March 9, 2012 First year scholar, Eunita Akim, reports that her youth group earned enough money from the sale of maize that members decided to help needy girls at Hadasah Girls High School in Kisumu Kenya stay in school by providing them with sanitary towels.The visit to the school was a success as the two representatives from the group were also granted an opportunity to hold a guidance and counseling session with the girls. Eunita’s project involving empowering youth to help themselves and their community has made good progress in its first year. Pictured are some of the girls holding their sanitary towels.
February 1, 2012 We are happy to announce the graduation of Noah Kanda Kelly.  Noah graduated in September 2011 from the University of Nairobi with a degree in Education. We were only now able to retrieve this lost photo of him and post it.  His first position was teaching Geography at Chebai High School, the same school he attended in high school. Thereafter, he took a position at neighboring school, Moi Girls Kapcherop Secondary School, as a Geography and Business Studies teacher.  Noah is currently especially interested in the education of girls.

Being close to home allows Noah to be still directly involved in his PATHWAYS community project. His community group is constructing a restaurant to serve as a community gathering place to discuss development projects and also to serve as a source of income to sustain the tree nursery they developed during the time Noah was in university. So far, they have dug a hole for the latrine, roofed the building, and put up fencing. The second phase will involve putting in the floor, setting up the kitchen, and finishing the conference hall. Noah reports, “We are seriously engaged and are receiving support from members’ contributions”.  A local nonprofit, Kenya Rural Initiative Project (KERIP), that works on projects including peace building, the environment and agriculture outreach programs has been offering support to Noah’s community group in terms of office space and suggestions on funding. It is clear Noah is on the path to continuing to improve the lives of his community members through the restaurant and the local environment through the tree nursery.
January 16, 2012 Dennis Mutwiri, third year scholar, reports that his community project involving introducing solar power is providing benefits. Pictured left is a community member who bought a solar kit on credit and is now using the power for lighting, recharging phones and powering a radios. Commercially, he charges mobile phones for persons in the neighborhood at the rate of KSH10 per phone and uses some of the proceeds to repay the loan for the solar kit. He explains, “Lately, I have cut costs on my own fuel and charging my own phone and those of my family members.” Dennis says, “We are looking forward to intensifying this trend among the group members and the community in general”.  Dennis’s project is allowing the community to take advantage of “free” solar energy while creating no carbon emissions.

December 16, 2011 We are happy to announce the graduation of our sixth scholar, David Mundia, who  graduated with a degree in Dentistry on December 2, 2011. David grew up in one of Nairobi’s largest and poorest slums, Korogocho, where medical care was unavailable. These circumstances challenged and motivated him to work hard in school, so that he would be able to make a difference for the poor in Korogocho by one day helping to provide quality, accessible and affordable health care. He earned such good grades that he was admitted to the University of Nairobi to study Dentistry. During his university career, David also carried out his PATHWAYS project which involved a tutoring program for young children and a women’s self help group. A total of 146 students received tutoring and in 2010 15/23 passed their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations, a large improvement from previous years. Proceeds accrued from the women’s group activities are used to sustain the tutoring project as well as providing the women with a source of livelihood. David had another opportunity to hone his leadership skills during his university tenure by serving as chairman of the Nairobi University Dental Students Association. Next up for David is interning at Kenyatta National Hospital starting in April, 2011. David has already started paying it forward by offering free dental services to those who cannot afford to pay. We thank Dr. Ray Schinazi for sponsoring David.
November 19, 2011 The annual orientation meeting was held to welcome the four new scholars chosen this year.  The scholars are Marlyn Nyabuti (center; Medical School), Eunita Akim (right; Nursing School), Hussein Abdhallah (left; Actuarial Science) and Brian Kilonzi(Medical School;not pictured). Kennedy Otieno (current scholar) and Levis Maina (alumni) gave presentations and the group oriented the new scholars as to the mission and purpose of PATHWAYS, i.e. to build leaders through community development/empowerment projects. Congratulations to scholars Aphonce Oginga, Dennis Mutwiri and Jemimah Peters for planning the conference with the help of Catherine Kaimenyi and Dr. Mbaabu Mathiu.

September 25, 2011 Second year scholar, Jemimah Peter, reports that her women’s group was informed about cassava from third year scholar Michael Murigi and now are motivated to move forward with their agricultural project. They are planting sukuma wikis and tomatoes and will plant cassava when the short rains come. A water tank purchased through Jemimah’s project award, is being used to help with watering (pictured above). This is a good example of more senior scholars helping more junior scholars.

August 25, 2011 Dikembe Mutombo (pictured at far left), the global ambassador of the NBA, represented Cindy McCain at a visit to 3rd year scholar Michael Murigi’s (pictured at right) cassava project in Maragua Division. The visit was arranged by the Ministry of Agriculture so that the delegation, including senior officials from the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa and the U.S. embassy, could witness a success story of how one community has used cassava cultivation to escape hunger in an area of raging famine. Journalists from the CNN and BBC were in attendance. Michael reported, “Our message was that African problems required African solutions and if supported, our lives would greatly improve. PATHWAYS Student Coordinator, Catherine Kaimenyi, and Vice President, Dr. Mbaabu Mathiu, were in attendance and explained the link between PATHWAYS and our group. The Americans told me that they were happy that an American organization (PATHWAYS) has helped to better our lives. Dikembe Mutombo conveyed Madam Cindy’s apologies and promised that she will visit in the future to experience the success herself.”
August 8, 2011 Nafisa Ayuka recently completed her teaching practice at St. Clares Maragoli Girls Secondary School. She was a wonderful role model for the girls given her extensive involvement in improving her community. Next, Nafisa will be interning with Solidarity for Advancement of Women’s Agenda (SAWA) under the guidance of Catherine Kaimenyi.
June 4-5, 2011 PATHWAYS annual conference was special this year being held over a two-day period allowing plenty of time for sharing ideas on community projects as well as having a lot of fun together. We celebrated graduations as well as all of the successes the scholars have had in improving their communities over our six years. Special congratulations go to Michael Murigi (Scholar of the Year), Dennis Mutwiri (Honorable Mention Scholar of the Year), Alphonce Oginga (Honorable Mention Scholar of the Year), Nafisa Ayuka (Leadership Award) and Shelly Okumu (The Girl Effect Award).

April 11, 2011 Shelly Okumu  is working to implement the Girl Effect by providing adolescent girls with mentors, an identification card, HIV/AIDS education and allowing them a time and space to talk about their lives. She will also be helping them develop an income generating activity in the near future. www.girleffect.org
April 10, 2011 Jemimah Peters is working to empower the girls in her village by helping them earn money from raising crops. She has 13 girl members in her group so far. In their small plot they are raising tomatoes, sukumawiki, and maize. Through this project, Jemimah intends to help girls earn money so they can pay school fees to finish at least their high school education. Gaining an education will help them postpone marriage which can put them at risk for HIV.
March 4, 2011 Dennis Mutwiri and his community group have started a fish farming project funded in part from a government grant of about $350. The pond (25M by 20M) has approximately 120 fingerlings. The fish will serve as a source of food as well as a source of income.

February 10, 2011 David Mundia is assisting his women’s group in the Korogocho area in learning to make sandals to sell to generate income. David’s PATHWAYS project is to tutor needy students and help to empower women. Recently, the women visited Kariokor workshop to be trained on sandal making. Pictured is an example of the sandals the women will be making.
January 29, 2011 In December 2010, Isaac Ngere graduated from Medical School at the University of Nairobi, culminating a distinguished five-years of academic achievement. Isaac, who was the very first PATHWAYS Scholar chosen in the organization’s inaugural year of 2005, has been an exemplary scholar contributing to the organization by providing effective leadership and serving as a model for and mentor to younger students. He has also designed, implemented and fully developed an outstanding project in support of HIV/AIDS orphans in his home village of Wagire. In recognition of his success, Isaac’s project was the first selected to be listed on the Global Giving site (www.globalgiving.org/4923) and was successful in raising more than $10,000 and earning a permanent placement for PATHWAYS on Global Giving. Isaac’s project provides a school in his community that now includes a new building and library with solar power. These improvements will also provide opportunities for training and entrepreneurial ventures like a barber shop. All of us in the PATHWAYS organization join in offering our sincere congratulations to Isaac on his graduation and wish him success as he continues his medical career and community leadership activities. He began his residency training  in January specializing in Pediatric Medicine. We are confident that Isaac Ngere will be an outstanding physician and make many contributions to his community and to Kenya, and we look forward to his continued role with PATHWAYS. Our gratitude is extended to Dr. Stuart Zola for his dedicated sponsorship of Isaac.
January 20, 2011 Kenya is experiencing severe drought and acute food shortages. Michael Murigi, 2nd year scholar, has made tremendous progress in introducing cassava growing to his community. Cassava is an indigenous crop that is fast growing and well adapted to the dry environment and local plant diseases. The starch filled roots can be used like potatoes or ground into flour, while the leaves can be used like spinach. Michael’s project is demonstrating that adding cassava as an alternative crop can increase food security as well as increase income among the villagers. His project is a role model for communities across the country. Great work Michael! Photo at left shows Student Coordinator, Catherine Kaimenyi, visiting Michael’s project and witnessing the cassava production first hand.
January 13, 2010 Dennis Mutwiri, 2nd year scholar, says “…my projects are thriving and the members are working in unison and harmony which shows that the group’s administration is on the right track.” Solar panel provision is one of his main projects.  He reports, ” The members are carrying out their role as sales people and enlightening the community on the benefits of using green energy.”
January 10, 2011 Kennedy Otieno, 3rd year scholar, has initiated six active projects in his village. At the end of last year, his most ambitious project, a community borehole was completed. The borehole is providing water to nearly 100 individuals in his village. Kennedy is making a real difference in the lives of his community members!

November 20, 2010 Noah Kanda Kelly, 4th year scholar whose project is growing trees to restore the environment and climate, participated in a tree planting project under Mully’s Children Family in Yatta area (Eastern). He reports, “We were about 1000 students from different Universities and colleges and managed to plant over 3500 trees.” Good work Noah!
October 30, 2010 The first meeting of the new school year was inspirational with Mr. Eric Kimani, businessman and philanthropist, relating his childhood/youth experiences to his success in business and PATHWAYS vice president in Kenya, Dr.  Mbaabu Mathiu, welcoming the new scholars and speaking on responsibility, commitment, and community development.  PATHWAYS first three scholars, Monicah Wairimu, Isaac Ngere and Levis Maina spoke on the PATHWAYS journey over the last 5 years, the GlobalGiving initiative, and job searching after graduation. Welcome 2011 scholars Shelly, Jemimah and Deborah!

October 29, 2010 Remarking on the completion of  the 5th year of PATHWAYS, Monicah Wairimu, the first scholar to graduate, says “PATHWAYS scholars you have done a great job in the organization. Its my prayer that we can do even better to keep the family alive for many many years to come. I am proud of the organization. Long live PATHWAYS, happy 5th Anniversary!”

October 1, 2010 Nafisa Ayuka’s youth  group is doing well in making sanitary pads for themselves and eventually to sell to others.  Having the necessary hygiene products is crucial to girls being able to attend school regularly.  Nafisa is committed to helping girls in her community succeed.

September 15, 2010 David Mundia, a Dentistry major, was elected chairman of the Nairobi University Dental Students Association. David says, “I am happy about this achievement and I will be glad to serve my fellow students and school”.

September 12, 2010 Michael Murigi serves as the chair of the Youth Group in the Murang’a Presbytery which consists of 50 congregations with more than 500,000 youths.  In addition, Michael is Secretary of the Murang’a University Students Association, a network of both public and private universities’ students from the greater Murang’a County.

August 28, 2010 Dennis Mutwire organized a solar installation training where 7 of his community members were trained on how to install the panels on house roofs, connect the panels to a solar battery inside the house, and wire in order to power various electrical appliances such as light bulbs, radio sets, mobile phones. Dennis is currently doing an internship at Meru Water and Sewerage Services. He says, “It is a great experience”.

August 30, 2010 Michael Murigi is teaching Agriculture and Business Studies during his long vacation at Muthithi High School, near his home area.  Michael continues to push his cassava project forward.  He recently invited the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute to provide training to about 500 women on the benefits of cassava farming. Additional education was provided by Kenya Women Finance Trust, a leading microfinance institution, to create awareness about microfinance banking.

August 29, 2010 Alphonce Oginga who just finished his freshman year at the U of Nairobi, is interning at the Nairobi City Hall Planning Department. He says, ” Although one is suppose to go for internship in third year, I deemed it fit to begin earlier. At least I’m able to compare the theory we’ve learned and it’s practical application.”

August 15, 2010 While student teaching at Oloolua Secondary School, Noah Kanda coached girls’ football (soccer) and filled in as a teacher on duty with all of the accompanying oversight responsibilities. Noah reports, ”Being a teacher on duty, I felt elevated because I was at the center of consultation by teachers, visitors and students.”

June 26, 2010 Catherine Kaimenyi, the Student Coordinator/mentor, visited Monicah Wairimu’s project in Elementaita to offer the women’s group leadership training on community development, fund raising, record keeping and reporting.

June 19, 2010 Michael Murigi secured his group a stand at Muranga District Agricultural Show (pictured left) where they displayed cassava products including Mandazi (baked from cassava flour), crisps, porridge. Pictured are Hon. Dr. Joseph Nyaga, Minister for Co-operatives, Hon. Elias Mbau, M.O., Maragua Constituency and Eunice Wambui Kamande, an ex-officio member of the project management council.

May 22, 2010 Catherine Kaimenyi, Student Coodinator, organized a course on community development for university students with help from the PATHWAYS scholars. This gathering also served to spread the word about PATHWAYS and the availability of scholarships.

May 15, 2010 Noah Kanda began student teaching at Oloolua Sec. School, Ngong. He says, “It is a nice experience teaching young people and more importantly motivating them.”

May 15, 2010 First year scholar Michael Murigi was invited by Dr Kamau of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute to speak on his cassava project at a high level agricultural meeting in Kenya. Former Senator George McGovern and other dignitaries were present.

May 6, 2010 Kennedy Otieno, 2nd yr scholar, was appointed by the University of Nairobi to give motivational talks to secondary school students. The career week was organized by the Honorable Member of Parliament for Karachuonyo Constituency Eng. James Rege in an effort to create an educational and motivational forum for High School students.

April 29, 2010 PATHWAYS won a spot on Global Giving. Many thanks to all who helped!

March 27, 2010:  PATHWAYS Leadership for Progress held its fifth Annual Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.  The conference included comments from the President, Deb Gust, and Vice-President, Mbaabu Mathiu, educational presentations on topics of interest to the scholars, the presentation of special awards to two scholars and comments from representatives from four communities where projects have been implemented.  Additionally, each of the scholars reported on their community projects listing accomplishments for the past year and plans for the coming year.

In addition to the eleven scholars, attendees included Dr. Mbaabu Mathiu (Vice-President for Kenya), Catherine Kaimenyi (Student Coordinator), Monicah Wairimu (Outreach Coordinator) and Deb Gust (President), along with invited representatives from four of the scholars’ projects to present on the impact the PATHWAYS project was having on their community. This conference marked the first that community representatives were an integral part of the days activities. Kevin Mwangi, who helps with David Mundia’s tutoring project in the Korogocho slum, reported how their students had scored higher this year than last on the KCPE.  Nancy Njeri and Joyce Kisuli, also from David’s project, represented the women’s group formed to work together to generate income so that they could help sustain the tutoring project for their children long term.  In addition to meeting to develop a business of selling beads, carpet and baskets, they have initiated a voluntary savings and loan program.  Other representatives who reported on the community projects included John Chepkorir who spoke about having a good market for the honey that comes from Lily Chepkorir’s bee keeping project, George Ooko who spoke about the community’s commitment to Isaac Ngere’s orphan support program and Jane Njeri who spoke about the community group that is working together on Michael Murigi’s project to introduce cassava to the farmers to plant to improve food security.  Dr. J. Kamau from the Kenya Agricultural Research Department, who has been advising Michael, also attended to speak on the importance of cassava to the food security of Kenyans.  Dr. Kamau states. “I would like to see one quarter acre of cassava in every farm in Kenya”. We all benefited from the presence and first hand reports of these community members.

Topics important to the PATHWAYS scholars were reported on and discussed including Ethics (Noah Kanda), Brain Drain (Kennedy Otieno), HIV prevention (David Mundia), and the concept of Pay it Forward (Deb Gust). This year, the 2009 Scholar of the Year award was presented to Kennedy Otieno for his dedication and motivation in developing and expanding his community project.  Kennedy’s initial waste management project now encompasses bee keeping, poultry raising, vegetable garden (including cassava) and tree planting.

The Girl Effect, recognizing the importance of empowering young girls, was a focus at this year’s conference.  In recognition of her work to empower girls through her project of teaching young girls to make reusable sanitary pads, Nafisa Ayuko, was presented the 2009 Girl Effect Award.  This topic and award generated much discussion, with many of the scholars providing examples of how the girl child is not given equal educational opportunities and is not valued as boys are, resulting in few opportunities, early marriages and overall, robs the next generation of education and an empowered role model.  It is gratifying to have learned that our PATHWAYS scholar, Lily Chepkorir, has changed her community’s thinking about girls, a fact that was revealed during a visit to her village just prior to the conference.  The assistant chief of Lily’s village states “Now that Lily has gone to university with the help of the PATHWAYS scholarship and also helped her community with her bee keeping project, the community has changed its thinking regarding girls, now they think that girls can help the community and should not have to get married early.”

Our first graduate, Monicah Wairimu, now volunteering as the PATHWAYS Outreach Coordinator, has been busy this past year facilitating communication, identifying ways to recruit applicants and continuing to work on on her community project.  With this continuing involvement with and commitment to PATHWAYS, she is helping to establish a permanent scholar’s network and setting a good example of PATHWAYS scholars “paying it forward”.

This conference was special not only because it marks the year in which two of our very first scholars graduate, but because in addition to hearing presentations from the scholars on the progress of their community projects, we went as a group for a site visit to David Mundia’s tutoring project in Korogocho.  We were greeted by many of the youth who have benefited from David’s project as well as many of the mothers of these students.  David took the opportunity to tell those gathered that this coming year he would begin work to make the tutoring project sustainable by asking the women to form a group to produce products from which some of the profits would support the tutoring.  The women were encouraged by this prospect and had many good ideas of how to proceed.

At the conference this year we gave out two awards: “Scholar of the Year 2008″ and “Role Model of the Year 2008″. We were happy to award Noah Kanda Kelly the PATHWAYS Scholar of the Year 2008 award for his excellence in academics, his dedication to improving and expanding his environmental project in his village of Tutarung and his initiative in seeking out ways to improve his project such as with solar power. Monicah Wairimu received the Role Model of the Year Award for her assistance with scholar mentoring, organization of PATHWAYS meetings and her seamless transition from scholar to professional in the workplace.

Also at the conference meeting Monicah reported on the site visit she, Deb and Betty Auma made to Isaac’s project the week prior.  Isaac is PATHWAYS first scholar.  His project is to support the orphans in his village through the development of community projects that serve to fund the orphans’ needs such as food, school fees and uniforms.  During this site visit, Monicah, Betty and Deb learned about each of several subprojects and how they relate to the overall objective of supporting the orphans and other children in the community.  Monicah suggested that many ideas from Isaac’s project could usefully be adapted by other scholars for their projects, for instance, the active involvement of the community support group in the development of and reporting on the community project /subprojects and having a small group of people be responsible for the success of the project.

As noted, 2009 marks the year PATHWAYS is graduating its first scholars.  In this vein, we talked about the plan for continued involvement of the alumni.  Monicah Wairimu, our first graduate, accepted the position of PATHWAYS Outreach Coordinator.  As part of her responsibilities, she will work with other scholars to draw up the alumni guidance document.  It was discussed that one of the missions of the alumni will be to develop a business plan where the profits will help support future PATHWAYS scholars and alumni community projects.

2011 Update
Jemimah’s community suffers from lack of water due to prolonged drought (see some of women’s group members at left). Despite the lack of water, her community has made some progress this year in vegetable farming raising sukuma wiki & tomatoes (160 sukuma wiki crops and around 260 tomato crops) (see photo below of women working in the farm). Their goal is to develop a sustainable method for increased access to water to encourage development of other activities like irrigation farming in the community.

Connecting the vegetable farm with piped water, approximately 1.5km from the area, is the goal since the farm is far from the river.

Plans for 2012
1. Extend piped water to the project area which is approximately 1.5 km from the area to solve the challenge of water scarcity. Approximately 20 families with an average of 7 members per family will also benefit.
2. Expand the existing vegetable project after successful connection of water.
3. To have a reserve tank for storing rain water and also the piped water.
4. Assist adolescent girls with securing a source of income (see girls, women, and Jemimah in photo at left)

2011 Update
-Provided ID cards for 25 adolescent girls.
-Provided 25 adolescent girls with mentors from different universities.
established weekly meetings for adolescent girls and arranged expert talks on HIV/AIDS.
-Initiated communication between mentors and mentees via letter writing.

Plans for 2011-2012
1. Establish a poultry project for the girls so they can earn income for future secondary school fees.
2. Continue expert talks for the girls to prepare them for the future.
3. Open a bank account for the girl project.