The impact of Self-Help Groups in Kenya

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In Kenya, Help a Child works with Self-Help Groups (SHGs). These groups exist within communities to support each other. They enable people to save money and issue loans to group members. In this way, opportunities arise for themselves and their families to start a (small) business, pay medical bills, or pay for education.

In 2024, the team of Help a Child Kenya supported the on-site strengthening of Self-Help Groups to ensure their smooth functioning and addressed their challenges in running the groups.

Impact in 2024
72 Self Help Groups were sensitized on financial literacy, goal setting, and income generating activities. This led to an improvement in SHG capital from KES 6,237,829 (€ 41,586) in 2023 to KES 9,732,957 (€ 64,887) in October 2024. The group members’ involvement in savings and loan uptake and the initiation of individual Income Generating Activities (IGAs) has improved the care of children and the provision of their children’s needs. The programme also facilitated refresher training for 158 SHG leaders on record keeping, conflict management, and goal setting. This has helped them to enhance their record-keeping skills and the development of smart goals amongst SHGs.

  

Overcoming disability and rebuilding hope in Kenya

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Brian is a five-year-old boy from Kenya with cerebral palsy and autism. For a long time he was unable to walk or sit without support due to his disability and therefore relying entirely on his mother for daily care. Due to the myths and stigma associated with disability in his community, Brian was often hidden away and denied access to basic healthcare. However, his life completely changed when his mother joined a disability programme.  

Brian’s mother recalls: “As a parent, I struggled with the daily difficulty of carrying Brian everywhere, which added significant stress to my life.” She was not just her son’s caretaker, but also the sole breadwinner of the family. It was during this difficult time that she, a member of the Help a Child Self-Help Group (SHG), was made aware of a disability programme and encouraged to join the Kiangu Wendo People with Disabilities (PWD) Group. This programme aims to build inclusive communities in which children with (and without) disabilities can flourish.

From mud walls to a thriving learning environment in Kenya

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In the quiet village of Mukemo, in Busia County in Kenya, young children once began their school days seated on cold, bare ground inside a crumbling mud-walled classroom. The structure had worn-out iron sheets for roofing and no proper flooring. During rainy seasons, water would flood the classroom, hence disrupting lessons and exposing children to health risks. When a storm eventually blew off the roof, classes continued under trees and verandas, placing children at further risk. Until this year, when Mukemo Primary School went through a complete transformation.

  

Help a Child CHS certified

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Since January 2024, Help a Child is certified against the Core Humanitarian Standard! We passed the rigorous scrutiny by the independent certification body HQAI – Humanitarian Quality Assurance Initiative. Our certification objectively demonstrates that we comply with the requirements of the CHS. It means that we put affected children and populations at the center of our programmes, include their feedback and opinion in our work and create programmes based on the needs of people. Geert de Jonge, Manager Expertise and Development, tells more about our certification journey during an interview conducted by HQAI.

Why did you decide to go from independently verified to certified?
“The most important pillar of our strategic plan is achieving more quality and impact. Our reason of existence is providing a future for children in need. We do our utmost to accomplish this and quality is our driving force. To aim for certification shows the world that we take our commitment seriously. Being part of a select group of professional organizations that meet this highest standard, motivates us to continue to live up to this ambition. The yearly maintenance audit of certification gives us an extra external drive to make it a continuous priority.”

Can you tell us more about your HQAI certification journey?
“We started our CHS journey in 2019 with our first self-assessment and we repeated this in 2022. Both of these self-assessments have resulted in improvement plans for the organization, pushing us to develop more effective and quality aid. In 2023 we have done the external audit and the reflections of the auditors have helped us to further grow. Looking back at this journey, we really improved in quality in for example Community Based Feedback, Knowledge Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, Partnership Management and communication with communities.”

What were the challenges you encountered?
“The investment of time and resources of the external audit were challenging, but outweighs the benefits of identifying sharp and critical ways of improvement. As a relatively small NGO the CHS pushed us far, but also opened up new avenues for further funding by larger donors enabling us to provide more impact for more children in need.”

What specific improvements have you seen?
“Community Based Feedback: in 2019 this was a completely new topic for us. We have always invited the communities to share their feedback, but now we have been able to setup a clear mechanism for channelling this feedback and responding to that feedback. This is a very visible improvement at Help a Child, from policy level to field level.

Knowledge Management: we realized in 2018 during a synthesis evaluation of all our projects that just creating high quality policy documents is not enough. It is really all about how to ensure we reach the hearts and minds of our field staff so that they understand and live by our philosophy. We introduced all kinds of trainings, information exchange, e-learnings and started with Knowledge Management as an important pillar in our organization.

Disaster Risk Reduction: up to 2019, we were organized in silos: one silo for development programmes and one silo for Disaster Response. Triple Nexus as an important discourse came up in our sector and also CHS pushed us to really connect development with Disaster Response. This resulted in more attention for Disaster Risk Reduction in our development programmes and more sustainability and empowerment approaches in Disaster Response.

Partnership Management: with the support of CHS we have been able to improve on equal partner relationship, and becoming more transparent in the relationship with our implementing partners. Our multi-annual contracts changed accordingly and we have further invested in the relationship with our  implementing partners.

Communication with communities: during the external audit in 2023, we realized we need to improve on the intensity and quality of our communication to our beneficiaries, explaining who Help a Child is as the donor behind our implementing partners and about what integrity means to us. In the following years we  want to further improve quality on this topic.”

What was your experience of collaborating with the HQAI auditors?
“The auditors were incisive and analytically proficient, directing our organization to the right points and ensuring that this did not feel like a paper audit but really contributed to clear areas of improvement at policy and field level. We appreciated their support and their push to further improve our quality.”

What are the expectations from donors now that you will be CHS certified? Do you think they will change?
“We expect more and more donors to adopt the CHS standard and by doing so increase the level of CHS compliance. For us, CHS is the highest quality standard and by adhering to it we see possibilities to further diversify our donor portfolio adhering to the highest compliance requests.”

In summary, what impact has the certification had on your work?
“The process to achieve certification has been very helpful. We now have a clearer understanding of where systems, policies and practices are strong and effective, and where further improvement is needed. The detailed incisive audit report has helped us to improve. The entire process was an excellent opportunity to put the CHS at the forefront in the entire organization and realign our activities and procedures accordingly. The CHS motivates us to walk the extra mile when it comes to meeting the highest quality standards.”

Read the shared interview with Tearfund and the Dutch Relief Alliance

 

Asset disposal motorvehicle: invitation for bids

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HACA Kenya country office procurement committee invites interested bidders to submit “Bid” for sale of a vehicles (Two Toyota Double Cabin). The bidding document and instructions to bidders can below. Interested bidders will not be required to make any payment.

Viewing of the bid item will be ongoing from 29th August 2023 to 30th September 2023 from 10.00AM to 3.00PM weekdays at HACA Offices – 22 School Lane Wetlands. Bids are based on “AS IS WHERE IS BASIS” and the conditions of the items are not warranted by the seller. Complete bid documents should be submitted at HACA office tender box on or before 30th September 2023 at 3PM EAT.

 

Bid document MV Toyota KCB 003Y
Bid document MV Toyota KCG 630M


Contact
Tel: 0708 785968
E-mail: finance@hacafrica.org

 

 

Carol: “My eyes and mind have been opened”

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Carol had always looked forward to change the story of her family and build a secure future for her children. “We used to walk a long distance of over 10 kilometres to fetch water. My children could get too tired and they did not get enough time to study since they would return home late. Their security was also at risk. This inspired me to take necessary measures,” tells 43 years old Carol, mother of four from Mavindini (Kenya). Together with her husband she relied on casual work which earned them very little income.

GICEP

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