Relatives, friend and communities can rally round and provide support and suddenly the position seems less hopeless.

Cow Shed Construction is mainly aimed at families where the husband has died. Many widows cannot produce the money to buy milk for the family which means that the children are not receiving the nutrition which is required and the result can be malnutrition and diseases. The only food which the whole family can afford to eat is maize which doesn't have the necessary carbohydrates, vitamins and nutrition for a balanced diet.

Maintaining their own cow has a range of benefits for the family:

• More nourishing diet for the family
• Risk of malnutrition greatly reduced
• They can trade some of the milk which the cow produces for sugar, and other necessities
• The house increases in value
• It relieves the parent, grandparents, relatives and children from stress and pressures
• The milk which the family doesn't need can be sold which can go towards education, uniform, books and stationary and food.
• They can sell any calf, which again can support the family with a great amount of money and which can pay for one child to go to secondary school for a whole year.      

The stages which you'll have the chance to take part in during the construction of the cow shed are stated below;

STAGE 1: Plant Napier for the cow (Takes one month to grow)

STAGE 2: Dig down 1 foot for foundations

STAGE 3: Dig holes for posts

STAGE 4: Erect the Posts

STAGE 5: Fill the hole with concrete to make the foundations

STAGE 6: Build 2 troughs with brick which you'll also make

STAGE 7: Fasten corrugated tin for the roof

STAGE 8: Nail timber to the poles to make the walls

STAGE 9: Buy the Cow

STAGE 10: Visit the family feed and milk the cow and help in maintaining the Napier

Ministry to the Elderly is one of the main areas which is included in Relief and Welfare and is one of the areas which you the gap year student can take part in. From working in this area you'll be rewarded greatly, you'll receive a sense of achievement as a result of helping the less fortunate, personally see how your time, effort, skill and resources has helped an elderly person, you'll also learn new skills as well as realising the skills which you all ready had.

Most people wish to remain independent as they grow older and to continue to contribute to their families and communities, but the aging process has its own challenges. In our communities most people move into old age after a lifetime of poverty, poor nutrition, and poor health care and have experienced a physically demanding working life. Frequently the elderly are left with grandchildren to support due o the death of their parents. This also adds to the challenges faced by the elderly. They often live in poor conditions with no money and without the energy to produce food. They are therefore vulnerable to the following challenges.

• Lack of proper shelter
• Lack or poor food, clothing and bedding
• Poor health
• Loss of hearing and poor sight
• Arthritis and growing immobility
• Spiritual Needs
• Loneliness and other social needs

The vision is to see the improvement of the lives of elderly, spiritually, physically and socially. Our target is to reach the poor, needy and frail elderly of 75 years and above. So during your time here you would be given the opportunity to help the elderly by possibly constructing a house for them, visiting them to ensure that those family members who are available are supporting them and perhaps going to the market and buying small amounts of produce for them or even a change of clothes. Above all the elderly love visitor and encouragement and company is often a tonic for them. It takes between 2 to 3 weeks to construct the house. Once the house has been constructed you'll make visits to the house to monitor their condition.

You would be building a 2 roomed mud house with 2 doors and 3 windows; you'll have the guidance of a professional builder. Other than the house you'll be providing them with a toilet and basic household accessories. The stages of construction of the house are as follows

STAGE 1: Visit the home and the elderly person

STAGE 2: Dig holes, erect poles and fastening fito (horizontal pieces of wood fastened to the vertical poles)

STAGE 3: Matope (Mud Collection/ preparation)

STAGE 4: Walling the house with mud

SATGE 5: Fixing of the doors and windows

STAGE 6: Re-walling of the house inside and outside

STAGE 7: Preparing of the floor digging the ground, soften the soil and levelling of the floor

STAGE 8: Smearing of the floor with cow dung (normally carried out by the gap student!!)

Again Spring Protection is another activity which is included within Relief and Welfare. However, the Spring Protection Project can have a positive impact not only on the individual but on the whole community of maybe 1000 people or more. You would be learning new skills, meeting new people, getting to know the real people in Kenya who haven’t been affected by tourism. You'll receive the satisfaction of knowing that your time, money and effort has gone to a good and lasting cause and also you will have constructed something which you'll always remember, which has helped a 1000 people or more.

The outcome of having done an activity like this would be that you’d have helped reduce water born cases i.e. malaria, cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Tap water here in Kimilili is very expensive and the majority of people can't afford it so you would have helped the area against poverty. The stages which are followed through out the activity are below.

The preliminary stages are carried out by the IcFEM Department.

STAGE 1: Set up Committee

STAGE 2: Identify Project Site - Legal Documents from Authorities

The following stages will be assisted by the gap students,

STAGE 3: Collection of Materials

STAGE 4: Preparation of Site - including clearing

STAGE 5: Construction of spring

STAGE 6: Painting and writings on the spring

STAGE 7: Fence the spring

STAGE 8: Date of official opening - handing over spring to the community

IcFEM relies on the supply of a large quantity of bricks in many areas - school construction; roof catchments, community construction work (cow sheds), spring protection and house building - and the manufacture of them would contribute significantly to Mission income. So as you can see from these activities we need thousands of bricks and we need the man power to make them. We feel at the IcFEM Mission that this is a great opportunity to benefit the Mission and the Community. This would provide an enjoyable learning opportunity for you and it will provide the chance to see the schools which the Mission is helping to build, as well as meeting and working with local people and learning their language. By involving gap students the cost of production would be reduced and completion of work would not be delayed because of the shortage of bricks. The local people will also be encouraged to see mzungus (white people) taking part in manual working within the community, which will also motivate them.   

There will be brick making at the schools and also at the Dreamland Farm. The bricks which will be made at the schools will be used in the construction of the school. The bricks made at the Dreamland Farm will be used for Community Work within the local community in Bungoma District. The stages which you'll be working through with other Gap Year Students are as follows:

STAGE 1: Identify the location where the brick production will take place.

STAGE 2: Clear the site of grass, twigs and surrounding area.

STAGE 3: Dig the top soil which will be around 2 feet depending on how much land you can use and how many bricks need to be made.

STAGE 4: Break the soil to make fine and add water.

STAGE 5: Tread on soil until it becomes like clay and cover with grass or polythene sheets and leave for 1 week.

STAGE 6: Dig the soil again and tread on it.

STAGE 7: Put the mud inside the moulds which will be around 4" x 6" x 9". There'll be 3-4 moulders whilst 2-3 people extract the soil.

STAGE 8: Once you have made sure that the soil has been compacted into the wooden box then you need to dry them on a flat surface for 4-5 weeks.

STAGE 9: Grass or polythene sheets then need to be put on top of the bricks to prevent them drying up too quickly with the sun and preventing the rain getting to the bricks.

STAGE 10: Once a tree has been chopped and been split, the fire wood then needs to be piled up in heaps.

STAGE 11: The bricks are then arranged around the two heaps of fire which will act as the fire chamber.

STAGE 12: Mud needs to be placed on the side of the bricks which act as the insulation and grass is put on the top to allow the smoke to escape.

STAGE 13: Once this has been done, the bricks are baked for two days and left for a week to cool.

IcFEM has already chosen three schools which need water and the Roof Catchment Project will supply them with a great amount of water and help with hygene. The water will be used for drinking, washing of uniform for those who are boarding, cleaning and cooking and therefore the project will bring great benefit to hygiene and sanitation. The three schools which are chosen for this project are Dreamland Education Centre, Kimilili Boys High School and Boko Primary School.

What happens is that we attach gutters to the fascia boards of the school and link them all together to the tank and when it rains all the rain goes into the tank which is then used by the school. From the start of the project to the end it will take from 2 to 3 weeks. What you’d be helping with is the following:

• Measuring the fascia boards and cutting the water gutters to size.
• Fastening of the brackets to the fascias.
• Connecting of the water gutters to the brackets.
• Linking of the water gutters

You will then build the concrete water tank which we have found to be more beneficial than the plastic water tank because of the capacity, durability, cleanliness and cost. The stages which are taken when building the concrete water tank are stated below and you'll be part of this activity:

• Measuring.
• Excavation.
• Building the outside wall and floor which will be enforced to hold the tank.
• Make bricks.
• Building of the tank with bricks.
• Sorting of the inflow, outflow and overflow pipes.
• Making of slab for the top of the tank.
• Erecting the ladder so that inside can be accessed and cleaned.
• Lining the inside and outside of the tank.

School Construction is very enjoyable especially if you are working with a team, IcFEM has had a huge impact on local school construction, we are just finishing the construction of the extension at the Kamusinga Primary School, Kimilili and we have more plans to build others. There are many areas where you the gap year student can help with, even if you’re not a builder and haven’t had experience in the area before.

• Sifting of sand
• Making of cement
• Carrying of bricks
• Laying of bricks
• Labouring
• And if you do specialise in any area e.g. plastering then we encourage you to use your skills which God provided you with to help in the construction of the schools.

You would bring many benefits to the Mission and the Community if you worked in this area, some of the benefits you'll physically see but some you won't. Because you would be doing the work of the labourers it would save the Mission on spending money on labourers which means the money could be invested within the construction of another school. It also may mean that the construction of the school finishing earlier than schedule as a result of greater man power. Socially, it would encourage and motivate the local people to work harder and to realise that work is a responsibility for the community and not a burden. A Dutch group came to help with the construction of Kamusinga Primary School and the community was motivated especially the men because we had females working amongst the workers and they were shocked to see a white lady doing manual work.

The IcFEM Mission tries to get each gap student doing some sort of manual work during their time here. It is a way of helping the community and Mission staff remember the student. Whether it's helping with school construction, house construction, spring protection or even painting - you will be leaving your mark!. The community is always very grateful for anything done and updating premises is a way of rejuvenating them and bringing them back to life.

One of your activities could be painting schools which improves the image of the school, has a positive effect on the staff and students, and at the same time encourages the parents, families and the community at large. The local people love to witness things happening in their lives and we doubt that a coat of paint will ever have such a big impact as it will here in Kimilili. You don't need to be a professional decorator nor had any experience with painting, we'll teach you on the job. This will cut the costs of employing professional painters and then the Mission can invest that money somewhere else in community development. 

At the IcFEM Mission, we want to educate the community on how to protect and look after our planet which God blessed us with. We aim to educate them so they can realise how valuable the environment is to us and the future generations to come. The aim of 'Kimilili Clean Up' is to clean up Kimilili Town and to recycle the plastic into footballs which will be given to local primary schools as sports equipment. Here in Kenya, children can not afford leather nor plastic footballs, so they use what they have and they make home made footballs, which are made from recycled plastic bags and string. We want to clean up our town for our children but we need assistance from you, so please sign up for the IcFEM Mission Gap/ Volunteers Programme.