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What We Do
GAPS has established projects in Kenya in each of our focus areas: education, medical development and community development. New projects in these areas continue to be planned.
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Education
Kenyan Early Childhood Education Program (KECEP)
The Kenyan Early Childhood Education Program (KECEP) is a program targeted at bringing the benefits of a dedicated early childhood education program to underprivileged villages. Even where rural children are able to access the nominally universal free primary school education in Kenya, they inevitably start at the age of seven and are already at a disadvantage compared to their kindergarten-educated counterparts in urban areas and other parts of the world. This program aims to implement early childhood education through adapting Kenyan early childhood education curricula and adapting them to rural social and cultural contexts.
Researching and Developing Youth Group Agendas in Rwanda
This developing program involves volunteers researching development in depth in the context of Rwanda and developing youth group agendas in partnership with Rwandan youth through internet based resources on issues of social justice, peace, development and poverty. These agendas are to be developed through Development Studies university students in conjunction with psychological students, refugees from similar traumatic situations and other organisations experienced with youth group models. In combination with GAPS partner Never Again Rwanda, these programs would be trialled and later enacted on a wider basis, fulfilling a need identified by NAR as a key component of healing in today's Rwanda.
Medical development
Mobile Clinic Program
This developing program's primary in-field ambition is to run large mobile weekend clinics in non-serviced areas of rural Kenya providing free medical services and helping to deliver free medications. The medical services would primarily be run by Kenyan medical staff (primarily junior doctors) and Kenyan nursing staff, all volunteering with the GAPS partner Community Medicare Africa. These primary health care clinics in Kenya would be run in partnership with the support and interaction of groups of primary care physicians (ie general
practitioners) in Australia.
When fulfilled, this service would build on similar work by Community Medicare Africa in the mobile clinic field and would bring healthcare for basic conditions to those who are financially and geographically unable to do so otherwise.
Kenyan Village-Based Medical Educators (KVME)
The KVME program involves volunteers establishing and conducting a training program for non-professional medical educators from villages in Kenya.
At present, there is a significant lack of understanding about a variety of preventable and manageable diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and diabetes) in Kenyan society and this is heightened in non-urban village areas. The project seeks to train senior members of village communities in Kenya to be basic medical educators covering key conditions appropriate to a Kenyan village context. Taking a culturally-sensitive approach, this would help in increasing understanding and hence reducing the burden of disease. In the village of Imutan, GAPS is making plans for the construction of a basic health clinic.
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Community Development
Kiambu Community Centre Program
This program is currently building on existing work performed by volunteers with an architecture background in designing a culturally-sensitive community centre. The next phase of this program involves engineering assessment of the building in the context of the site as well as further construction. This is limited by funds raised in Australia through partnerships but would at least involved initial contributions possibly including sustainable water systems and other projects.
Volunteers are required to take part in the engineering assessment as well as being involved in constructing other initial construction contributions. Construction would be either based on plans already formulated for this site or for similar work done elsewhere.
The nature of the work in this project is dependent on funding from Australian partners and communication with the community and participants should expect the agenda here to be flexible to these considerations.
Women's Handicraft Support Program
We are starting to establish a microfinance program which is aimed at maximising feasibility of small businesses run by women making handicrafts for sale in combination with traditional community ownership modelled microfinance. In consultation with experts, GAPS aims to initially provide women with a small grant with which to start their cottage industry business. Through consultation with Australian major industry buyers, women would also be guided by GAPS as to what styles and approaches would maximise their feasibility and subsequently would assist in marketing items to buyers in Australia.