📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
CIVS Kenya will host a Workcamp at Ahero Resource Centre situated in Western Kenya with the overall goal to improve household nutrition and income on the basis of traditional, indigenous vegetables and crops which are adapted to the local conditions. The reason for this being that the food base for the rural population has become narrower, leaving communities more vulnerable to food shortages and nutrient-deficiency diseases. Additionally there has been a significant rise of lifestyle diseases across the country due to the adaptation of what is considered a more modern or westernized lifestyle. Many people have neglected the rich and diverse agricultural heritage of Kenya and forgotten about the benefits traditional foods.
Kenya has a natural abundance of indigenous edible vegetables, fruits and other underutilized and neglected species which are inexpensive to produce and well adapted to the environments in which they grow.
💼 What the programme involves
During the workcamp volunteers will participate in different activities such as farming of indigenous crops and vegetables, preparing healthy meals with the locally use material (e.g. energy saving cooking stoves), foods or learn more about the heritage of Western Kenyan cuisine and life during several inter active session and home visits.
🏠 Accommodation on site
Accommodation will be at the project in this workcamp and it is important that you have your own sleeping bag and mat. During the workcamp, volunteers will get food from locally available foodstuffs and the volunteers will share the responsibility of preparing the food.
📍 About the location
In this workcamp, volunteers can visit Lake Victoria at Kisumu city, which is about a 1-hour drive from the project. Volunteers will also have the opportunity to visit the Ahero rice fields, the local market or take an optional one-day trip to Kakamega Rainforest.
ℹ️ Additional information
The White Paper for International Voluntary Service (IVS) created in 2011 developed by Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) draws the strategic objectives for Cultural Heritage and Diversity with the vision to ‘Preserving, protecting, and promoting cultural heritage and diversity through International Voluntary Service activities in order to foster mutual understanding and respect within the global community’. With the Strategic objectives to create:
1. A global community where mutual understanding and respect are brought by active citizens that preserve protect and promote cultural heritage and diversity
2. Develop and expand cooperation between organisations, institutions and government bodies in the field of Cultural Heritage and Diversity
3. Raise awareness about the impact of IVS in cultural heritage and diversity issue
The initiative mobilizes national and international volunteers through hands-on and awareness-raising activities for the conservation of our common cultural and natural heritage.