• Project name: Farming skill and Life planning enhancement for Orphan's Welfare to gain higher Economical skill and Resilience (FLOWER)
  (This project is conducted as a JICA grassroots cooperation project.)
• Area: Mbita, Homa-Bay Province, Kenya
• Objective: To improve livelihood through agriculture and afforestation and to create a career plan through counseling
• Duration: April, 2020～ (ongoing)

FLOWER is a comprehensive support programme that aims to expand possibilities for school-aged children affected by HIV/AIDS, children from low-income families and their caregivers by providing them with life-planning counseling and helping them improve their livelihood through agriculture. As Homa-Bay has only one rainy season, income from agriculture is low. Besides, orphans affected by HIV/AIDS and children from low-income families struggle to stay at school due to financial constraints and the lack of understanding by their parents, often resulting in repeating a year or dropout. This hinders children from positively planning for their future. Therefore, through the FLOWER programme, PLAS has engaged in training in agriculture, livestock, nutrition, life planning, and savings, which will improve those caregivers’ agricultural skills, income, and ability to manage finances. These engagements will enable their children to receive education and plan for their hopeful future.

A lady, Flora, increased her income and got a new goal! Thanks to the training by staff of a local partner organization, Flora has been able to maintain her fields well. She plants vegetables under banana trees so that they can be grown under the shade and water can be stored. She has also tracked the amount of harvest and sales every time. Her new goal is to buy a donkey to improve her income, and she has already started to save money. Training through the FLOWER programme has brought her changes in the way she maintains their fields, grows crops and manages sales and earnings, encouraging her to pursue a better life with a progressive goal. Positive changes in children’s and parents’ attitudes towards education and their future The midterm survey of the FLOWER project showed a significant increase in the number of children saying, “I’ve been preparing to get a job that I want." Through career counseling in the FLOWER programme, which gives children advice on what kind of person they want to be in the future, what kind of job options they have, and what they should do to get the job, children seem to have started thinking positively about their career and taking actions by themselves. Counseling support for parents has provided them with crucial information such as the importance of education and how they can support their child’s learning, leading to parents’ positive attitudes towards the child’s education.

• Project name: Household Improvement for Orphans by Poultry activity and career Empowerment support (HOPE)
• Area:Mbita, Homa-Bay Province, Kenya
• Objective: To improve livelihoods through poultry farming and career planning through counseling
• Duration: March, 2022～ (ongoing)

The HOPE project aims to help low-income families, mainly those with HIV-positive single mothers, improve their livelihoods by poultry farming and make money for their children's education. At the same time, the project also encourages children to have a positive vision of the future by providing career planning support. The career planning support includes seven counseling programmes for children and parents, respectively. Counseling enables children to discover various jobs while parents can learn about the child's development, think about their future, and gain information on higher education. In addition, as part of the poultry farming business support, we offer poultry training. Experts and local staff visit beneficiaries' homes and guide individual households to help their poultry businesses get off the ground. Combined with these two approaches of career planning and poultry farming, we motivate and encourage families to better understand education and gain independence for the continuation of children’s education.

What is the basic training for poultry farmers like? The training was conducted over three days by a local poultry official. On the first day, beneficiaries learned that poultry farming throughout the year enables them to gain income in the long term and improve family nutrition by consuming some of the eggs in the household. They actively participated in the training by asking insightful questions many times, which showed their motivation to start their own business. On the second day, beneficiaries learned how to record the poultry activities, such as the number of chickens and eggs, amount of feed, and costs. The training also covered hygienic practices, including vaccination, what kind of feed to give, and how to adjust the temperature. After all the lectures, beneficiaries worked in groups, presented their work, and improved their skills by receiving feedback. On the last day, in a chicken coop, they practically learned about different types of chicks and their growth stages, how to use the necessary tools, and demonstrated vaccination. The training also taught beneficiaries how to run a business, such as investigating the markets they will enter and planning the necessary costs before selling their products. After completing the training, some beneficiaries said, “ I could be more positive.” “I appreciate the training.”