What We Do
Caring Partners Global partners with the Matangwe Community Health and Development Project (MCHDP), a non-governmental organization registered with the Kenyan Government, to provide services in the four area of focus to Matangwe and the 17 surrounding villages in the Bondo District of rural Western Kenya.
The Nyanza province, where Matangwe is located, has one of the highest HIV infection rates of the country at 15.3%, three times the national average (www.unaids.org, 2010). This pandemic has left thousands of orphans struggling to survive. Often the orphans find care under an older women caregiver (OWC), usually their grandmother, who are often also caring for their terminally ill adult children.
The effects of disease in the Matangwe area are exacerbated by the abject poverty resulting from poor social infrastructure. This is reflected by low literacy/high school drop out rates, poor farming practices resulting in insufficient crop yields, high unemployment rates and below poverty line income. The migration of the educated youth to the urban centres has left the communities, such as Matangwe with the most vulnerable populations of society: women, children and the elderly. These groups are further isolated from education/skills and available supports due to poverty and the lack of proper roads and/or resources to access comprehensive health care services. The rural-to-urban migration patterns of the skilled and educated community members leave the communities with little capacity for local leadership. This minimizes the community’s ability to take advantage of the resources and funds available through local governments.
The people of Matangwe are predominately subsistent farmers with rural employment being almost nonexistent. Small scale trading is limited to garden produce, local crafts and second-hand clothing. The lack of affordable transportation to larger trade centres and inadequate business skills, such as marketing, limit the exchange of goods.
Currently, 833 OWC’s in Matangwe and 17 surrounding communities provide care to over 2,163 vulnerable children. Many of the OWC’s suffer from declining health; depleted resources from nursing the sick and burying the dead; and an inability to meet the basic needs for themselves and those under their care.
The crises of disease, drought, inadequate labour force, poor agricultural practices and vulnerability of women disrupt normal education and proper socialization and integration into the culture. Many orphans, particularly girls, are withdrawn from school to assist at home. As a result, these girls cannot pass their national exams that would allow them to enter post secondary and vocational programs. The loss of parents to HIV/AIDS has severed the generational passing of life skills such as parenting, agriculture, and crafts that are vital to survival.
CPG, through it’s partnership with the MCHDP, works with Matangwe and surrounding communities to help relieve the barriers and obstacles they face to provide access to health care, opportunities for education and life skills training as well as mentorship in innovative agriculture techniques.
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