Visitors are a blessing that’s what I was told while growing up and to date the statement has never changed, it’s still told to the current kids. How true or not that statement is I can’t tell now. Late last month we had the pleasure of hosting James Finlay’s representatives in our ICS projects in Kisumu and Kapatagat in Eldoret. The reason for the visit was for them to understand how our projects work, understand their impact in the community and also interact with stove beneficiaries.
To this effect we took a journey into the community, viewed several stoves, interacted with rural women using our CZK stoves and heard from them what they have experienced since receiving the stoves. The stoves were amazing, I was overwhelmed by many thanks I received on behalf of my Organization as a result of distributing the ICS to the local communities. I think it’s only fair through this write up that I notify my colleagues and the whole Co2balance family that the work we are doing in the community is highly appreciated, rural women who benefited from our stoves really appreciative those who didn’t are really salivating waiting for the day they will have theirs.
Women mentioned several advantages the stoves have had on their lives, families and the community at large. Just to mention one that got me thinking hard………“compared to traditional three stone stoves this CZK stove saves a lot of fuel and that gives me more time to engage in economic activities that give me some income to sustain my family. Am no longer enslaved as the case was while using the three stone, most of my time was spent in the forests looking for firewood, where can one get an opportunity in a forest if not being attacked by animals or rapists”…. one woman noted. It’s always good to know that your project is having impact to its target beneficiaries and this visit helped us as an organization get that feedback from the horse’s mouth.
At Co2balance we believe that we can change the quality of life for people living in the rural parts of Kenya through our numerous ICS projects in the country. One way this can be accomplished is by leveraging resources and partnering with like-minded organizations for a greater impact. The comments we received from James Finlay’s returned me back to my first statement of this write up; that visitors are a blessing. Their positive comments gave us reasons to even want to do more; they were moved by our work and wished to join hands with us in doing another ICS project for the good of the people.
Compiled by Christine Atira and Moses Maina
co2balance 