Sister VERONICA THIGA, 54, the only nun in the Ministry of Agriculture, tells KIUNDU WAWERU how her work as a Gender and Home Economics Extension Officer has changed livelihoods of many farmers
Veronica became a nun at the age of 22. Her mission under the umbrella of the Assumption Sisters of Nairobi was evangelism. But all around her poverty bedevilled peasant farmers and villagers. In her heart, she knew that people could not serve God on an empty stomach.
From Kakamega to Kisumu to Marsabit, Machakos and Murang’a, you will find previously struggling farmers smiling all the way to the bank as a result of Sister Veronica’s work.
In Busia, a group of 55 HIV-positive women, who only recently were leading desperate lives, are making flour from sweet potatoes, which they sell or use to make mandazi.
"We are doing value addition," says Veronica who has been training the group. "The Vision 2030 stipulates that the country should be self-sufficient and, going by the perennial droughts, we cannot achieve this unless we start impacting on peoples lives now."
READ MORE
Two-horse race for Africa Zone Three Boxing Championships title
Since 1989, the nun has been forming farmers groups. She started off with ten groups and named her pet project Songa Mbele Community Development Initiative (SoMCoDI). Today, she has 360 groups, with over 8,000 members from all over the country.
In September last year, the Government presented her with an office at the Kenya Agricultural Research Centre (Kari) in Thika, and now she is training the groups on value addition of locally available resources. Since then, 183 of the 360 groups have benefited from the training.
In Kikuyu and Kandara, dairy farmers are making and selling yoghurt. Other farmers are making mango juice and in Kangundo, they are using cassava to make flour.
"People lack skills and knowledge that can turn their lives around and most rely on handouts. It’s common to find farmers who have not planted because the Government has not given them fertiliser," says Veronica.
Thus, SoMCoDI set to create self-reliance from the onset and for that, it has won international recognition. Other African countries come to Kenya to learn from the groups.
"The Japanese International Development Agency (JICA) has in the past collaborated with SoMCoDI after it realised that we had a lot of similarities with the Japanese Kaizen approach to community development," says the nun.
Individualism
Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy advocating the need for continuous improvement in personal and professional life. The philosophy has been adapted around the world in governments, banking, healthcare and other industries.
"Japan’s economy is stable because, for a long time, they have developed locally available resources to improve their livelihoods. I travelled to Japan in 2007 and was amazed. We have huge tracts of idle land while people go hungry. In Japan, they exploit a small piece of land and also, they do not waste space as they have created cottage industries where they make products for sale from home," expounds Veronica.
"Another glaring difference is that the Japanese pool resources together, while we are individualistic," she adds.
While forming the groups, Veronica follows a defined, elaborate process. She first trains them on self-awareness.
"It is only when we know ourselves that we will be able to appreciate others and consequently work together in harmony," says Veronica.
After the training, she conducts elections and guides in the drafting of a constitution, which must be followed to the letter so as to hold the group together.
The groups then start merry-go-rounds and table banking where everyone contributes, and the members get a loan from the kitty to pay back with interest.
Tours
Over the years, Veronica has seen people improve their livelihoods bit by bit and, by working as a team, they share their joys and sorrows. They also go for educational tours to see what other farmers are doing and learn from them. Also, every year, the farmers meet at an exhibition where they showcase their income generating projects.
Veronica is still agile and energetic. Before she got an office, she would visit five groups a day, working from Sunday to Sunday. And it has not been easy.
"In the beginning, I would walk. It was exhausting and I couldn’t reach many groups. After three years the groups contributed and bought me a bicycle. In 1996, having formed 130 groups, they bought me a motorcycle, which was later stolen at gunpoint. In 2000, I had 210 groups who contributed and bought me a Toyota Corolla," says the nun.
Today, Veronica has a government car, along with a driver.
Sister Veronica grew up in Nanyuki Barracks where her father was a military officer. After high school, she joined Embu Institute of Agriculture for a certificate in Home Economics. She then proceeded to Zambia for a diploma in the same field.
She has penned two booklets, both geared to the improvement of farmers, titled You are What you Eat and Replication of Songa Mbele Community Initiative and Kaizen Approach in Kenya.
