The Kenya Rising staff regularly take pictures during field work, when they are out of the office conducting small workshops or visiting families and schools. To encourage great photography and to provide motivation for taking the best pictures possible, we on the Friends of Kenya Rising board have been voting for our favorite photos and in doing so choosing the “Top Ten” photos for each month. Because the fruits of our staff members’ work is informative and inspiring, we are not surprised that the photos they take are also informative and inspiring. As we share below the Top Ten photos from July 2021, we would like to voice our appreciation for all staff members’ efforts supporting students and families as they build a better future. Thanks to each and every one of the dedicated and hard working Kenya Rising staff.
A mother in our programs shows off samples of the fresh produce and fish
that she sells as a livelihoods income project.
A new high school student smiles as she finishes collecting her school requirements at the Care Centre’s
“freshman admission day” held in late July
A family smiles inside their almost-finished new house, built through the Healthy Homes program
which sees families collaborate with UKR by providing what they can while UKR, with help from our donors, provides the rest
Heading off to high school, this student smiles broadly
as her mother helps her carry a new school locker box full of studying and living supplies
A girl and her mother fill a jerrycan at the rainwater-filled water
tank they received from UKR one year ago
Children standing in front of the new latrine that their family constructed
with assistance from the Healthy Homes program
A boy shows off the bricks that his family made and cured;
after producing them, they sell bricks for income and also use them for home building projects
Agriculture officer Fred stands with a mother and her baby
in a field that’s been intercropped with two kinds of indigenous vegetables
All 72 first-year high school students before they reported to their new high schools,
together with their guardians, at the Care Centre’s “freshmen admission day”
A family smiling their home together
A family guardian with agriculture officer Fred,
observing the family’s healthy cow as it eats
A village-based local “cluster” of guardians celebrating teamwork
as part of their group training
Another local agriculture-training “cluster” group of guardians
jumping for joy as they celebrate successful teamwork
A family together outside their home, with the younger kids
laughing hardest at a joke that was told to prompt big smiles
Two brothers from one of our newest families in their back yard, surrounded by banana trees, holding up the new SunKing solar light (in box) that they just received, together with the solar light’s metal holder which can stand upright or be hung from the ceiling
A brother and sister sit together outside their home during a social worker’s visit
Big smiles from two siblings enjoying some time together at home
A woman cuts chapati before selling to hungry clients at lunch time; this is one of her several income-generating small business ventures that UKR has supported through training, encouragement, and modest start-up capital
A grandmother who cares for several young children stands proudly in front of her finger-millet crop; she is growing this crop, which is healthier and hardier than maize, for the first time after receiving training from UKR’s agriculture team
A boy smiles as he sits on his now-full school locker box
during “freshmen admission day” at the Care Centre
A girl packs up study and living supplies during “freshmen admission day” at the Care Centre,
before heading off to high school for the first time a few days later
Elizabeth, an intern for the new Rotary Global Grant agriculture business training program,
celebrates as she shows off a successful crop of collard greens at one of UKR’s several village-based small scale demo farms