USAID 4TheChild Brings a Family Back Home
“It never rained on us in September 2021, it poured!” Desta Atwani, a 49-year-old widowed mother of three from Teso South sub-county in Busia County, narrated to USAID 4TheChild a nightmare that brought down her house and forced her to seek refuge from a neighbor in Uganda.
Betty Nyangweso, ADT project assistant in Case Management and Documentation, (left) interviewing Desta in front of her collapsed house in Busia County during a household visit conducted by USAID 4TheChild in October 2021.
A heavy downpour that collapsed Desta’s mud-walled house in September 2021 opened a door for more misfortunes. Schooling her children was already becoming difficult due to her lack of school fees, and moving to Uganda with her kids in search of shelter disrupted their schooling process. The family was also traumatized by their house crumbling before their eyes.
Betty Nyangweso, a case manager at Akukuranut Development Trust (ADT), a USAID 4TheChild local implementing partner, visited Desta’s home last October and attested to her suffering and recommended that USAID 4TheChild enroll the family in the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) project. USAID 4TheChild took a leading role in mobilizing community members and well-wishers to put up a new structure for the family. The project also supported Desta with an Emergency Support Fund of Ksh 12,000 (USD $120) to cushion her household from socio-economic shock and a business boost grant of Ksh 10,000 (USD $100). This is in addition to one-on-one and group psychosocial support sessions administered to the family.
USAID 4TheChild is implemented by Moi University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) through AMPATH and in collaboration with two local strategic partners – Make Me Smile Kenya (MMS-K) and Kenya Community Development Foundation (KCDF).
Desta and her three children delighting at their new home.
Desta’s eyes glittered at the sight of their new house. Her kids could not control their joy when they started running from room to room, admiring and playing in their new residence.
“I cannot thank USAID and the other well-wishers enough for salvaging my situation through this life-changing support,” Desta expressed her joy to the case manager while being handed keys to her new house.
USAID 4TheChild has now linked Desta with a caregiver's Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILCs) group in her area where she is being empowered to save and lend and venture into entrepreneurship to increase her household’s economic stability to care for and protect her children. The project has also supported her three children to return to school and will closely monitor them to ensure that they attend school regularly and track their performance through their report forms.
Between January and March 2022, USAID 4TheChild enrolled 98 highly vulnerable households to receive the emergency support funds which have enabled OVC families to meet pressing needs while they work on mobilizing resources for sustainable income. The project continues to build the capacity of households to have sustainable livelihoods through other interventions including financial literacy, savings and loans, and linkages to financial services as well as other household economic strengthening opportunities.