| Mission
Our mission is to increase the access and use of technology
by all community members for equitable information,
resource accessibility, economic development and sustained/empowered
livelihoods. OVF-Kenya is a promoting the creation of
technology-based social and economic empowerment resource
hubs know as Unity Centers, organizations, individuals
and schools. oneVillage Foundation encourages and facilitates
the empowerment of people with limited access to resources
to participate fully in their communities.
Principles
Marginalized People especially women and the youth with
limited resource accessibility have the right to maximum
independence and participation in all environments,
without barriers.
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Technology can be harnessed to
diminish or eliminate environmental barriers for
the marginalized people. |
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Poor People with limited access to resources
have the right to employ assistive technologies,
strategies for implementation, and necessary training
support to maximize their independence and productivity
hence ensuring sustained livelihoods |
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Marginalized People and the poor in African
villages have the right to control and direct
their own choices, and the right to access the
information they need in order to make informed
decisions according to their goals and interests |
Current and Proposed Projects
GRASSUP NOW stands for Grassroots Underpinnings:
Poverty, Nutrition, ODL/ICTs and Women - It
consists of four Kenyan based non-profits.
The goal of this program is to promote an educational
program that is focused on local empowerment, nutrition
and health, open learning and sustainable development.
more...
Kibera ICT Promotion Project
An expansive slum dwelling located Southwest of Nairobi
City centre, Kibera is the oldest of any slums in Kenya
(Biggest in Eastern and Central Africa) with a population
of about one million people from all of the Kenya’s
ethnic communities living in about 300 acres of land.
Kibera is densely populated; environments are the most
degraded with massive uncollected raw garbage. There
are no public social services provisioning like schools,
hospitals, playground and most importantly communication
systems.
Most of the residents of this slum are either underemployed
or unemployed. Those jobs that do exist are primarily
in the form of “informal labor” with very
meagre pay. Because of the desperate economic situation
in Kibera there is fierce competition for very limited
resources. The residents are frequently engaged in violent
conflicts .
This project is justifiable due to the fact that Kibera
has produced very talented young people in areas of
arts and sports. The community however has limited means
of communicating to the outside world. Therefore the
potential of many of these very talented young youths
are not realized. There is real need for projects that
cultivate these talent youth so that they are able to
pursue their careers and market their products. This
project will only provide access to ICT tools in Kibera
but also connect young people with global networks as
well as promote distance learning, information exchange
and youth engagement in Socio-economic activities in
the global world.
The centre will sustain itself and create jobs for
some youth who will be employed to manage the centre.
Some little fee will be imposed on those using the facilities
at the centre to sustain the cost of maintenance and
rents.
Seme HIV/Aids and Life Promotion Project
Seme location is located in Western Kenya some 20 Km
from the city of Kisumu. The Location is just few kilometres
away from the shores of Lake Victoria, the second biggest
fresh water lake in the World. Seme falls under one
of the worst hit regions by HIV/Aids pandemic and high
rate of poverty in the country as revealed by Kenya’s
Ministry for Planning and National Development in 2004.
The high poverty level in the area has been considered
to be the major cause as well as resultant of HIV/Aids.
While the area is situated in the high agricultural
and fishing potential areas, the people have experienced
extreme economic and social hardships since Kenya’s
independence, due to marginalisation of the Western
people as a result of political affiliation.
Agriculture (mainly subsistence and Cotton) and fishing
industries that used to be the economic back-borne has
virtually collapsed making life in Seme so miserable
exposed to all manner of risks as people try to seek
any alternative to survive including prostitution. The
project in Seme is intended to restore human dignity
among the people by identify potential areas of economic
empowerment; Training people in short term business
management and provision of seed many to the affected
and infected populace. The project will also proactively
engage people in discouraging stigmatisation and to
seek relevant measures for preventing HIV/Aids through
campaigns, counselling and economic empowerment programmes.
The projects target to benefit 5,000 people directly
or indirectly.
Ogiek Community Centre for Empowerment
Found in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, Ogiek is a
minority ethnic group in the Kenya, living in several
forests in the country. Their main occupation as a community
is hunting and gathering mostly depending on wild meat
and honey. For a long time Ogiek community have been
complaining to no avail about the neglect and abuse
of right to the whole community by the government of
Kenya and their neighbouring communities who have taken
advantage of them to grab their land and natural resources
that has been the source of their livelihood.
The problem of Ogiek started way back during colonial
periods in Kenya when the British (Colonial) government
took possession of the Kenya forests and gazetted them
as government lands. Since then Ogiek has never been
given any recognition as any other ethnic community.
The surrounding communities have also taken the same
advantage to deprive the community leaving them landless
and laborious in their own land that is hired by people
from the same communities.
The coming of new government in power in 2002 raised
hopes of this minority tribe but from the look of things,
life continues as normal with no serious changes made
for the last two years. The Presidential decree in 2004
that the community should be issued with Land title
deeds to provide security of tenure has never been implemented
and there is no sign for it in the near future.
If approved, this project is expected to first, raise
the consciousness on areas of land ownership and production;
assist the community adopt positive attitude about land
use, support training on subsistence farming, and help
the people with seed capital to prepare their lands
through small groupings/Self-help groups. Secondly,
the project will promote and encourage adopting other
alternative means of income generating like, bee keeping
and crafting. The project will link Ogiek small-scale
farmers and business people with markets abroad through
the use of ICT.
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