Alekii Harambee Club Blog

The history of Harambee and our vision for the future

Firstly. let us take this opportunity to thank you for taking the decision to invest with us. In this post we want to introduce you, our dear members, to our vision for the Alekii Harambee Club. 

For Kenyans the word Harambee is embedded in the culture. After gaining independence in 1963, the first president Jomo Kenyatta sought to unite the various tribes and factions together into one united country. In Kiswahili the word literally means pooling together, or joining hands. 

The Alekii Centre Kenya has been working on Rusinga island for six years. Rusinga is situated on Lake Victoria in Nyanza province which is right down in the South West of the country bordering with Uganda. The area is stunningly beautiful, but poor with most of the population relying on fishing in some way to earn a humble living.

One of the key problems facing people on the island is an extremely high incidence rate of HIV/AIDs. In some areas up to 40% of the population are estimated to be infected which has led to a large number of orphaned and vulnerable children.

It's for that reason that Alekii Centre was launched six years ago to open a school for children that otherwise wouldn't have been able to access primary education. In a way this was a kind of Harambee, with local community members contributing and parents and guardians paying what they could.

Six years on and the school has grown to over 70 children with five teachers in a new building. Our aspiration for the school is to become grow to over 200 children over the next five years, to launch a significant feeding programme for our pupils and to open a health service to treat prevalent conditions like malaria and typhoid which take lives unnecessarily every year.

To do this, we need a sustainable source of income, which is where the AHC comes in. Our vision is for the AHC to become a force for good here on Rusinga beginning by funding the school's expansion plan. But we don't plan to stop there.

We believe that once we have proved the concept with our pilot vehicle project, the doors will open to launch a number of new enterprises on the island with the backing of members from around the world.

We will identify talented young entrepreneurs who have great ideas but lack the capital crucial to launch. We will create jobs and opportunities for people on the island with a particular focus on girls and women. And we will search for new and innovative ventures which have the potential to grow the local economy.

This is our vision, and we thank you all for taking the decision to invest with us. You are our founding partners, and we look forward to working with you in the true Harambee spirit to make this our vision a reality.

- David