rayjacky200

I am a farmer and trainer

Greetings from Kenya. My names are Raymond Benson Orenda I am married to my sweet wife Jacky and we are blessed with one baby boy called Allan Raymond who is 3 years and half old now. We live in Western Kenya and as a community leader my mission is to bring Organic permaculture to my region. We are a community of small farmers facing changing weather patterns, low investment and relative isolation. The learning and connection we have experienced already by being involved in organic permaculture has been transforming and my dream now is to build on that by becoming a qualified and experienced permaculture teacher myself. I left my county for the first time late last year to study permaculture design at LAIKIPIA with teachers from PRI KENYA after my Agricultural College and all these were life changing experience for me! I am already teaching and sharing the ideas in my community near Lake Victoria and my ambition is to become a better and more effective teacher. when I came back from the PDC I managed to mobilize the community members and formed a CBO (Community Based Organization) and Organic Food Kenya is the name of this organization it is run by 8 volunteers and our focus is to develop a working organic farm that not only provides organic food but aid in the education of farmers in organic practices and the importance of clean and safe drinking water source. (www.organicfoodkenya.com). So far we have started doing trainings but facing financial challenges that is to always hire the chairs, buy the writing materials and support the small scale farmers/community members we are training. We are very much happy to read about what you are doing and it is our kind request you if you can kindly support our project especially the training so that we can reach out to as many need families as we can? The importance of Organic Permaculture education in communities is measured not just in the creation of clean food but in the creation of community. People naturally gather around water and food and it is the base of all civilizations and a clear path to the future is created in the process. When communities are provided with opportunities to work together creating food and water security it offers so much more because of the healing power that comes for feeding ourselves and our families. The practice also removes many fears of the future and of course clean water is key to all of this. The truth is that when there is clean water there is life and when that source is contaminated the project itself becomes impossible. Organic Food Kenya knows that no human being is useless thus all community members are included regardless of sex, age, race and status. The most marginalized groups of people like the orphans, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAS) and the old are all catered for in this project. We have been working tiresomely with our volunteers both locally and internationally, planting our small food forest, planting sweet potatoes, kales, cowpeas and local vegetables and doing trainings. We are always updating our supporters with pictures in every step we make. Permaculture teaches how to learn from nature to build resilient systems that are more than sustainable; they regenerate degraded lands and also help build community. These are exactly the kinds of help we need in Africa now and our aim is to create a beacon of hope, inspiration and learning for our brothers and sisters in Kenya and around the world. We are again still in the lookout of people like you to kindly help us transform our community, in return we will certainly be grateful but more importantly we will be determined to reach out to and share this experience with as many people as we can. Thank you very much for what you are doing and looking forward to grow our connections together. You can learn more from our project website at www.organicfoodkenya.com and like our page for updates.https://web.facebook.com/organickenyaproject/ Regards! Raymond, Allan and Jacky ( OFOK FOUNDERS)