This year 41 families, with 209 children (39% girls) among them, are being directly supported through So They Can’s Family Strengthening Project. These families are facing extreme hardship in hard-to-reach villages in Baringo County, Kenya, where the prolonged drought has worsened their living conditions.

Through tailored support over a 3-year period, Family Strengthening enables long-term, sustainable transformation. Direct support to each family is provided based on their specific needs. It ranges from assistance with a child’s educational costs; short term emergency food parcels; donation of household items, solar panels and/or water tanks for the home; training for parents’ on income generating activities, child protection and children’s rights; psychosocial support, start-up capital for incoming generating activities; to assistance with family health and nutrition.

The 11 new families that joined this year have all participated in training on income-generating activities. At the end of the training, each family received 5 goats as capital. The families will rear this livestock and sell the offspring at the local market for supplementary income.

‘I am very happy to be among the families supported by So They Can. Now my daughter is
going to school, something I never thought would be possible’

– Father that joined Family Strengthening this year.

Cheponot and her husband are pastoralists. Together with their 6 young children they live in a remote village in Baringo County, Kenya. All of the children were born at home in their small hut with support from a Traditional Birth Attendant — the nearest medical clinic is a 10km walk one-way. Water is also scarce, with the family relying on a distant pan dam, which is overused and not safe for drinking.  Cheponot sells tea, snacks and food on market day, with the small money she earns spent on her children’s needs.

Joining Family Strengthening this year means that Cheponot and her husband will be supported to improve their livelihoods, so that they can increase their household income and independently sustain the needs of their family unit. Sufficient income is a critical determining factor on whether or not the children in a family can continue their education.

I am grateful for the training because it changed my thinking about business. Earlier, I thought business is only for the educated and people with money, but now I know that it is for all people’

Business skills training participant.