What’s in our December 2021 Newsletter: Notes from the Field - Chickens ~ We’ll Miss You, Lee! ~ Another Year for the Record Books ~  Volunteer Haley Lewis Gets Creative for P4P ~ Partnering for Progress is Hiring ~ TY Donors ~ Happy Holidays

When a lion runs and looks back, it is not that he is afraid, rather he is trying to see the distance he has covered.  ~ African Proverb

Notes from the Field 

By Nereah Obura, P4P Kenya Program Coordinator

Dear P4P Friend,

In a video we recently shot in Kopanga, Silvano Oketch is surrounded by beautiful chickens, clucking and wandering around their large, fenced pen. He smiles from ear to ear, gestures enthusiastically and tells us about the success of the project that P4P helped him start.

Silvano currently has 10 roosters and 53 hens. The healthy hens yield an average of 40 eggs per day which he sells for an average of KSh15 (Kenya shillings) per egg (about $0.13 US).

With the income he gets from egg sales, he is able to buy feed, medication, vaccines and necessities for the entire flock and earn a profit of between KSh3,000 and KSh4,000 per month ($25 to $35 US).

He cites his main challenge is the increasing cost of feed and fluctuating price of eggs in the village. Additionally, Silvano planted sunflowers to help supplement the chicken feed.

“I am so grateful to P4P for assisting with this project,” Silvano says. “From this place I can now have the strength to run my own farm. It is a very good project.” 

We’ll Miss You, Lee!
By Linda Hagen Miller, Communications Chair & Dia Maurer, P4P Executive Director

We have a rule in P4P newsletter land: don’t use exclamation points, use words to get your emphasis across. 

But we just used one, in a headline no less, because we’re finding it hard to find the best words to describe what Lee Fowler has meant to P4P. After nearly eight years, she is retiring as P4P’s part-time administrative coordinator leaving a gap that will take two people to fill. It’s true. We’ll still have a part time administrative coordinator but will also soon be staffed with a part time development coordinator/social media specialist. 

Lee has been a whiz at organizing files and records, keeping us all on schedule, tracking and collating and disseminating and balancing the sometimes-exasperating amount of information that flows between P4P’s Board of Directors, staff, volunteers, committee chairs and our Kenyan partners. She always shows up with enthusiasm, dedication and spirit.

Retirement means Lee will have more time to travel, take art classes, continue her cardmaking art parties and attack numerous house projects. 

We will miss her so much! (! Deserved).

Another Year for the Record Books

As 2021 ends, it is time to take a moment to reflect on everything that has happened in the past year. Thanks to you, our donors and volunteers, we have been able to help and support our partners in Kenya through another year of hardship.

Partnering for Progress was never intended to be a disaster relief agency, but difficult times call for innovative approaches. We work closely with our Kenya partners who recognize community challenges, and we develop projects to address these issues. Our partners named education, poverty reduction, safe water and health as areas they regard as critical. In addition, the Covid-19 virus has made food insecurity a top priority for many.

Because of your generosity these milestones have been recorded during our 14-year history: 

•    200 Infants have graduated from the Power of Milk, our infant nutrition program.
•    53 students have received high school scholarships.
•    31 students have graduated from high school.
•    8 students have received college scholarships.
•    675 girls have received Days for Girls reusable personal hygiene kits, helping them stay in school.
•    91 farmers have received seed, fertilizer and mentoring to increase yields.
•    4,500+ people have access to safe drinking water provided by rainwater catchment tanks, borehole and spring protection projects.
•    10 families have received 100 chickens each, launching an economic development and a nutrition project 

While we are proud of how far we have come, there is still so much more that can be done. As 2021 comes to an end, please consider making a financial contribution that will literally feed the hungry and promote long term solutions. 

Donate via PayPal or credit card, or send a check to Partnering for Progress, P.O. Box 28191, Spokane, WA 99228. Thank you! 

Volunteer Haley Lewis Gets Creative for P4P

Haley Lewis’ three roommates, Ruthy, Klaus and Mila, probably don’t understand her dream of eating pizza and gelato in Italy. After all, there is so much good lettuce to nibble.

“They seem to think the apartment is theirs and I’m just a visitor,” said Haley of her three pet rabbits. In addition to watching over Ruthy, Klaus and Mila, she is very close to her family, loves traveling, thrift store shopping, eating good food and laughing.

A Spokane native, Haley is an Eastern Washington University graduate with a degree in creative writing and journalism. She currently works for a STEM high school in Spokane Valley as a paraeducator. 

Haley started volunteering for P4P in February 2020, when she saw a post on Volunteer Spokane. She says she was so impressed with the energy and passion of long-time volunteer, Linda Hagen Miller, that she volunteered immediately. She joined the Communications Committee and writes Facebook postings and helps edit the P4P newsletter.

“I was looking for a way to get more involved in my community and also a way to practice more of my writing and editing skills,” she says.

While Haley has never been to Kenya, she would love to join a P4P trip. 

“I like that P4P empowers young people to go to school, provides young girls with sanitary kits, so they don’t have to stay home and miss school. P4P has also really stepped up to help the people of Kenya during COVID-19.” 

P4P is Hiring a New Executive Director

After nearly a decade of tireless, patient, creative and efficient work, Dia Maurer is resigning as P4P’s part-time executive director. 

We are so, so sad to see her leave, but we’re excited that she will have more time to travel with her husband, Bob, devote her considerable artistic skills to a crafting business, and spend more time with her mother, sister, cousins and friends. Dia says she is especially looking forward to being unemployed for the first summer since she was 14 years old.

The executive director position is a rare opportunity to provide leadership and coordinate programs that serve approximately 10,000 villagers in rural Kenya. The part time executive director job has flexible scheduling, requires 20 hours per week, occasional evenings and weekends. 

General duties include program management, strategic planning, revenue generation, financial management and organizational development.

Position details and benefits can be found at www.partneringforprogress.org "In the News." Interested applicants may email a letter of interest and resume to wayne.krafft@comcast.net. Screening will begin on January 20, 2022. No phone inquiries please.

Wishing all our Partnering for Progress supporters, board, volunteers and staff a safe and joyous holiday!