Community Transformation: Virtues Project in Kenya

Since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, the Kenyan government put in place a lot of restrictions on gatherings. These restrictions combined with the fact that this has been an election year for Kenya, have made it extremely difficult to effectively carry out many community activities including training. Despite this difficulty, we are thankful for the peacefulness that followed the general elections as we usher in this new government.

With Covid-19 restrictions came frequent school closures leading to an increase in cases of indiscipline in schools. This has resulted in an increase in attachment at the Kakamega Police Station Children Protection Unit and All Angels Lutonyi Catholic Church Gender Violence / Child Protection and Promotion Desk. We have attended to many cases affecting school children and adults in the community and within schools: truancy, early marriages/ pregnancy, sodomy, lesbianism, single parent challenges, divorce, separation, children sired from adultery, irresponsible parenting, child neglect, child abandonment, violence against children, and drugs just to mention afew. 

Several of these cases are referred to us from different schools and communities due to the successful transformative experiences we have had using The Virtues Project’s Five Strategies and Virtues Picks. By holding conversations about our work with The Virtues Project, communities and schools are able to reach us and access information on alternative ways to resolve indiscipline, violence and many more social issues using the Five Strategies by The Virtues Project.

 GENDER BASED VIOLENCE / CHILD PROTECTION AND PROMOTION DESK.

 Some of the family related cases we receive and attend to can be very traumatizing and I have learnt to rely not only on The Virtues Project’s Five Strategies but also prayer for wisdom and direction. An example of such cases are as below;

1.  In one family, the husband caught the wife in bed with their groundsman.  He was infuriated and wanted to harm them both but a neighbor directed them to our GBV/Child Protection and Promotion Office where we met and spoke. After listening to him, we requested that he come back with his wife. We then commenced a fortnight worth of counseling sessions using the Five Strategies to resolve this dispute. Thankfully, they are now reconciled as a couple and have since dismissed the groundsman. 
2. A 35 year old mother was sent away from their family home because she had given birth to two children with disabilities. She then planned to kill the children and later commit suicide. After many counseling sessions where we told her about the Five Strategies and how to apply Virtues to her daily life, she decided to continue living. We have since contacted  the Association of Persons with Disability who have offered  to support one of the children. We will also be supporting her using interest from our Table Banking  project. 

PLANTING OF INDIGENOUS  FOOD AND VEGETABLES.

Our attempt at planting indigenous  food and vegetables was disrupted by the heavy rains this year. We will be making another attempt at planting during the upcoming short rains season with the hope of harvesting, selling and using the funds to continue to inspire the practice of virtues in communities, build character in our children and empower the Virtues training beneficiaries involved in the project. 

 VIRTUES CARDS SWAHILI TRANSLATION

Your donations have enabled the translation of The Virtues Cards into Swahili. This will greatly improve usability with non-English speaking people in this region.

Your donations continue to help us inspire the practice of virtues in different walks of life and empower our beneficiaries with the Five Strategies of The Virtues Project to ease the practice of Virtues and live by their highest value.

Links:

• The Virtues Project Website
• VPIA Partner Virtues Cards App
• VPIA Partner bringing character and virtue to business culture