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Stigma. This is a word that we in the West do not understand. We may be embarrassed to admit we attended an “inferior” school and hem and haw when asked where we went. That is not real stigma. Ask someone who is HIV+ in Western Kenya. Stigma for them means they would rather sell all their land and be on death’s door before seeking AIDS medication, despite having 8 dependents. We know nothing about that.

Traveling to the farm of a 79 year old HIV+ man living with his two sons, caring for all their children plus for eight children left to him by his HIV+ daughters, I saw nearly no one my age: there were children under twelve, and adults over 50. Gaggles of children, radiant with their smiles. A stark contrast to the kick in the gut I felt from the enormity of the challenge for those who are HIV+, the difficult yet vital task of the team I was with. So much joy, yet so much hardship. Life on an acre of maize, or less: How to survive? And thrive? Is it possible?

AMPATH and Purdue say “yes!” it is possible. It is possible for the 3,000 clients currently served by the Family Preservation Initiative (FPI) at AMPATH, a hospital in western Kenya dedicated to solving the tangled challenges of HIV.

Whereas AMPATH works on prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS, FPI helps clients get back on their feet through emergency food provision, social work and counseling, and agricultural training and empowerment. Passion fruit, soya, green legumes and more are products they teach their clients to grow for local, regional and international markets as well as for their own family’s food security and nutrition.

100,000 more clients will enter AMPATH’s program by the end of 2008 and will desperately need these FPI services – their lives, and their one million dependents, are counting on it.

What will it take to teach people how to live on an acre or less? In short, a team and tool kit. The right team having the necessary resources to do the job. And the groundwork is laid, thankfully, by a team of seven professors from Purdue University, who came to Kenya in June 2007 through a GLOBE Foundation grant.

Experts in a range of agricultural disciplines including agronomy, veterinary medicine, agricultural economics, and animal science, the Purdue team’s mandate was to make recommendations on the way forward for FPI’s agricultural program’s unprecedented scale-up and quality enhancement.

In one short week they visited open markets, spent time talking with extension workers, examined the farms of individual clients, and saw for themselves challenges and opportunities throughout the supply chain, from soil nutrition to fertilizer, from infrastructure to markets. They also met with key research organizations doing similar work (the International Livestock Research Institute, World Vision, the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute, Moi University Chepkoleil campus, and the Rockerfeller Foundation, among others). From those meetings, a collaboration between Purdue, Moi University and KARI is forming to create an agricultural tool kit.

Field extension workers need a methodology (i.e. a tool kit) to determine the best agricultural options for HIV+ clients to maximize their food security and to expand their income base. Relevant factors will include their land size, the number of able-bodied workers in their family, their past agricultural experience, the capital they have to invest, and their access to markets, amongst others.

The goal will be to capture three categories of clients:
1) deeply poor but not HIV+;
2) HIV+ but still owning land;
3) HIV+ with all assets sold.

Some of the potential agricultural raw products include: passion fruit, soya, millet, sorghum, sweet potato, maize, beans, and fruits. Value-added options are many, and KARI Kakamega is doing amazing work in this area under the leadership of Rhoda Nungo. Bee-keeping, poultry, goats, and cows as well as fish farming are also part of the tool kit of viable solutions.

The approach will be two-pronged. An immediate tool kit will be created for the extension workers as they undertake their daunting task of helping HIV+ clients become food secure and generate income. Meanwhile, a rigorous academic layer will be applied to a sample of those clients to assess what is working best and to enhance the tool kit as well as market opportunities. This will allow constant revision of the tool kit so it can become more powerful: more quickly able to help more farmers to generate more nutrition for their bellies and more income for their families.

With such a promising partnership we look forward to sourcing a bridge donor to come on board by providing the initial funding necessary to launch the project in order to generate the results necessary to obtain the larger multi-year funding necessary.




	Stigma. This is a word that we in the West do not understand. We may be embarrassed to admit we attended an “inferior” school and hem and haw when asked where we went. That is not real stigma. Ask someone who is HIV+ in Western Kenya. Stigma for them means they would rather sell all their land and be on death’s door before seeking AIDS medication, despite having 8 dependents. We know nothing about that. Traveling to the farm of a 79 year old HIV+ man living with his two sons, caring for all their children plus for eight children left to him by his HIV+ daughters, I saw nearly no one my age: there were children under twelve, and adults over 50. Gaggles of children, radiant with their smiles. A stark contrast to the kick in the gut I felt from the enormity of the challenge for those who are HIV+, the difficult yet vital task of the team I was with. So much joy, yet so much hardship. Life on an acre of maize, or less: How to survive? And thrive? Is it possible? AMPATH and Purdue say “yes!” it is possible. It is possible for the 3,000 clients currently served by the Family Preservation Initiative (FPI) at AMPATH, a hospital in western Kenya dedicated to solving the tangled challenges of HIV. Whereas AMPATH works on prevention and treatment of HIV and AIDS, FPI helps clients get back on their feet through emergency food provision, social work and counseling, and agricultural training and empowerment. Passion fruit, soya, green legumes and more are products they teach their clients to grow for local, regional and international markets as well as for their own family’s food security and nutrition. 100,000 more clients will enter AMPATH’s program by the end of 2008 and will desperately need these FPI services – their lives, and their one million dependents, are counting on it. What will it take to teach people how to live on an acre or less? In short, a team and tool kit. The right team having the necessary resources to do the job. And the groundwork is laid, thankfully, by a team of seven professors from Purdue University, who came to Kenya in June 2007 through a GLOBE Foundation grant. Experts in a range of agricultural disciplines including agronomy, veterinary medicine, agricultural economics, and animal science, the Purdue team’s mandate was to make recommendations on the way forward for FPI’s agricultural program’s unprecedented scale-up and quality enhancement. In one short week they visited open markets, spent time talking with extension workers, examined the farms of individual clients, and saw for themselves challenges and opportunities throughout the supply chain, from soil nutrition to fertilizer, from infrastructure to markets. They also met with key research organizations doing similar work (the International Livestock Research Institute, World Vision, the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute, Moi University Chepkoleil campus, and the Rockerfeller Foundation, among others). From those meetings, a collaboration between Purdue, Moi University and KARI is forming to create an agricultural tool kit. Field extension workers need a methodology (i.e. a tool kit) to determine the best agricultural options for HIV+ clients to maximize their food security and to expand their income base. Relevant factors will include their land size, the number of able-bodied workers in their family, their past agricultural experience, the capital they have to invest, and their access to markets, amongst others. The goal will be to capture three categories of clients: 1) deeply poor but not HIV+; 2) HIV+ but still owning land; 3) HIV+ with all assets sold. Some of the potential agricultural raw products include: passion fruit, soya, millet, sorghum, sweet potato, maize, beans, and fruits. Value-added options are many, and KARI Kakamega is doing amazing work in this area under the leadership of Rhoda Nungo. Bee-keeping, poultry, goats, and cows as well as fish farming are also part of the tool kit of viable solutions. The approach will be two-pronged. An immediate tool kit will be created for the extension workers as they undertake their daunting task of helping HIV+ clients become food secure and generate income. Meanwhile, a rigorous academic layer will be applied to a sample of those clients to assess what is working best and to enhance the tool kit as well as market opportunities. This will allow constant revision of the tool kit so it can become more powerful: more quickly able to help more farmers to generate more nutrition for their bellies and more income for their families. With such a promising partnership we look forward to sourcing a bridge donor to come on board by providing the initial funding necessary to launch the project in order to generate the results necessary to obtain the larger multi-year funding necessary.






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