Afroskop–Initiative zur Unterstützung starker Frauen in Kenia e.V.

About us

Courage to escape poverty! - That is the motto of our association, Afroskop – Initiative Supporting Strong Women in Kenya. As a non-profit organisation, we have been supporting the local organisation "New Paradigm" since March 2012. New Paradigm campaigns for single mothers and grandmothers in Kenya, as well as elderly and sick women in the western Kenyan village of Gita.
The New Paradigm Community Based Organisation (NPCBO) is a local organization in Kenya / Kisumu in the Kajulu District which cares for widows and orphans in Gita village. New Paradigm supports widows in different ways, including microloans that enable women to run small businesses, such as dressmaking or a stall in the market. Thus women are able to care for themselves and their children. The organization also allows children access to education by paying their school fees, and providing lunches for orphans. In addition, New Paradigm does educational work related to sexuality and HIV / AIDS.

Afroskop – as the name says – wants to look closely, to zoom in on the African continent. And we don't do this with a telescope, but with a microscope, which doesn't only reveal hunger, sickness and misery. As a prerequisite for sustainable development, we consider transparency, empowerment and helping people to help themselves, as well as the raising of public awareness of that which is foreign.

Our aims:
• improving living standards: fit and healthy widows are helped to create a liveliood for themselves and their children. In addition, we ensure better care for older widows.
• promoting social cohesion: joint activities for widows and their children encourage them to support each other. Old, neglected widows are thus better integrated into the community.
• promoting cultural exchanges: projects targeted at people in Germany increase understanding of the culture of the people of Kenya and vice versa, and so contribute to tolerance and mutual understanding.

Our work:
• Our concept is sustainability. We only invest in projects where we can assume that they will improve the situation of women in the long term.
• Empowerment: We do not give handouts but help people to help themselves. The women are encouraged to exercise their own freedom of action and to expand in order to achieve an improvement in their living conditions.
• In order to give the women a say in what happens to contributions, we decided that every Christmas we would collect donations which were not tied to particular projects. The women could discuss and decide for themselves how they should be spent. At Christmas 2012, for example, 500€ was donated, and the women decided it should go towards providing school uniforms for 25 children. Thus the children could begin the school year with much more confidence.
• With our campaign "Stop Malaria", 55 women were able to buy mosquito nets for themselves and their children at a discount. They are very proud of having negotiated the price themselves.
• Our current and ongoing project "Food makes you clever!" is aimed at providing school lunches for orphans, so that they are alert for afternoon lessons.

Lena Haber is the President of Afroskop – Initiative Supporting Strong Women in Kenya.

On request we can offer other net participants advice, give a presentation, and provide up-to-date information and contacts in the field of our work.