You make the world a better place by working together, and sometimes small local partners can provide the best value for the local people. Like a solar bakery in a community center.
Lokichoggio is a Kenyan town in in northwest Kenya, near the border with South Sudan. The town is very remote, located in the desert region of Turkana. Between 1989-2005 Lokichoggio was a forward base of UN Operation Lifeline Sudan. In those busy times many international NGOs were present in Lokichoggio, and air transports were flying to South Sudan several times a day from the local airport. After the operation ended, the NGOs left, leaving the town quiet and desolate and the locals jobless. All that remains from those busy days are abandoned compounds and a few hotels.
Kea and Birgitta Arnlund work for a Swedish NGO Barnmissionen. Barnmissionen has provided an elementary school for local Turkana children, providing basic education for over 500 students.
They also work together with the ANA Women’s group, which runs a local bakery. ANA Women’s group is a local NGO, with six members. They bake bread, scones and queen cakes every morning and deliver them to local schools and shops. The school children enjoy their fresh bread for lunch every day, and the local shops sell it to townspeople.
Kea and Birgitta and the ANA Women’s group have a dream: to build a community center and a library, where people can come to read, use computers, and study to provide these educational and beneficial free-time activities for the local Turkana people at no cost. They will also now have a solar bakery at the community center so people can enjoy tea and some solar-baked treats in the cafeteria.
To make lives better locally, you only need a handful of visionary people working together, such as the women of ANA Women’s group, and also Birgitta and Kea.
Check the vblog of this group:
