Ecotourism

In all of Kageno’s service communities, tourism can be a major source of income that reduces dependence on exploitive, unprofitable business practices and U.S donor funding.

Kageno believes that in underdeveloped nations, the safety of the environment and of natural resources in large part hinges on the emergence of healthier communities. In order for the wildlife and ecosystems of a given area to be protected, its bordering communities must be freed from the problems that create the need for survival tactics like deforestation and poaching. Once the need for these activities is lifted, a protected natural environment can become the community’s most valuable asset.

Kageno partners with conservationists and tour operators who can help to establish sustainable revenue streams out of protected natural environments. These partners help to attract tourists to the area, who often further support the community through volunteer work and donations.

Craft production

Craft production as an Income Generating Activity is a crucial part of Kageno’s micro-community model. Substantial craft enterprises allow communities to sustain their own programs and uplifted living standards.

Originating in March 2004, the Kageno Kenya crafts program has created jobs for over 200 women in Kolunga Beach, many of whom are either living with HIV/AIDS or are widowed by it. These women weave baskets, mats, and rugs out of locally available water hyacinth, a destructive weed growing in Lake Victoria. This skill is very easy to learn and can be employed on a massive level. The goal of the project is to create a sustainable export business through an exclusive relationship with an international retailer. Kageno has invested in technology to conduct business with the introduction of mobile phones and Internet connectivity in the village. Kageno’s craft program in Rwanda operates similarly.

While Kageno recognizes and celebrates the differences between communities, it puts standardized management and accounting systems in place that ensure efficient and accountable reporting across all project sites. Communication policies are also standardized to ensure that transparency and openness prevail at all levels of the organization and community.

A Fair Market Fishing Industry

Exploitive business cycles can exacerbate problems like AIDS and impoverishment. For example, in Kolunga Beach, the migratory fishing cycle is the single largest factor in the massive spread of HIV/AIDS within the community. The diagram below illustrates the stages of the current business cycle.

Fishermen’s Perpetual Cycle

With no money to buy food, mothers and even girls barter sex for food to feed their families. Moreover, with no place to store the dried fish, they must sell them before they rot to transporters - middlemen who pay the women prices far below fair market rates. This leaves the women with little money to purchase more fish, and forces the women to repeat the prostitution, some times as soon as the following day. The diagram below illustrates the effects of the current business cycle.

Women's (fishmongers) Perpetual Cycle

Kageno is in the process of establishing a non-exploitive fishing business that will take away power from non-local and exploitative middlemen and place it into the hands of local women. The women's problems lie (1) in the lack of storage places for the perishable fish; and, (2) in the lack of access to fair market prices. Kageno’s activities include:

• Making a series of microloans to local women, with which they may purchase fish and eliminate the need to barter with sex;

• Identifying and training a “fish business manager,” a woman who will replace the current middlemen by securing current fish buying prices (accessed through a mobile phone), and then purchasing fish from the women at those prices, using Kageno microloan funds;

• Construction of a community storage space so that women may store and preserve fish safely;

• Implementation of education programs in personal savings and simple bookkeeping to help the women pay back loans and achieve financial solvency through the fish trade.

Goat Breeding Project

This project aims to ensure sustainable community-based dairy goat production and animal healthcare systems are established, strengthened, and supported by community-based clusters and local extension services. Kageno is working closely with farmers and government staff to develop appropriate systems in Rusinga Island. 

By increasing the productivity of dairy goats, income is generated and access to family nutrition is increased. The project grants one goat on contract to a cluster of beneficiaries organized into small groups of four families that can support each other. The offspring will then circulate among the cluster until all families have one goat.

The purposes of this project are as follows:   + Income generation;   + Running of savings and credit schemes;   + Fodder conservation;  + Improved family nutrition in Rusinga Island;

Briquette Making Project

Kageno is helping communities collect trash and convert it into trash briquettes that substitute for firewood and can be sold as an alternative form of cooking fuel.

Cell Phone Charging

Kageno also provides the service of cell phone charging at a low cost to the people in the community.