IcFEM Gap Volunteers

Company Name

Interchristian Fellowships’ Evangelical Mission (IcFEM-Mission)

Contact Name

Mr. Matthew Ryding (Gap Volunteer Programme Coordinator)

Address

Headquarters, IcFEM Mission, PO Private Bag, Kimilili, 50204, Western Kenya.

Telephone

(Headquarters) 055 212 52, (Matthew Ryding) +254724613486, +254733902857

Fax

None

E-mail Address of Company Contact

gap-programme@icfem.org

E-mail Address to which the leads are to be sent to

gap-programme@icfem.org

URL Address

www.gap-volunteers.icfem-mission.org

Details of Bonding (UK Based Companies)

The Missions headquarters is in Bungoma District in Western Kenya where the majority of the work takes place however we have an office in the UK (IcFEM-Mission (Europe): 7, Churchfields Road, Salisbury, Wilts, SP2 7NH) which mainly deals with communicating with our Europe supporters.

Membership Fee Category

Below 200,000 GBP- Annual Turnover (250.00 GBP- Annual Membership Fee)

Company Description

IcFEM is an interdenominational Christian organisation. The Interchristian Fellowships’ Evangelical Mission aims to build up people in the rural areas both spiritually and practically, to be wholly for God and hard- working, especially in the area of self- help and sustainable welfare and development projects, to run a mercy ministry to the needy and to involve various community development programmes while conserving the environment.

Responsible Travel Policy

Policy Aims

Mission- To Accelerate Community Transformation

Vision- A Mission of God with People and Development

Motto- Holy Living & Hard Work

Economic Responsibility

The gap volunteer programme acts as a link between the overseas volunteer/ tourist with the work of the Mission and the community. The IcFEM Mission is an indigenous organisation which is the reason why over 97% of the staff at the headquarters is Kenyan. We have three English staff at the Mission headquarters out of a total of 108. When the overseas volunteer/ tourist work and visit the communities it will always be with at least one of the local workers.

When organising trips for our volunteers further a field than Western Kenya i.e. Mombasa and Masai Mara we always use responsible and indigenous tour operators which supports the local community in the sense of employment and the Kenyan tourism industry as a whole.

Even when we organise trips locally i.e. Mt. Elgon and Kakamega Forest Reserve we always use local tour guides to show us around the Parks/ Reserves, we encourage our volunteers to visit the local tourist sites during the weekends which supports the local businesses, tourism industry and local employment. Whilst on our trips we buy food and drinks from local cafes, stalls and shops which are owned by the locally community and who employ local people.

Our volunteers live at the Ukuhani Guest House which is only a 10 minute walk from the office and from town and all six staff have been employed from the surrounding area. The guest house was built by local builders which we trained whilst they were building. All of the building materials were locally bought and the furnishing was locally made. The food which we buy is from the local market which is held every Thursday in Kimilili Town.

In the near future we are hoping to employ and train another member of staff to help manage the gap volunteer programme who will be Kenyan.

Environmental Responsibility

The Gap Volunteer Programme only prints brochures, letters, Karibu Packs when we need them. We made this decision when we launched the programme mainly because material can change from month to month; we wanted to look after the environment plus we discourage wasting resources and money. If a group visits the Mission we try and minimize the amount of brochures we send to them. In June we had a group of four Dutch students so we decided to print 1 brochure for the four to share.

In everything we do we look on ways to conserve the environment, reduce wastage of resources and reduce expenditure. One way of us tackling all three was to use local transport rather than Mission vehicles. Where we possibly can we use matatu’s (public mini busses) and boda boda (bicycle taxis). This supports the local employment, the transport industry and reduces unnecessary CO2 emissions. However when it comes to the times when we need our own vehicle we share the Mission landrover.

Most of the photocopying we do is done at our Mission cyber café which we refill our self when need be, however when we need coloured printing the gap volunteer programme would normally print in town which supports local businesses.

The management team often reminds the staff at the headquarters to turn off every electrical appliance when not in use and all staff abides by this rule.

At the Ukuhani Guest House we always remind our visitors to reduce the amount of water they use, we notify them by stating it on posters in the guest house and a two page guideline helping them keep the guest house clean and to conserve electricity and water.

The water used when washing clothing is all rain water which is stored in two large tanks outside; which normally stores enough water for the dry seasons.

One of the activities that all of our volunteers are involved in is the planting of trees. We provide 5 fruit trees to each volunteer which are planted around Kimilili which does not just consume 1.5 tones of CO2 emissions but also produces food.  It was only mid 2007 when we bought 50,000 saplings from a local tree nursery for one of the IcFEM Local Units. We want to plant 100,000 saplings in each Local Unit and we have 4 Local Units which makes 400,000 saplings in total. We now want to develop our own tree nurseries in the Local Units which will be run by the local community.

We have agricultural projects which encourage the local farmers and communities to grow fruit trees in the households which provide them with shade and food. We also encourage the local community to use environmentally friendly stoves, which do not use charcoal but uses sawdust or wood (one piece). The aim of this is to discourage people using a large amount of fuel. The community team have been encouraging the community to grow faster growing trees (6 months) which releases nitrogen into the soil and can prop mature banana trees from falling down within the banana plantations. 

When we visit the Kenya Wildlife Service National Parks they are provided with a leaflet stating what they should and shouldn’t do within the National Park. The goal of the Kenya Wildlife Service is “to work with others to conserve, protect and sustainably manage wildlife resources outside protected areas for the benefit of the people. The community wildlife program of KWS in collaboration with others encourages biodiversity conservation by communities living on land essential to wildlife, such as wildlife corridors and dispersal lands outside parks and reserves. The premise is that "if people benefit from wildlife and other natural resources, then they will take care of these resources, using them sustainably".

Social Responsibility

We provide every visitor to the IcFEM Mission with a comprehensive welcome booklet which gives details of the history of the Mission, an introduction to Kimilili and its facilities and transport, the administration and government of Kenya and living conditions of Kenya. We also warn our visitors of taking photographs and dress sense etc. We also give them some guidelines on how to act in the new surroundings. This is also provided on our website (www.gap-volunteers.icfem-mission.org). We also meet with our volunteers before they leave home to inform them what to expect and if they are not within a good distance of our interviewers then we normally phone them.

When ever our volunteers go in the field, they will be accompanied by a member of staff who will be able to translate, introduce them to people, inform them of what is about to happen and for more security.

The gap programme coordinator gives advice where to go and when to go concerning every trip to the community and any tourist area they desire to visit.