Embedded Files
Today we visited the Kenyan outpost of the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI), an Italian non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Milan and founded in 1972. The Kenyan branch was established in 1986. This non-profit’s offices are actually right next to TRM mall, where we have been going for lunch, shopping, and to exchange money. We had no idea until today AVSI was so close.
AVSI works for a world where the person, aware of their value and dignity, is the protagonist of their own development and that of their community, even in crisis and emergency contexts. AVSI primarily focuses on supporting orphaned and vulnerable children. According to the Director and program specialists we spoke with, there are 107 million children who are orphans globally with 3.6 million orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya alone. They explained there are various factors that lead to orphanhood in Kenya, including abandonment due to disability, neglect, death of parents, and holes in the social safety net. Vulnerable children are those who are at higher risk of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, neglect, negligence, extreme poverty, or even sexual exploitation.
We heard from Romana, who is the in-country representative for AVSI. She has been a part of the organization for over 20 years and works in the humanitarian and development sector. AVSI is in 42 countries in the world. Their various programs cover a number of areas for improving individual lives and communities, such as affirmative action programming to train female teachers, HIV monitoring and treatment, pollution, climate change & energy and agricultural development, nutrition, and child education scholarships. AVSI recognizes that much of the physical and emotional labor that contributes to safe, functional families and communities comes from women, so they work to improve the lives of these women and their families by opening many more opportunities to them for school, work, and community building.
Many of the AVSI’s programs, particularly ones serving refugees, had been funded through the US Embassy and USAID. Since that funding source was eliminated in 2025 by the Trump administration, they have worked intensely to find other sources of aid from within and outside of Kenya, but their budget, workforce, and programming have suffered immensely. The loss of USAID cut 40% of AVSI's operating budget in Kenya and led to the loss of about 300 community workers and the premature end of a number of programs, including one on HIV infection and serostatus monitoring. Romana did say that the cutting of USAID is a wake-up call for Africa, which has become so dependent on international aid and needs to deal with corruption. She said Africans are not holding their governments accountable for failing to provide aid locally, withholding services and funding, and ignoring persistent problems of vulnerable people and children. Despite the end of USAID, there are still signs around the building that thank the United States for its support and that highlight the interventions and programming impact (This was true of the clinics we visited as well, such as the one in Kahawa West.) Notably, the signs acknowledging the US are being replaced by signs honoring European nations and China for their investments in the country, from NGO support to infrastructure projects.
The AVSI method is the guiding system that AVSI employs. The first step of the AVSI method is to focus on the individual value of the person regardless of their circumstances. The second step is to consider their wider family and community. The third step is recognizing the shared human experience among that person, their community, and the workers at AVSI, so everyone may learn from everyone. The fourth step is to involve AVSI’s stakeholders, donors, providers, and private investors in the work through messaging and events. The fifth and final step is to learn from, not capitalize on, their projects and partners at and beyond AVSI.
Next we learned about the OVC Empowerment Network, which works to provide and respond to problems faced by vulnerable families and their children in the most peripheral areas of Kenya. Through AVSI interventions, they empower household economic skills, sensitize communities to gender and family issues, and support the socioeconomic development of 3,545 households. The target beneficiaries are 30,000 people and 14 local organizations. This program takes place across 12 counties in Kenya and is funded through private donors in Italy, Switzerland, Kenya, and the UK. The AVSI method not only impacts the child who becomes empowered but also the whole household through nutrition programming, training, economic empowerment, and more.
The programs use various strategies to support the participants, such as DSP, the Distance Support Project. The DSP is primarily a scholarship project for vulnerable children to go to school and afford materials. The sponsored child functions as an entry point for the rest of the family, which is also often vulnerable. The DSP works to strengthen the socio-economic status of the family by offering them financial literacy toolkits so that after scholarship ends they can still support their children.
The DSP participant impact study had a large amount of positive results. 71% were employed (many teachers), and 21% advanced significantly in their careers. 84% of participating caregivers met broader household needs. There was a 40% reduction of GBV (gender-based violence) and FGM (female genital mutilation) related violence, with 67% of people saying that DSP improved overall community wellbeing. These statistics highlight and show how multipronged empowerment methods uplift not only the single beneficiary but positively impact a whole community and help stabilize the lives of women in their communities. Grace, the project manager, highlighted how former participants are also starting to sponsor and assist in finding future participants. The program’s success comes full circle.
We had a conversation on how the US doesn't have substantial programs like these due to the individualistic attitude underlying American culture. This attitude dismisses community support programming as effective or even possible and views broad social issues, such as poverty, as personal problems. Additionally, this creates a barrier for developmental programs, such as AVSI’s, since multipronged interventions are not possible when our governments, communities, and people operate in such an isolated way. In the closing session, Grace and Romana highlighted how AVSI knows their participants not only as numbers but by names and as people.
After our time with AVSI we headed to TRM for lunch, where we split up to go to different places. Several of us enjoyed a very tasty lunch at the Artcaffé, which is probably the closest you can get to a bougie American cafe here in Kenya, if you are willing to spend the extra money.
The rest of our evening was spent packing for Mombasa and resting before we wake up extra early to catch our train at 8am!
Google Sites
Report abuse