How a Kitchen is Transforming a Community

Diane Priestley shares her inspiring journey of empowering the people of Chogoria in rural Kenya

Millicent and me at the Tostan training in Senegal 2016

The story starts with an unlikely friendship. I met beautiful Millicent in July 2016. We instantly recognised each other as ‘soul sisters’.

Millicent from Kenya, a former nurse, midwife, hospital matron and courageous field health worker and me, an Australian living in the UK, a seasoned journalist and counsellor and aspiring community worker, shared common ground and core values.

The intersection of our dreams happened in Senegal at a dynamic training in grassroots community development run by the legendary Molly Melching, founder of Tostan, a charity leading a movement of social change to empower women and communities across West Africa.

Millicent and I planted the seeds of an ambitious dream: to take the empowerment movement to Kenya and East Africa.

As we brainstormed over several days, Millicent told me she ran a community centre for feeding and caring for vulnerable children in her hometown, Chogoria, set in the lush tropical farmlands on the slopes of magnificent Mount Kenya.

In 2003 Millicent personally funded the centre called Faraja – a Swahili word meaning ‘comfort’ – out of a deep sense of gratitude for being sponsored by the Chogoria Hospital to study her Masters Degree in Public Health in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Since then she has worked tirelessly caring for children and their families in the humble centre as well as travelling far and wide on rough terrain to reach remote villages with vital health education throughout the Tharaka Nithi county.

Later that year, I kept my promise to visit Millicent and her devoted husband, Pastor Garama, travelling by matatu – a crowded public mini-van - four hours north of Nairobi to the a vibrant market town in the heart of Kenya.

Millicent and Garama and children at the Faraja Community Centre in Chogoria, Kenya 

Loving couple Millicent and Garama are devoted to their community  

Millicent providing lunch to the needy children 

An exciting vision

When I set eyes on the Faraja centre - a sturdy brick building with a huge open room, with several small rooms for offices at the back - the exciting vision for adding a kitchen, electricity and clean drinking water came into focus.

A Leap of Faith

After two more planning trips to Chogoria in 2017 and 2018, in January 2019, with a massive leap of faith, I invested £7000 of my own money to install a modern galley kitchen in the empty corner of the Faraja main hall.

The Project Gets Underway

I hired the Streamline Designs kitchen company in Nairobi to make all the cabinetry, a local plumber to install a chlorinator, filter system and new water tank to provide clean, safe water and local electrician to bring power and lights. Local painters did a beautiful makeover, painting the walls and floor, and a sewing lady made stunning new curtains.

Supervising the installation of the modern kitchen in the rustic building was the biggest challenge of my life! I was propelled out of my comfort zone into hard physical work, tricky problem solving and daily decision-making over two solid months until finally, miraculously, we launched the kitchen with a joyful celebration party. 

The empty corner where the kitchen would be installed

Elias, the electrician, prepares the wall for the electricity 

James the plumber and his sons install a clean water system for the centre

The painters, Collins and Kevin transform the walls

Streamline kitchen expert, Fred with assistant Silas install the kitchen units

The kitchen is starting to take shape 

Diane in the half finished Faraja kitchen 

The tilers add their beautiful work over the benches and the appliances are added 

Making muffins in the new kitchen 

Celebration day! The Opening of the Faraja Kitchen 

Local personality Kuka entertains the children at the Opening Day 

The Vision

The dazzling new kitchen will be the catalyst for expanding the food choices for the children and teaching kids nutrition and cooking, a Mums and Babies Group, a Women’s Health Group, a Men’s Health Group and a Youth Social Group serving up pizza and music.

                                         

We plan to run a daily café, creating a vibrant meeting place for the whole community and international medical workers and visitors who come to climb Mount Kenya.

The Faraja Kitchen will be self-sustaining, making money from the sale of food to cover running costs, pay workers and fund further improvements to centre.

Robert, Peter and brothers, Peter and Eliud cooking together in the new kitchen

Making Mexican food 

Peter learning the art of pizza making for youth nights 

And we have many exciting ideas for income-generating small businesses including a Sewing Group making African fabric bags; the Malaria-prevention Soap-making Group and a Coconut initiative to transport coconuts from coastal Mombasa to Chogoria to produce nutritious coconut oil, milk, cream and cheese.

Garama, an agricultural expert, is in charge of the flourishing Faraja Vegetable Garden growing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, green beans, spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and herbs to supply the kitchen.

And in the future the Faraja Community Centre will provide training for local facilitators in health, human rights and stopping harmful practices such as female genital cutting and child marriage in villages all over Kenya.

All this transformation is flowing from the everyday miracle of a kitchen.

My soul sister, Millicent and I have realised our beautiful dream in the heartland of Kenya that started three years ago in Senegal!

Anything is possible when caring people join together to make a difference.

'Ubuntu' means I am human because I belong

  

Finding Purpose in Later Life

I believe that older people should go MAD! That is, Make A Difference to the world! This desire to Make A Difference usually takes hold when we hit 50. We yearn to make a positive contribution to our local community, our country or global issues. We are bursting with a lifetime of accumulated knowledge and wisdom, empathy and caring and skills and talents. And we want to enrich younger generations with all we have to offer.

When our kids grow up and become independent adults, it’s possible to embrace a whole new lease on life. We have the freedom to reinvent ourselves!  

However one of the problems older people can face is becoming too ‘self-centred’ and fixated on their ailments and grievances. (I understand that many people are dealing with chronic pain and serious illnesses that require focus on self-care.)

For healthy women and men over 50, the solution is to become ‘other-centred’. We all need to ask ourselves: ‘How can I improve the world by alleviating suffering and increasing joy?’

Ironically resisting self-absorption and shifting to an outward focus benefits our own health and wellbeing. There are rich rewards in being altruistic. Devotion to others brings a sense of purpose, deep fulfilment and empowerment. Or if I can indulge in a snappy alliteration: purpose, passion and power!

The opposite state of mind as we age is a miserable option: a bleak sense of futility, emptiness and helplessness, while wallowing in self-pity and resentment, blaming the new fast-paced, high-tech workplace for throwing us on the scrap heap, stamped ‘obsolete’.

All human beings have basic emotional needs to be loved, needed, wanted, respected, appreciated and valued. These needs don’t stop at 50! Mature-aged people must play a valuable role in the community as wise elders, earning respect and appreciation from the young.

Sadly in our youth-worshiping culture, us older people are often not respected for our decades of life experience, deep well of knowledge and the unique skills and talents we’ve mastered.

Rather than complaining and blaming young people for their bad attitude, it’s up to us to be pro-active and create a valuable role for ourselves within our families as helpful grandparents, local neighbourhoods, in national organisations or venture to other countries to support those in dire need of our expertise.  

My Story

We were happy living on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. With a carefree beach lifestyle, an ideal place for raising our kids, my husband and I had successful, thriving careers. I enjoyed a high profile as a newspaper journalist and popular columnist, local government councillor and in my 40s studied psychology and became a counsellor of a different kind!

And then eight years ago in 2009 we were ready for a major life change and fresh challenges. I had wanted to live in the UK since my 20s.

Growing up in Australia I felt displaced and isolated from the rest of the world, with my appetite for travelling and exploring and global issues.

So we moved to London, which was so thrilling! I devoured a cultural feast of musical shows and concerts, weekend jaunts exploring the genteel English countryside, historic castles and quaint villages and was blessed with a lifelong dream of being a travel writer, with enviable trips to picturesque destinations in Europe. 

Moving to the UK was a homecoming for me, returning from the far-flung colonies where my English, Irish and Scottish ancestors, some convicts, transported and incarcerated for petty crimes, and some courageous sole migrants who left their distraught families for the unknown, untamed continent 10,000 miles across the oceans.

But we returned to the homeland to embrace bustling, multicultural West London and then the tranquillity of rural Kent, where we now live with our cocker spaniels and hens, revelling in the changing seasons.  

I don’t miss being lethargic and pouring sweat in the sweltering tropics. Cosy in my coat and boots, I delight in crisp walks on crunchy leaves in the woodlands and cheerful daffodils and shimmering carpet of blue bells come spring!

You would think this pleasant, comfortable life would be enough for me. But I started to get this gnawing feeling, this MAD desire. Witnessing all the problems of the world, the suffering, poverty, deprivation, trauma and abuse, the horror of war, my heart ached with pain. The extent of tragedy on our planet is overwhelming.     

I knew I couldn’t solve ALL the problems of the world so I decided to pick one issue I feel strongly about – stopping little girls from suffering the horrendous abuse of female genital cutting. As many as 8000 girls every day, that’s three million girls a year globally, are subjected to this trauma. If girls survive the shock, blood loss and infection, they are condemned to lifelong pain and health problems. An estimated 200 million women around the world live with the consequences of FGC.

Researching and writing on the subject over three years, I searched relentlessly for the best strategies to prevent the harmful practice. That’s when I discovered the dynamic charity Tostan, led by trailblazing visionary, Molly Melching. Tostan has been highly successful in West Africa through grassroots education in villages, transforming millions of lives over the past 25 years.  

So in 2016 I trained with Tostan in Senegal, which inspired me with the ambitious dream of taking the Community Empowerment Programme to remote villages in East Africa; a dream that was intensified when I travelled on safari in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda and fell in love with the wild country and beautiful people.

Community Work in Kenya

Soon I will return to work in the Meru community in the lush region surrounding magnificent Mount Kenya, with my dear friend Millicent Garama, an experienced health worker, whom I met at the Tostan training.

I will help Millicent care for the adorable kids, including orphans living with HIV, and get to know the lovely ladies in the sewing project and help with growing veggies and join in cultural activities with African music and dancing and traditional food! I might even introduce the locals to my vegetarian specialities of lentil burgers and hummus!

I will share an abundance of inspiring, eye-opening, heart-warming experiences with you, my adventurous, curious readers, connecting you with another fascinating culture, transporting you into the exhilarating possibility of Making A Difference. Join me.