THE JPIC-FA LAUDATO SI COMMUNITY CENTER LAUNCH 19th JULY 2024
The office of justice peace and integrity of creation Franciscans Africa (JPIC-FA) advocates for justice by addressing economic inequalities, promoting peace through dialogue and non-violent conflict resolution, and advocating for sustainable practices to mitigate climate change impacts.
In 2022 the JPIC-FA during the long dry season it focused on programs that aimed to help the community overcome the challenges of food insecurity and since the if has focused on sustainable livelihoods and empowerment of marginalized groups, including women and indigenous communities and it has continued to actively engages with local communities in Isinya in initiatives such as the agricultural development project which uses agroecology to enhance food sovereignty and resilience.
The desire to empower and make a change to the community pushed our office to mobilize resources and food materials from franciscans and office friends to help communities in the fight against the impacts of climate change such as drought , livestock loss, water shortage, school dropout ,Forced early marriages, migration and child trafficking which were highly experience in Isinya sub county and other parts of the country.
The cry and suffering which caught the attention of the media houses both local and international made the JPIC-FA office rush to listen to the community cry and this landed them to three villages in Isinya (Reto, olepolos &Olomunyak )and the have journeyed with the community members from the three villages from 2022 up to now. With the first response which was by donating food to establishing a sustainable community center (JPIC-FA Laudato Si community center)
The dream of having this community center started after the office highlighted gaps such as
Water shortage and lack of clean water, The community dependance of livestock and the need to diversify, the high illiteracy level in the community, the lack of opportunities for women , the need to empower the women on beard work, tailoring and agroecology farming.
To bring this JPIC-FA Maasai community climate change resilience project to existence our office and the community has undergone key milestone steps.
1.Public participation. This was done early 2023 and gave opportunity to members of the three villages in Isinya whom we had journeyed since 2022 through initiatives such as food donation , School fees support, Psycho Counseling and empowerment support to suggest and air out what they thought was necessary going forward. And the key outcomes were the need for a community water borehole and training on agro ecology .
2. Establishing the project steering committee, this committee constituted members from the three villages, a representative from the government (Area chief) and members of the office of justice, peace and integrity of creation Franciscans Africa. This committee has spearheaded this project up to now. (Nine members from the community and seven members from the JPIC-FA office
3.Land donation, survey and fencing . Mzee Selenenka Ole Mutu saw the need to have the water borehole drilled so that it can serve the entire community and from his generosity he donated 1 acre piece of land located in Olomunyak village. The office of JPIC-Franciscans Africa after consultation with the committee facilitated the land survey so as to transfer the land to community and also fencing. The land survey was done by surveyor paul Uka and on time so as to facilitate other processes such as the hydrogeological survey
4. Water -Hydro geological survey , drilling, equipping In order to determine the spot for water drilling and the drilling depth Mr. Patrick Kabue, who is a hydrologist, conducted the water survey and identified the right place for the borehole drilling in the one acre piece of land. He also advised on the depth that needed to be drilled. The Maasai Store company was approached to offer the drilling services which was done to a depth of 220 meters. They also did a water test pumping and gave a report that the borehole will have a capacity of 12,000 cubic meters per hour water capacity.
To equip the water borehole with a solar pumping system considering there is no electricity in the area, the committee approached the Davis and Shirtliff company. The company advised on the best pumps and solar system and they were awarded the tender to install the water pumping system.
6. Center building Hall, Zero grazing unit, Green house and demo farm To offer the agro ecology training and other empowerment programs, the committee saw the need to build a community hall, A demo farm and establish a greenhouse. These key components have been vital in serving the community and in the push to make the center sustainable. The hall has been providing a serene platform to offer the training, community gathering while the demo farm provides a real platform to experiment and grow crops for the training purposes With the zero grazing unit as well, which contain dairy cows and milk goats.
The greenhouse and demo farm have been planted with indigenous food crops which are raised in and environmental and ecological friendly ways without the use crop pesticides and other chemical making the crops grown the be purely organic.
7. Follow up activities and center programs After the Launch which was done on July 17th the have been a series of follow up activities on training, assessment and empowerment.
On the day of the launch the project attracted more than 500 people and the deputy governor of kajiado county Mr. Martin Moshisho was the chief guest.
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