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The project background

EMPIS Centre-Ahero Community

EMPIS stands for Education, Marketing, Products, Information and Sustainability. We believe in education, marketing of local community products and empowering the poor through information in a more sustainable manner.

EMPIS is a CIVS project for the community to assist the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) and Caregivers of the orphans. Our target is to shape the children to be important members of the community and to assist the young people from landing into problems related to drugs and lack of education. This can be achieved if we can provide various forms of support to these orphans and their Caregivers.

The idea was to improve the living conditions of the people in this area, which is highly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which leaves many women widowed and children without their parents. In western Kenya the number of orphans is extremely high and that is why the EMPIS Center aims at supporting the orphans and vulnerable children and their caretakers in Nyando and Kisumu districts of Kenya. Since the main challenge the target communities are facing is the high number of orphans, which leaves many households in charge of a great number of children and therefore a great financial burden, the project will aim at increasing the livelihood of low income households.

Objectives of EMPIS Centre-Ahero

Providing training to over 500 guardians/caregivers of the orphans on principles and formation of microfinance activities.

  1. To start Income Generating Activities (IGA) through initiating agricultural and horticultural farming. In the farm we grow tomatoes, onions, kales, cabbages, maize, beans and groundnuts. We will also start a poultry project that will have 1000 chicken in the centre. The income generated is used for the education of the  total orphans.
  2. To start Farmer’s Field School (FFS) in Kakmie village so that the local farmers can learn the modern way of farming.
  3. Accessing therapeutic nutritious food to over 100 total orphans for good health and thus enabling them to attend school without interruptions.
  4. To support over 100 total orphans to attend normal public schools and have an opportunity to join higher institutions of learning like universities and polytechnics. This will be done by setting up Education Fund Trust where 30% of income generated will be invested in this fund