Supporting the Nasio Trust

sankalpa co-funds Nasio’s young farmer programme. Our support goes towards the costs of tools, seeds and staffing.

As young Kenyans migrate to urban areas to seek better livelihoods and job opportunities, the majority of agricultural work is often left to older people. Kenya’s aging workforce is struggling to feed the growing population and so the area is experiencing poor yields, low levels of agricultural productivity, and an ever growing cycle of poverty, impoverishment and food insecurity. What's more, although women make up the majority (60-80%) of the agricultural workforce across Africa, they’re unlikely to have access to proper agricultural training which then leads to less productive farming methods and poor land use.

In a bid to reverse the cycle of food poverty, the Nasio young farmers club is currently training 1,000 people (aged 10-21) in agricultural skills. Working together in small groups, young farmers are trained in activities such as composting, soil health, indigenous food production and running a tree nursery. Young people take responsibility for supporting one another to grow a kitchen garden, to become self-sufficient and to eventually become agriculturally stable — so they can grow and sell food to make an income.

Nasio today

Two decades on, some of the original cohort of children who have been supported by Nasio have gone on to graduate from university. They now volunteer with the charity — supporting the next generation of orphans and vulnerable children.

Today the Nasio Trust has a workforce of 90+ people who support over 400 children and young people at any one time, some of their many achievements include:

• Providing maternity services, immunising babies and treating 10,000+ patients a year at a purpose-built medical centre.
• Reducing teenage pregnancies, the spread of HIV, and sharing general sexual health education in a safe space through a large scale peer education programme.
• Identifying and supporting students, especially girls, who despite their disadvantaged backgrounds achieve high academic standards — equipping them to be future leaders via an Exceptional Student Programme.
• Increasing the value of female education by running programmes to keep girls in education.
• Providing adult literacy and numeracy classes for women who missed out on education, so that they can gain the skills needed to start their own small businesses.
• Teaching 500+ subsistence farmers how to increase their crop yields — to feed their families and generate income.
• Increasing the number of indigenous trees by providing the community with saplings from a tree nursery.
• Feeding the community and increasing income via farming, producing spirulina, beekeeping and aquaculture.
• Educating future generations — in good agricultural practice and food security — by running a Young Farmers Club with over 200 young members, from 10 local schools.