The Edge of Somewhere

These last few days I’ve had the unique opportunity to spend time in Kakuma, Kenya, home of the Kakuma refugee camp(s) since the early 90’s.  For those in the West, Kakuma is known by some as the camp that the Lost Boys from Sudan began arriving at en-masse and was recently featured in the film, A Good Lie.

             

The word “camp” connotes something orderly and with clear boundaries and this would not be an accurate description of this area. Kakuma houses more than 170,000 refugees from a couple decades worth of conflicts in this region including Ethiopians, Sudanese, Congolese and Somalis.

This part of Northern Kenya is originally Turkana land, a pastoralist tribe that still resides here as well with their multitude of cattle, camels and goats.  It is hot, 100+ degrees today, with a dry wind that kicks up dust devils across the landscape.  It is hard to imagine the tragedies that led people (and are still leading people) to this desolate place that, in contrast to where they were coming from, make this feel like a sanctuary.

So why am I here? 

While our partnership typically works with Medium sized mills and processors, we were asked in this case by the World Food Program to help train several smaller mills who have the potential to supply the refugee camp with basic flour blends used for the school feeding program they run feeding 67,000 kids a day at the camps.

    

Like all our work, training these nascent mills has a positive ripple effect in multiple directions – instead of importing milled grain from far away, WFP is spending less to buy local maize and sorghum creating a market for smallholder farmers across Kenya.  The milling cooperatives that have been set up are new businesses that cut across ethnic/country lines and are creating opportunity for sustainable livelihoods.  The 20 people we’ve trained these last couple days are from 5 different countries but all working together towards a common goal of a successful business that will feed local children.

The training we’ve done here started with the best practices that have formed over the 100+ years our 4 corporate partners have been in the food business…(In Cargill’s case they are celebrating 150 years this year and General Mills is just a bit younger…) These best practices have been distilled down to the training that our typical client receives.  

In this case, the training has been distilled down even further for an audience of new millers, many of whom have never sat in a classroom or received training of any kind.  The training materials combined both words and pictures for some that are illiterate and is heavy on hands on repetition.  The training has been delivered by our expert TechnoServe staff as well as with a young local miller, Dennis, from one of our Nairobi clients as a way to build his own experience and capacity.

What is most exciting about this training is that we have demonstrated to ourselves that we can take expertise from 4 leading global food companies and take it all the way down to the smallest, hardest to reach millers on the Continent. (Other than a war zone, there is not a more challenging environment I can imagine than the one we’ve just successfully worked in…) These kinds of mills still represent where a majority of African food is processed so to able to bring them best practices has the potential to reach millions more with safer, more nutritious, local food. 

We will be engaging with the World Food Program to explore in the weeks and months to come how we might roll this small mill training out on a much larger scale.

“I’ve learned how to do my job better – we are gratefulfor the support.”-Thomas

 

“We are producing food for the next generation of Doctors, Teachers and Policemen who will care for our community – this training helps us do a good job.”

   - Japhet 

Meanwhile, Molly and the kids are at a nice hotel in Nairobi… (We had to move out of Amani Gardens for stretch because they have a large group that took over the place) and we wrestle with the very different experiences these few days offer us, a microcosm of sorts. Clara recently wrote a poem that captures this well...

This is Africa

A lot of people would say

Africa is a poor and dirty place.

Yes, this is true.

There are overcrowded slums,

Disease, robbery and rape,

Crippled beggars on the side of the road.

This is Africa.

But over the wall and down the hill

lies a different kind of place

One with flashy cars and expensive cuisine

with swimming pools and maids.

Education is easy to find,

And you live life like kings and queens.

This is Africa.

The question we wrestle with

And toss and turn over in our sleep

Is how do we live in the tension?

The coming weeks are filled with motion…Molly leaves for Texas on Thursday to see Mackenzie in her new life at TCU, Clara and Bennett and I are heading up to explore around Mt. Kenya this weekend…On Tuesday the three of us head to Tanzania where we will reunite with Molly and spend the rest of February, then back to Kenya to welcome the first of several visitors. 

On a personal level these first few weeks in Kenya have been a gift for our little family -- we will always look back on this time as a window where we received exactly what we needed, at exactly the right time only in a way that exceeded expectations.  I’m thankful to be able to write that.

Goodnight.